Role
- Product Designer.
- Animation.
- Illustrator.
How can pet owners keep track of their pet’s medical records and documents so they won't be in danger of getting lost or damaged? How can pet owners like me be more prepared in case our furry best friend or neighbor’s pets get lost?
To create an application where you can keep all of your pet's records and documents organized and in a safe place, build a profile for your pet, and build a community that can provide support if your pet escapes or gets lost.
Is this a product pet owners could use?
Is this a service people need and want?
Let's take a look at our research and answer these questions.
In order to understand my problem and goal better, I conducted a competitive analysis. This both helped me improve on my idea and also reassured me that my product was unique and necessary. Although all of my competitors had something unique to bring to the table non of them covered all the bases. Not one of these products kept your pet's documents and your pet safe at the same time. they only did one or the other. Take a look at the competitive analysis below.
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10 Questions
10 Pets
Questions
Do people use apps for their pets?
Half of my participants don't use apps for their pets. They’ve used apps in the past that didn’t quite work for them and were a waste of space on their phones. The ones that did have apps were health-related, Chewy, and one had Rover for pet sitting.
Where do people keep their pet’s documents?
As I expected everyone kept their pet's documents in a physical folder or trusted their veterinarian to keep the information for them. But what if your dog ate the documents? Or, get damaged by a natural disaster? What if your Veterinarian lost them? would it be a great loss?
“It would not be great because the rabies tag is on it.”
-Kelly
“Yes, because of his registration, his emotional support information, and his vaccine records.”
-Mariana
I asked my participants what they would do if they lost their pet and the question alone produced panic.
How do you keep track of your pet’s medication and vet visits?
My Participants kept track of their pet’s meds through physical calendars, and digital calendars or relied on their vet to remind them. One participant used an app called PetDesk but also relied on their vet to remind them.
Do people want a community of local pet owners to help keep each other's pets safe?
8 participants said yes, one said maybe and one said no. The person that said maybe was hesitant because of the potential social aspect of a feature like that and two of the people that said yes, only said yes if it was used only for emergencies and not for socializing.
Conclusion
From the information gathered it seems like in order to make this application PawFolio useful and necessary. It would be an app that would connect you to your vet, remind you of your vet visits and medications, It would keep your pet's documents, and let you keep notes on whatever you want related to your pet. The other important feature PawFolio would have is an emergency panic button. This button would alert everyone with the app within a 50-mile radius, local Shelters within a 50-mile radius, and all the vets within a 50-mile radius.
After conducting my research and understanding the pains, needs, and goals of my participants a trio emerged to represent our users and the experience they desire out of PawFolio.
Meet Joe, Chris, and Kelly!
How can we keep all our pet documents in one app?
How can we take action if we lose our pets?
and how can we make veterinarian visits easier for us and our vets?
Now that I have my personas and a better idea of what my users need let's start a design discussion and create some features that can help answer these questions and exceed their user experience.
Based on my research the key features of PawFolio are the following: a way to keep our pet's documents and a way to help us find our pet in case we lose them. These features will make Pawfolio stand out from competitors, help Pet parents be more at ease, and facilitate their pet parenting experience.
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Let's map out these features and plan how these ideas will play out. It's important to make it easy to navigate the user's documents and also to activate the "lost pet" feature. we want this to be smooth and easy since keeping your pet's documents and losing your pet can both be very stressful experiences if not conducted well.
Now I need to plan out two main tasks. to add a document to the pet profile and to activate the "lost pet" feature. These tasks will be designed and tested by users in order to conclude whether my execution of this problem was successful.
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And finally, now that I have my features I'll start Translating the initial insights and ideas into concepts constructing the design.
First I'll start with some sketches. and get a general idea of what My layout will look like
And now for the fun part, I'll construct and design PawFolio keeping in mind the two main tasks at hand. To add a document to the pet profile and to activate the "lost pet" feature.
I want my product to be fun when it needs to be fun and serious when it needs to be serious so I have to balance these two sentiments well and accordingly depending on the situation.
I want the adding a document feature to be simple and playful. I added some fun pet animations and playful icons to make the documents easy to find, easy to add, and easy to organize while putting a smile on a pet parent's face.
The "lost pet" feature on the other hand needed to be serious and comforting. Losing a pet can be stressful and traumatic so I need to create an experience that will assure the user that PawFolio is doing everything it can to help you find your pet while respecting your privacy. You can choose who is notified on the app and can upload as much information and photos of your pet to facilitate their search.
Here is our High Fidelity, and the first but not last daft of PawFolio.
Evolved and improved after the Prototype.
After the High Fidelity comes the usability testing. Conducting this test modified and improved the user experience for Pawfolio. Below are some quotes from the participants and how they felt about PawFolios first draft.
“I don't even have a lost pet but I feel so comforted just knowing this feature exists”
-Manuela
“I love that the fun parts are fun and the serious parts are serious”
-Chi
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“I think in the 'Found My Pet' page there should be a survey on how the user's pet was found to help improve the future on PawFolio.”
-Mariana
“The white background with texture makes it look like the phone is dirty.”
-Ramiro
“I think the logo should be simpler.”
-Helen
Taking into consideration and sympathizing with the users I made many changes to PawFolio to improve the user experience. I changed some of the colors that most participants were unhappy about. I changed the logo to a much simpler and more sophisticated version and I added a survey on the "I found my lost pet" page in order to keep learning and improving this product in the future.
UI Kit for further development.
Next, I would like to make a portal for veterinarians to be able to connect to the users and make it easier to make appointments, get medical refills and facilitate the transfer of documents between patient and veterinarian.
Finally, I test, research, empathize, Apply, and then repeat.
Thank you for your attention!
Also, take a look at my other projects!
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