The PonyApp
The PonyApp is a horse management application available on iOS, Android and web. It allows users to manage their horses's daily care, medical records and expenses, view aggregated equestrian media and connect with equestrians around the world.
Flowstate
Flowstate is a movement with a flagship studio in River North Chicago operating under the ethos that we are born to move. We see movement as a privilege to have and an asset to maintain. I worked with the founders to establish their brand and voice and designed and developed their digital website and booking platforms.
Reach
Since the launch in 2015, PonyApp has been downloaded 80,000 times, been featured in countless equestrian magazines, blogs and websites and has received adoration from users around the globe.
Kids have done school projects on their favorite PonyApp features, riders have competed globally repping PonyApp gear and enthusiasts have used the app to keep connected to the top sport.
Our Instagram is one of of the most followed accounts in the industry and our growth has been organic. PonyApp truly is a brand with a global reach.
250,000
Horses Created
250,000
Organic Users
250,000
Expenses Added
250,000
Activities Logged
"Summed up, the PonyApp is basically a barn manager in your pocket, and possibly my favorite app on the list because it was created by riders, for riders."
"The market is devouring what Douglass and Davis are offering. PonyApp is an iPhone app that helps streamline nearly every aspect of the equestrian industry."
"PonyApp is simple and user friendly, even for the technologically clumsy."
App Store Reviews
"Summed up, the PonyApp is basically a barn manager in your pocket, and possibly my favorite app on the list because it was created by riders, for riders."
"The market is devouring what Douglass and Davis are offering. PonyApp is an iPhone app that helps streamline nearly every aspect of the equestrian industry."
"PonyApp is simple and user friendly, even for the technologically clumsy."
Customer Testimonials
PROCESS
RESEARCH
THE Problem
The equestrian industry is underserved and experience many pain points throughout the day that take away valuable time spent in the saddle.
The stakeholders
Equestrian business owners
Equestrian professionals
Horse Owners
The question
How could technology streamline your equestrian business?
REFRAME
What keeps you from spending more time in the saddle?
What's the worst part of your job?
Which part of your job do you wish you could focus on more?
What industries could the equestrian world learn from?
MIND - MAPPING
I spent a lot of time mind-mapping to identity commonalities between equestrian professions.
USER PROFILES
I conducted interviews with equestrian trainers, veterinarians, barn managers, and horse owners. By recording my interviews I was able to rewatch them and take notes to try to identify common themes.
INSIGHTS + OBSERVATIONS
OBservations
- Trainers and vets record keep in books at the barn and bring them home.
- Trainers have a hard time remembering details when it’s crunch time.
- Professionals are always worried they are absorbing costs from supplies or medications they buy for their businesses.
- Barn managers would rather forget to bill a client for a specific cost than be called out for charging for something they didn’t do.
INSIGHTS
- Equestrian business owners are worried they might not appear professional to their clients
- Professionals don’t want to feel like they need an office to keep track of expenses.
- Professionals view invoices as equal parts financial statement and equal part management documents.
- Service providers commonly refer back to past invoices for horse/ client history
PROTYPE
Based on the interviews, I built a number of prototypes that aimed to address the most common themes such as-scheduling, record-keeping, invoicing, staff-management, and new business acquisition. With tools like Invision and Marvel I was able to go back to the individuals I interviewed for demos and feedback.
PROTYPE
I setup interviews with dozens of equestrian professional, horse owners and equestrians around the world about horse management including what was working, what wasn't and where they thought technology could fill in the gaps. Before my conversations I did basic mind mapping exercises to reframe the problem and step back from my personal experiences.
FEEDBACK
I received a ton of feedback and unlike my initial interviews, my demo sessions resulted in an outpouring of enthusiastic feature requests. After dozens more interviews, consultations with my advisors and professors at the [Stanford] d.school, we decided to go forward with an MVP that would help equestrian professionals streamline their billing processes while providing horse owners with valuble horse data that could be accessed on the client-side.
WIREFRAMES
I then did higher-fidelity wireframes of this invoice feature while constantly collecting feedback from my target users at the Stanford Red Barn. As my need-finding interviews continued, it was clear that equestrians were eager for a better way to record and access horse and business data.
OPPORTUNITY
In an increasingly health-conscious world, there’s a growing demand for fitness experiences that offer both physical and mental well-being. We recognized a unique opportunity to combine the strength and intensity of kettlebell training with the mindfulness and balance of yoga. We aim to cultivate a community where movement becomes a shared experience—empowering people to build strength, flexibility, and connection, both with themselves and with others.
Animation
Movement is a core belief of Flowstate - so in the web design I looked for ways to subtly bring in motion in a form that felt familiar to yoga and the ebb and flow of bodies in motion. The motion graphics respond to the user and their journey on the page and can be quickened or slowed based on user actions.
Curved Vector Motion
Text flows through the body and pose and beyond.
