Bison

Identifying Opportunity Areas

Benchmarking

Understanding common language currently used in the auto industry online was an important starting point in order to make sure information was succinct and accurate. I chose to focus on a simpler task —how to check the oil level in a car. Highlighted portions are the successful aspects of each companies approach and would be necessary to include later.

RACQ - Check your engine oil weekly when the care is warm and on level ground. Stop the engine and wait a few minutes for the oil to settle, remove the dipstick and wipe it clean. Push the dipstick all the way in, wait a second, and then withdraw it and check the level. The oil should be between the two marks. Remember to push the dipstick fully in when refitting.

MOBILE - We recommend checking the oil level either before turning on the engine or 5 to 10 minutes after shutting down so you can have all the oil in the oil pan to get an accurate measurement.

VALVOLINE - Rather than adhering to the 3,000-mile standard between oil changes, Valvoline recommends owners to consult what their owners manual suggests, not only about frequency of changes, but also what type of oil to use.

AAA - With the engine cold and not running, raise the hood and pull the oil dipstick out of its tube. Wipe the dipstick clean with a cloth and insert it fully back into its tube. Remove the dipstick and check that the oil level is between the upper and lower level markings. If the level is at or below the lower mark, add oil to raise the level to the upper mark. On most cars, one quart of oil will raise the level from the lower to the upper mark.

Survey Insights

Out of all the multiple choice questions asked in the survey, three emerged as being beneficial to understanding the needs of this user group. The three questions were:

How often do you call your parents with questions on how to complete a specific task?
Have you yourself ever performed general maintenance on your car?
If you had a problem with your car, would you call your parents or a professional?

The findings supported my hypothesis that young adults do call home frequently for help in general tasks, showing some semblance of dependence. The majority of those surveyed don't feel comfortable performing one of the stereotypical "dad" task. To support this stereotype, I found that most young adults chose to call their dad for help on this specific task before calling anyone else, including a professional.

Personas + Tone of Voice

Looking at different dads that are displayed on television helped formulate an overall persona and tone of voice for the final brand to embody. Using the core attributes of each character, a set of instructions was written as if they were given by that character. To keep it consistent, each instruction is about how to check the motor oil.

Phil Dunphy
‍Modern Family

A man in a gray sweater with his hands splayed in front of him

Main Tone: WIT — a natural aptitude for using words and ideas in a quick and inventive way to create humor

Characteristics: Quizzes his kids on past pop culture trends while trying to fit into current trends; Instead of cursing, he uses common words and phrases as expletives.

"If you would just let me help you then this would make it easier on you, but I guess since you want to do it yourself, this is what you need to do. After you’ve been driving around for a bit, turn the car off and wait a few minutes. Open the hood and find the dipstick. Pull it out and make sure it’s in between the two marks. If the level is below that, just add some more oil. Then put the dipstick back in. Close the hood. You’re good to go. Remember, success is 1% inspiration, 98% perspiration and 2% attention to detail."

Dre Johnson
Black-ish

A man in a light gray sweater with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face

Main Tone: GOOFY — foolish, harmlessly eccentric

Characteristics: Loves to mess with his kids, calls himself the Prank King; Wants his kids to take pride in their heritage; Tries to teach his kids life lessons, but often ends up learning himself

"Listen up kids, I’m gonna teach you how to check your oil. This is important to do because it helps get you to where you need to go. Start by driving around for a bit, then turn the car off and wait a few minutes. Next you’ll obviously want to open the hood, since that’s where the engine is. Then you find the dipstick and pull it out. It’s a little red or yellow ring. Now you look at it and see these two marks? Make sure it’s in between those. If it is then put the dipstick back in. Ba-da-bing ba-da-boom. You’re done."

