petworks

Overview

Globally, 57 percent of the world owns pets. Of those 57 percent, Dogs are most popular, with cats coming in second. At the turn of the COVID-19, when the global pandemic quarantine set in, the public interest in pet adoption and volunteers for pet fostering spiked. Close to one in five households acquired a dog or a cat since the beginning of the pandemic and are not considering rehoming them.

The Problem

Although pet owners love and care much about their pets, they are not fully prepared for their upcoming journey with their fur friends. A lack of resources and utilizing tools prevent owners from recognizing the awareness of their pet’s overall health.

The Solution

Create an all-in-one planner✨

Petworks will help pet owners prepare and plan for their pet's healthcare with an outline of things to consider or do at different life stages. Additionally, it will organize and keep track of pet information in an all-in-one place for pet owners to access. Pet owners can utilize features and helpful tools to manage multiple pets in one app.

Guide and alert pet owners

Provide a healthcare guide for pets in different life stages and notify any updates needed.

Help pet owners with vet appointments

Petworks will help pet owners before, during and after the vet visits. They can add notes and record audio of suggestions from the Doctor with one click.

Store pet's important files

Implement cloud storage feature to store important photos and documents for pet owners to access at any time.

Importance of Pet's Health and Wellness

What does a Veterinarian say?

The value of preventive care in humans has been well-established and accepted by the public, but not with pets. Visits to veterinarians are declining while instances of preventable diseases in pets are increasing.

Veterinarians recommend regular check-ups on their pets. Through the regular checkups, it identifies illnesses early, curbs behavioral issues, and eventually prevent spending thousands of dollars on pet’s medical bills. It also saves your pets years of life that they could have lost due to an illness.

All medical records are the property of the vet and the general law of mist states that records must be kept for 3-5 years after the patient’s last exam. Therefore, veterinarians recommend keeping your own copy of the record for your pet’s entire life. Keeping your pet’s medical records will help you and your pet when: welcoming to the family, keeping the facts straight, new veterinarian, medical emergencies, travel, and pet insurance.

Conducting User Interviews...

Personas

To put together the information I have gathered during the user interview, and to address the diverse needs, I’ve created two user personas. They will help me define high-level goals and identify priorities for my design.

Site map

I drafted an application map to organize content and features of Petworks mobile app. While I was mapping, I tried to focus on how they might relate to one another.

Wireframes

First, I started drawing hand sketches of the app's interfaces that demonstrate a complete user flow and brainstormed my ideas into sketches. I focused on the core user needs that the research participant had emphasized. Then, I transferred my hand sketches into mid-fidelity wireframes using Figma. I was able to visualize clearly and test the flow of the experience.

mid-fidelity prototype using Figma

Visual Design

Style guide / UI Kit

At this stage, I focused on the visual design of the app. I chose my color pallet based on the brand personality (friendly & loyalty) and developed a UI kit to closely follows this particular brand identity.

Usability Testing

With my high fidelity wireframes ready to go, the next step was to validate and test my product and make any necessary revisions.

With the feedback from the participants, three critical improvements needed to be made.

1. Accessing different fields from “MY PET” was difficult for some users. I re-arranged to a dashboard display. With changes, users can view everything at a glance in the first page of "MY PET" tab.

2. Users cannot find the record button right away during the vet appointment because it is hidden under "file." Therefore, I've separated the audio record from the rest to allow ease of finding for the user.
‍
3. Search engine is critical when looking for past events. To reduce the step, search engine bar is implemented right under the header.

Final Design

Overview your pet from the dashboard

Set a reminder & add notes for upcoming vet appointment

Upload your document instantly during the appointment

Easily filter and pull out your pet's data

Reflections

Lessons learned! This was my first-ever UX project, and it taught me so many things. First, I learned that iteration is a MUST, and there is never a final design. In the beginning, my ideas were so broad, and I could not focus on one specific need. This led to a weak foundation, and I had to go back and focus on a particular feature of the app to have a more robust and unique solution. My most significant learning curve from this project is empathizing with the user. Next time, I want to develop my skills in user interviews and think of more valuable questions to ask the targeted users.

If I had more time..

• I want to develop my skills in user interviews and think of more valuable questions to ask the targeted users.
• Explore prototype showing how Petworks calendar can syncs with google calendar and discover way to share events with friends and family
• Better adhere to WCAG standards
Interview actual veterinarians to understand more about preventable diseases in pets
• Find different ways to alert pet owners for past due vaccines and appointments

Portable Benefits Research

Eventshift MVP

Shaesby

Email Marketing
‍