Tip: scroll up and down!
Spinning Text Vector
A wheel of text spins as a user scrolls down and reads the page
Pre-Launch Elements
While working on the core offerings, studio build and art direction - we launched certain information around the classes, our manifesto and began to leverage the social presence of our co-founders throughout the site
The Studio
The flagship studio design followed our digital branding work - the website was initially set up with stock type photography and built to accommodate incoming studio renderings and eventually photography of the space.
The PONYAPP
Feature Breakdown
The PONYAPP
Feature Breakdown
The PONYAPP
Feature Breakdown
Articles
While we did create some original content, articles were sourced from 3rd party media outlets. We buit a CMS to upload the articles title, image, date and description. 3rd party articles opened in a web browser within th app, oringial content opened to an expanded spotlight view.
Videos
Videos could be uploaded to our API, they autoplayed in a small vertical view and clicking the expand button would open a full screen horizontal player with video controls
Results
Results could be expanded to a full screen view (pictured) where users could see athlete names, nationality and competition results.
Avatar Design
This is one of the designs I'm most proud of. Since the on-boarding flow asked for a lot from users, the avatar selection screen was a great way to break it up and engage users with a fun and interactive step (that was shared all over social media for more than a year!)
My Stable
Where a user can view a summary of all their horses and the features available for each horse including:
- Horse Access
- Activities
- Expenses
- Reminders
- Notes
Expenses
Tracking expenses was a consistent request during our need-finding interviews. The expense feature allows users to log expenses or profits by horse. Filter and search capabilities allow users to view results in categories such as time, contributing party and expense type.
Horse Access / Privileges
Account owners can invite other parties such a grooms, veterinarians, and trainers. Limited access members are allowed to see everything except for a horse's expenses.
Gallery
Here, users can upload images or PDFs of important documents and export them when needed. Some popular uploads include:
- Passport Images
- Veterinary Reports
- Registration Documents
- Health Certificates
Horse Selection Screen
Here users can select which horse or horses they wish to record activities or reminders for.
Activity Selection
It was important to find a happy medium between restricting the possible activities to log and providing an empty text box. I created a split screen of ten main categories in alphabetical order, with “subcategories” that would appear after a category had been selected with an option for an “other” field. The repopulated text signaled to users how they should be using the feature while still allowing flexibility for custom inputs. We constantly reviewed, the “other” inputs to include commonly logged activities into the pre-populated database.
Activity List
Here users can browse and search for their complete and incomplete activities. Clicking an activity expands the user to the activity breakdown where they many have recorded notes or attached photos.
Articles
While we did create some original content, articles were sourced from 3rd party media outlets. We buit a CMS to upload the articles title, image, date and description. 3rd party articles opened in a web browser within th app, oringial content opened to an expanded spotlight view.
Videos
Videos could be uploaded to our API, they autoplayed in a small vertical view and clicking the expand button would open a full screen horizontal player with video controls
Results
Results could be expanded to a full screen view (pictured) where users could see athlete names, nationality and competition results.
Avatar Design
This is one of the designs I'm most proud of. Since the on-boarding flow asked for a lot from users, the avatar selection screen was a great way to break it up and engage users with a fun and interactive step (that was shared all over social media for more than a year!)
My Stable
Where a user can view a summary of all their horses and the features available for each horse including:
- Horse Access
- Activities
- Expenses
- Reminders
- Notes
Expenses
Tracking expenses was a consistent request during our need-finding interviews. The expense feature allows users to log expenses or profits by horse. Filter and search capabilities allow users to view results in categories such as time, contributing party and expense type.
Horse Access / Privileges
Account owners can invite other parties such a grooms, veterinarians, and trainers. Limited access members are allowed to see everything except for a horse's expenses.
Gallery
Here, users can upload images or PDFs of important documents and export them when needed. Some popular uploads include:
- Passport Images
- Veterinary Reports
- Registration Documents
- Health Certificates
Horse Selection Screen
Here users can select which horse or horses they wish to record activities or reminders for.
Activity Selection
It was important to find a happy medium between restricting the possible activities to log and providing an empty text box. I created a split screen of ten main categories in alphabetical order, with “subcategories” that would appear after a category had been selected with an option for an “other” field. The repopulated text signaled to users how they should be using the feature while still allowing flexibility for custom inputs. We constantly reviewed, the “other” inputs to include commonly logged activities into the pre-populated database.
Activity List
Here users can browse and search for their complete and incomplete activities. Clicking an activity expands the user to the activity breakdown where they many have recorded notes or attached photos.
Key Product Features
Spotlight Newsfeed
Horse Profiles
Horse owners can invite stakeholders such as veterinarians, trainers and caretakers to contribute data to a horse’s profile, and set restrictions to limit access to certain features.
Activity Logging
Learn More
Learn more about the app's reach, community and my design process my following the links below.