Jack pearson
‍this is us

A man with a beard wearing a jean jacket. His arms are crossed and he looks stern

Main Tone: CONCERN — a matter of interest or importance to someone

Characteristics: Takes time to have deep, meaningful talks with his kids; Brings fun into otherwise dreary situations, “makes lemons into lemonade”

"Okay, dad’s here. Now let’s go out to the car. I’ve got something to show you. This right here, is called the dipstick. To make sure you have enough oil in your car, once a week you need to turn off your car, open the hood and pull this out. Now look, you see these two marks here? If the oil level ever goes below this bottom mark, that’s when you know you need to put in more oil. When you’re done, you put the dipstick back, close the hood and you’re good to go."

adam braverman
parenthood

A man in a black sweater with a somewhat confused facial expression.

Main Tone: CARE — serious attention or consideration applied to doing something correctly to avoid damage or risk

Characteristics: Horrible dancing skills and loves music from his youth; Anxious in tense situations, reverts to acting as the peace keeper; Sticks up for his kids no matter what

"How are you supposed to tell that your oil is low? Dad showed me how to do this when I was young, so let’s see what I remember. You uh, you first have to open the hood. Then you find the dipstick, pull is out and look to see where the oil is. If I remember correctly, it has to be between the two marks. If it’s lower than that, you need to put in more oil. And that’s it!"

Luke danes
‍gilmore girls

A man with a backwards baseball cap and a tool belt looks off to his left.

Main Tone: HOW-TO — proving detailed and practical advice

Characteristics: Wants to be seen as the town grump, but is actually warm-hearted; Will be the first person on the scene if someone needs help; Known as “Mr.Fix-It” since he knows how to build or fix almost anything; Refuses to ask for help.

"We have a lot to do here. Now what you’ll need to do is run the car for a little bit to warm up the engine. Once you do that, then turn off the car and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes. This is to let the oil settle and cool off the engine. Then, pop open the hood of your car and find the dipstick. Pull out the dipstick, use a rag to wipe it off and put it back in. Now this is the important part. Pull it back out and look for two things. One, is the level okay. It should be in middle of the two marks. The second thing to check for is the color. Make sure it’s a light brown. Once you check all those, put the dipstick back, making sure it’s all the way in there and lastly, close the hood."

The final tone of voice must have the wit and goofiness of Phil Dunphy and Dre Johnson, the care and concern of Adam Braverman and Jack Pearson, with the how-to-knowledge of Luke Danes.

Creating a Brand and Application

A bunch of squares with the letter b turned sideways to emulate the nose of a bison. Decorations are added around. There are plaid swatches to the right

More squares presented in different color combinations. The letter B this time is used as a bison's head

Brand Exploration

Originally, in my searches of "dad" fashion I found plaid to be a widely used pattern, so I developed my own iterations using a color palette of neutrals I thought might work. From there, I wanted something a little punchier and that's when I brought in orange as the primary brand color. I thought it felt industrious and carried a more gender neutral feel. Pairing orange with tan, blue and brown, I developed several iterations of what the final logo mark could look like — all while taking into consideration what it would look like as an app icon on a phone.

Information Architecture

Starting on the inside working outwards - the middle circle is the decision point to search for a project. The second ring is the 4 search categories. The third ring will never be seen by the user, but is helpful for the system to navigate to a specific project. The outer ring is each individual instructional.

Interface Exploration

First Pass Homepage

Split into four categories with the search being the secondary element.

A mid fidelity wireframe. The background is orange and there is a search bar reading "How's it going?"

Second Pass Homepage

Type any query you have into the search engine.

Search

As soon as the user starts typing, suggested search results populate.

A mid fidelity wireframe. A screen with an oil icon in an orange circle up top with the words "Checking Motor Oil" below. Then there are details for the task with a button the start the task.

Start Screen

Project description and details can be found here.

Finalizing the Concept

Refining the logo mark to an elegant "B" with a single horn to represent the Bison and adding the decided upon color palette helped push into this final stage of development. To better explain how Bison works, a video was created. The narrator walks viewers through all the main components of the app by going step by step through a hypothetical project a user might want to do.