Lost Pet Finder
(The End result)
The problem: Each year, 10 million pets are lost in the U.S. Millions end up in animal shelters. Owners often grieve and may feel helpless if their pet is missing. They need to be comforted and supported while they search for their pet.
Owners also have to take several factors into consideration while searching and may have time-consuming responsibilities that limit the amount of time they can devote to searching. They have a difficult time finding their pets because many don't know the process to take during their search. After having looked in their area for a while, what should their next step be? Should they get help from a neighbor or friend, reach out to people on social media, use a word processor to create and then print posters to hang around their neighborhood. What information should they pass on?
The goal: To find how to communicate with the owner of a lost pet and to include features in a cross-platform experience that would be intuitively placed so that users can find their dog, cat or other animal. Another goal was to optimize the mobile app and responsive website depending on the situational uses for each platform.
My role: Lead UX Researcher and Designer
Early Research: An audit of our competitors and interviews with pet owners to create personas.
An audit revealed different value propositions from competitors. Not shown in image: My analysis of the interaction, visual and content design of each product.
Personas:
Ideation and initial designs: To come up with solutions, I used a pencil and paper to complete crazy eights exercises. However, instead of drawing eight sketches, I drew five for each frame. On each sketch, I then drew stars next to elements that I liked. I then drew a sixth frame containing all of the starred elements. Each sixth frame would be designed as a wireframe in Figma. These wireframes gave the structure of the cross-platform experience. They also focused on different features that would advise users where to search for their pet and would amplify the message they were searching for their pet. For the app, I included flexible global navigation so users could easily access features like a map and a chat option while they are on the go.
Map suggests a radius in which users should start their search.
Global navigation makes it easy for users to get to useful features that will help them find their pet.
For the website, I focused on designing a sequential model because the majority of website users wanted a stronger process-oriented experience that would eliminate guesswork on where to go. I added save buttons to the site so users could return to where they left off. I then created a low-fidelity prototype by adding interactions between the wireframes.
Usability study: Remote and unmoderated through Maze, 50 participants
2
1
Findings:
Include more empathetic language on the third frame, which greets owners of lost pets.
The publish button on the “Create a Post” frame should be after the last input.
3
The third frame should include less text.
Refining the solution: I moved the published button after the inputs and moved a ‘share on social’ option to a different frame when designing the mockups.
Another refinement: Applying findings 1 and 3. After I created the mockups, I made the high-fidelity prototype.
Before usability study
After usability study
Before usability study
After usability study
Accessibility considerations:
1
Ensure app is accessible to the visually impaired through screen readers.
2
Include voice features people can use in case they have permanent, temporary or situational disabilities.
The outcome: Users shared that I created an intuitive design that would help people find missing pets. One quote from peer feedback was “this is a good and easy to use app that would help people find missing pets.”
Next steps:
1
Conduct research on how successful the app is in reaching the goal to help people find missing pets.
2
Add features for people who want to help others find their missing pets.
3
Provide incentives and rewards for people who help others find their missing pets.