Context
For my master’s thesis at USC, I worked with 4 other graduate students to ideate and design a mobile app, BARKALATOR, from concept to launch. BARKALATOR is a camera-based content creation app that “translates” a dog and creates a shareable video to share on social media. I worked with my team of fellow graduate students to launch the beta of this app; my roles included working on the app's design strategy, product research, and multi-channel marketing.
Click here to view BARKALATOR, which is available in the iOS App Store.
The Problem
Sadly, humans can’t fully understand a dog’s bark. While we may truly never know the direct translation of what dogs are saying to us when they bark, we can have fun making our best guess. There’s a lack of a product that helps dog owners and lovers to create custom, canine-related content for social media. BARKALATOR taps into the potential for this by allowing users to create customized “barkalations” over engaging video content that can seamlessly be shared to their social media profiles or downloaded straight to their phone.
The Challenge
Although voice recognition technology does exist, given the time and financial limits of the project, our team quickly realized this product would need to be a novelty app and not a true translation app. Our challenge was to create a fun app that keeps all kinds of dog lovers entertained and engaged, including dog owners as well as people who may not own a dog but still interact with dogs.
User Persona
Market Research
It’s a safe assumption that dogs are a huge obsession across social media platforms. Nevertheless, it’s always good to have data points to back up your assumptions! From our market research, we found that there are 80 million dog owners in the US and that dog-related content is extremely engaging, with social media users being 87% more likely to consume a dog-focused video. Another data point solidifying our hypothesis that dog lovers want and would use a dog-focused app is that on average, dog owners post their dog(s) 6x per week. This research shows that our target demographic, dog owners and people who may not own a dog, but still love dogs, actively post their pups and engage with dog-related content.
User Testing
User testing for BARKALATOR consisted of surveys and usability testing with paper prototypes. As design co-leads, my teammate managed usability testing and I wrote and analyzed the surveys.
Some of the survey questions included:
What makes you more inclined to keep an app? Select all that apply.
If I have purchased the app.
If I have photos or content stored within the app.
If it is connected to my social media accounts.
If it is a game.
If I have friends using the app too.
If it helps me in my daily life.
If it has less screens.
Do you have any pet-related apps on your phone?
Yes
No
Please list them here: ______
Select all that apply. My dog usually barks when he/she is:
Happy
Sad
Angry
Hungry
Scared
Select all that apply. My dog has barked in the following situation(s):
Sees another dog and wants to play
Seems to be asking for food
Wants to walk
Wants to play
Wants to cuddle
Is startled by me or someone nearby
Annoyed with me or someone nearby
Is Curious
Do you share content you find funny or amusing with your friends on social media?
Yes
No
If so...where?
Tumblr
Facebook
Instagram
Snapchat
Facebook
Would you share a dog bark translation on your social media?
Yes
No
User Research Findings:
70% of respondents would download an app that translates a dog’s bark into a shareable GIF; 30% would not.
60% of respondents would share a dog bark translation on their social media, 30% would not.
85% of respondents share content they find funny or amusing with their friends on social media, 15% do not.
85% of respondents have shared a picture or video of their pet on social media, 15% have not.
17% of respondents have a pet-related app on their phone, 83% do not.
60% say their dog usually barks when he/she is happy
12% say their dog usually barks when he/she is sad
51% say their dog usually barks when he/she is angry
27% say their dog usually barks when he/she is hungry
44% say their dog usually barks when he/she is scared
Survey results indicated that translation output should be tailored towards happiness, anger and fear. When it came time to write the translations for BARKALATOR’s content database, we input a higher percentage of happy, angry, and scared translations. To keep users engaged, content must fit situations in which dogs bark.
In response to what makes users more inclined to keep an app, the highest ranked concepts included:
The app gains value through day-to-day usage
Their friends/network are also on the app
Their content/photos are on the app
These results helped informed the design process, serving as a reminder that BARKALATOR should be a social space for content sharing. It also indicated that BARKALATOR’s content and user experience should incentivize engagement through gamified methods and integrate sharing capabilities across popular social media platforms.
Final Product
BARKALATOR’s 3 key experiences were recording, mood selection, and social sharing.
The app’s three fun and easy features include:
Video capture: Record a pup in its yappiest moments.
Mood selection: Choose a mood and launch a text translation over the video.
Social share: Tap a button and share a looping video translation to Facebook or Instagram.
Growth and Brand Strategy
Our ultimate goal in marketing was beta recruitment. Given our relatively short time frame to get this app off the ground and in the minds of potential users, growth hacking was a key aspect of our recruitment.
We began beta recruitment by getting our “paws” in the mix. We filmed a video of USC students “translating” dog barks and created a splash landing page on our website, which enabled us to start collecting a list of early adopters.
There were 3 pillars supporting our marketing efforts, with each pillar serving a different purpose in our go-to-market strategy:
events + partnerships,
social media, and
email marketing.
Events and partnerships included forming a collaboration with Chews Life, an LA nonprofit that helps re-home and adopt dogs from local high kill shelters. Additionally, the BARKALATOR team frequented events like Woofstock, a Woodstock themed event for dogs and their humans. It was incredibly important to us to work alongside a nonprofit in order to give back to the very creatures that serve as the focal point of our product.
Events + Partnerships
Social Media Strategy
Social media strategy was where our growth hacking mainly resided. We connected with as many dog influencers as possible for brand exposure as well as to recruit beta users since dog influencer moms and dads fit right in our target demographic. The content on our social channels reflected the brand voice of the “barkalations” users receive when using the BARKALATOR app. Additionally, we featured photos of Chews Life dogs in need of a home, which we featured with our #BarkalatorBuddies hashtag.
Email Marketing
Email marketing consisted of building out a robust email strategy with weekly emails including information like product updates and targeted content that our early users care about, including a curated list of dog toys to buy on Cyber Monday and fun facts about why dogs bark.
Email marketing was a key part of our growth strategy because
it was where we engaged with early adopters, and
contained info like product process and targeted content focused on topics of interest of BARKALATOR early adopters
Final Results
We made a lot of efforts for BARKALATOR to get the reach it deserved. At launch, we had:
70+ beta users,
40% open rate on our emails, and
a partnership with Chews Life, a dog rescue organization with over 50,000 followers.
We even made a “conversion” - a sweet pup named Pluto from Chews Life that we posted on BARKALATOR’s Instagram was connected to a potential future adopter. This instilled that there’s a place in the market for BARKALATOR and it created value for users beyond both in and out of the app.