Product Designer · Internship · Biscuit Beacon · 2024
Designing a reason to come back to a one-time utility.
Biscuit Beacon was an early-stage startup, so everything moved super fast and I had to adapt quickly. People used the app once and then forgot about it, so I came up with Routes to give every walk a reason to open it.
- Role
- UX research, product design, storytelling
- Industry
- Early-stage startup · B2C pet app
- Timeline
- 4-month internship · Fall 2024
- My part
- Came up with the Routes feature
- Team
- Linh Ly, Christina Tran, Harshini Kandagaddala
Overview
About Biscuit Beacon.
Biscuit Beacon is an early-stage startup with an app for dog owners: a growing map of community treat jars and water bowls to find on your walks, with prizes along the way.
I joined as a product designer intern, and my job was to give people a reason to keep opening it.
The problem
People used it once, then ghosted it.
Find a water bowl, collect a few things, close the app. Nothing brought you back.
…however that got boring pretty quickly.User interview
I want a clear reason to come back to the app regularly.Survey
Research
So we asked dog owners what would bring them back.
Dog owners in Austin, TX
Long-time dog owners
I was there from the very start!
✓did it…took a while✕couldn’t
opened the app every day. Pretty much everyone else used it once and drifted off.
don’t use any app or service when they walk their dog. Not one!
would walk their dog more if the app tracked their fitness.
want to track walk time and distance. Exploring new walking paths was right behind it (76%).
struggle with time or motivation, and 68% said their dog is hard to manage on walks.
couldn’t find the nearest water bowl. The favorite part? “Finding parks nearby.”
A lot of users didn’t see a reason to use an app like ours.
So instead of piling on rewards, we went after the walk itself. That’s where Routes and the goal tracker came from.
Inspiration
So we looked at apps that already get people moving.
Three apps, three lessons
Tap an app to compare
Nike Run Club
Why it works
Live progress and a post-run summary make each run feel measurable.
What we borrowed for Biscuit Beacon
Live time and distance during the walk, and a summary after it.
Strava
Why it works
Shared progress keeps people motivated.
What we borrowed for Biscuit Beacon
We noted shared routes for later. Community features are next on the roadmap, not part of this design.
Pokémon GO
Why it works
It always gives you somewhere to go next, and a reward for getting there.
What we borrowed for Biscuit Beacon
Beacons along a route, distance goals and milestone moments like “You’ve walked a mile!” make the walk the reward, not just the destination.
The solution
They didn’t need more places. They needed a reason to walk.
01Routes
02Goal tracker
Feature 01 · My idea
That’s where Routes came from.
The problem. The app was all about single spots, but 76% of owners in our survey wanted new paths to walk.
What I designed. Borrowing from Pokémon GO, you pick a route and see its distance, time and the beacons along the way before you even leave.
- 1Distance, time and beaconsAll before you leave
- 2The whole route on a map
- 3Coins from every beaconThe walk itself is the reward
- 4One tap to start walking
Feature 02
Then we gave every walk a goal.
The problem. In our survey, 84% wanted to track time and distance, and 72% struggled with motivation.
What we designed. Borrowing from Nike Run Club, you set a goal, watch it fill up live, and hit moments like “You’ve walked a mile!”
Set a goal, walk the route, collect the beacons
Simplified recreation of Routes + Goal Tracker
200Goal
The whole flow
Put together, a walk looks like this.
Routes and the goal tracker, working together. It plays the real prototype on its own (pick any step to jump in).
Step 1 of 6: RoutesFind a beaconWater bowls, treat stops and parks near you, on one map.
Outcome
We handed it off, and hit 30 users in a month.
- 121 dog ownersSurveyed, plus 10+ interviews
- 210+ users testedTask-based, on the app as it was
- 3RoutesMy idea, straight from the research
- 42 featuresRoutes and the goal tracker, handed off
- 515+ componentsOne shared Figma library
- ✓30 usersIn a month
Routes and the goal tracker
Route cards, goal trackers, navigation
All on one shared system
“Sahil is a driven, creative, and collaborative designer who genuinely cares about the product he works on. During group brainstorming sessions he’s voiced many thought-provoking ideas, most of which have been implemented as new features. He learns very quickly and adapts seamlessly to feedback. Overall, Sahil has been an absolute joy to work with.”
Linh LyUX Designer, IBM Cloud · Biscuit Beacon teammateWhat I’d build next
Your dog isn’t the only one getting a workout.
Walking your dog is exercise for you too, so it should count like any other workout. This part is a concept, not something we shipped. But if I kept going, it’s the first thing I’d build.
Concept · Never built or tested
Every walk would count in Apple Health.
The idea. Finish a walk, flip one switch, and Biscuit Beacon saves it to the Health app as a workout. Your time and distance show up right next to everything else you track.
Why. In our survey, 84% wanted to track time and distance, and 72% struggled with motivation. The goal tracker we designed already covers time and distance. Seeing a dog walk count toward your day could be the nudge to go again tomorrow.
How it works. iOS asks for permission once, then every walk saves on its own. It only asks to write, never to read. Biscuit Beacon doesn’t need anything else from Health.
From a dog walk to the Health app
Concept, not shipped · Health screens are a recreation · Sample data
Route 1
Cambridge St to Yale St
Workout Details
“Biscuit Beacon” would like to access and update your Health data in the categories below.
Allow “Biscuit Beacon” to write data:
App Explanation: Biscuit Beacon saves your dog walks to Health as workouts, with their time and distance.
Workout Details
Map
Tap the switch to save this walk to Health
Key learnings
What I’m taking with me.
Honestly, this was such a great experience, and I learned a lot from Linh along the way.
This is just a snapshot! Want the long version? Grab 30 minutes with me.