Description
PROJECT
To refresh the design of HappyDogsNYC.com, the website of a thriving, growing three-location dog daycare business in New York City. The output of the project are implementation-ready specs tailored for a specific platform like WordPress or SquareSpace.
OPTIONAL implementation. Ideally, the designer would have the technical skills to personally implement their design as part of this project. If not, however, the designer should still be savvy about affordances and limitations of the targeted platform, and create specs accordingly to enable easy implementation by someone else.
HIGH-LEVEL USE CASES
Educate prospective dog parents about our service based on the belief that showing them the reality of what we do and how we differ from other options is the best way to attract the right members, as opposed to any hard sell.
Make it easy for new members sign up to use our services
Foster community among our members
Provide limited self-service functionality (e.g. update credit card and contact info) to members
CORE BRAND VALUES
Happy dogs, happy together we believe dogs are happiest when they get to be together in a pack environment; they are social animals just like us!
We are partners with dog parents they aren’t “customers” and we aren’t a “service provider”; they are “members” of our pack and we are partners in the care of their dogs, with responsibilities on both sides -- more like a private school than a typical business relationship.
Dog expertise our value is ultimately based on our unique dog pack handling approach, which takes a lot of training and which is the basis of how we make sure the dogs in our care are happy and safe. We want to educate both prospective and existing members about this approach. It’s not for everyone. Our job isn’t so much to convince folks, it’s to make it easy for them to learn about how we do things and let them choose whether to join the pack or not.
Dog well-being first while we do want to provide enough convenience and service to dog parents, the most important thing to us is dog well-being. Our policies and approach optimize for dog well-being first, convenience and service to dog parents second.
We’re a neighborwe are a member of the local neighborhoods we are in, sponsoring local dog runs and getting to know local dog owners; we want a member’s relationship to be with the specific local Happy Dogs location, e.g. with Happy Dogs Southside or with Happy Dogs at 23rd and 1st, as opposed to with the corporate group “Happy Dogs” as a whole.
Transparency and authenticity we are real people with real relationships with dog parents and run this business from a real love and care for dogs; we want that to come across.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE NOTES
Landing pagekeep existing approach of having a simple landing page with location picker that takes you to a self-contained location site; on later visits, user will be automatically directed to the location based on cookies.
“Living content” is the star e.g. daily photos from our pack -- on the belief that this kind of actual look at who we are and what we do is the both the best way to educate prospective members and foster community among existing members.
Clean and functionaldon’t try to put too much on each page; ok to put important information on inside pages as long as it’s easy to find what you want.
Chat with us overlaymake the website embody the fact that we are present, ready to “chat” -- if not necessarily live then definitely by email -- at all times. Make it as friction free as possible for both prospective and existing members to talk to us via the website.
CONTENT/FUNCTIONALITY -- in no particular order, and open to reorganization
Taglinethe existing “Quality dog daycare and boarding in the heart of Williamsburg” type of tagline should remain featured
Change locationas with existing site, this should be available but not featured as the main relationship is with the local site, not the group of sites
Bottom of page small print (keep existing copyright info and contact info for SEO)
About us type info
- Prices (refinement of existing content)
- How we compare to others -- side-by-side table (new content)
- Our pack handling method (refinement of existing content)
- Primary service -- daycare (refinement of existing content)
- Primary service -- boarding (refinement of existing content)
- Secondary service -- baths (refinement of existing content)
- Secondary service -- store (refinement of existing content)
- Our team (refinement of existing content)
- Hours (existing content)
- Location (existing content)
- Contact us (existing content)
- FAQ (new content)
Reviews open to new ideas on the best way to bring reviews into the site, whether in a separate section or spread throughout the site
Special offers/announcements about holiday hours, promotions, meetups, etc. -- needs to be prominent when it’s there
Showcasing the pack
- Daily photos/videos/gifs with captions -- currently on Facebook page, likely best to keep based on Facebook, but need to integrate/showcase on our website better
- Dog of the week -- we have this on a bulletin board in store -- how to bring it to the website?
- Birthdays pups -- ditto
- Contests -- e.g. our very successful Halloween contest via Facebook -- great way to get our community of members involved, and some wonderful content/photos
- Something to showcase our staff as people?
A way to submit media for community and contests a front-end for Facebook or email?
New member registration
- Submit vaccination records online
- Read and sign-off on Membership Handbook (a 20-page PDF doc) online
- Fill out and sign registration form online (currently an embedded Google Sheets form)
- Schedule temperament test online (new functionality, possibly just via email at first)
Login page for members -- new
Member functionality
Membership Handbook (existing 20-page PDF doc)
Update credit card info (internal system existing, not yet exposed to members)
Update vaccination records (internal system existing, not yet exposed to members)
Update dog profile info, e.g. illnessness, change in behavior etc. (internal system existing, not yet exposed to members)
Update contact info (internal system existing, not yet exposed to members)
Chat-like message window/overlay to talk to us that could trigger an email at first and be be enabled for live chat later
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
Mobile and tablet-browser friendly
SEO optimized, especially for searches reaching the individual location websites, e..g “dog daycare williamsburg” should reach the Happy Dogs at McCarren Park subsite directly, not the location-picker landing page
Easy for internal business users to update content, e.g. at least as easy as using WordPress
DESIGN NOTES
Use our existing logo
Use our existing colors: bold orange (can be bolder/brighter than currently) and sky blue (keep it sky blue)
Use our existing two display typefaces
Not slick or brochure-like -- instead “living content” driven, authentic, transparent, e.g. photos of real dogs from Happy Dogs = good, stock-photo looking dogs = bad; useful information and live content = good, sales pitches = bad; helping folks educate themselves out what we do and how we do it so they can decide for themselves whether this is a good fit for them and their dog = good
Should feel more like the website of a private school (quality, authority based on expertise not marketing), not a luxury brand
Should above all communicate the content and feeling of what our brand says -- “Happy Dogs” -- it’s all about your dogs being part of a pack and being happy from social interaction with other dogs
INTERESTED?
Please contact Ien Cheng, co-owner. Ien is a former Google product manager and you will work with him on this project.
