Designing a product to allow pet owners to interact with their pets when they are not home ​

Challenge

The challenge was proposed on the website UX Challenge.

And the chosen one was: “How do allow pet owners to interact with their pets when they are not home?”

Role

User Experience, UI design, research, strategy, wireframing, prototyping, usability testing

Background

Before the COVID pandemic, we already had problems with pets alone and were sad at home, because we needed to go out for work, hang out with other people, and travel. During the pandemic, a lot of tutors were able to adopt pets and take more time with them. Moreover, there is research done by Comissão de Animais de Companhia (COMAC): 30% of the pets were adopted during social isolation, tutors that adopted pets for the first time represents 23% of the interviewed and the cat’s average adoption was 37%, while dogs 22% during the pandemic period.

Research COMAC about pets acquired during the pandemic.
30% of all pets in the study were acquired during the coronavirus pandemic.
 22% of dogs were acquired during the pandemic
78% of dogs were acquired before the pandemic 37% of cats were acquired during the pandemic 63% of cats were acquired before the pandemic

Source: COMAC

With this information, we can notice the preoccupation with the return to normality.

Other research performed by Petlove in partnership with Hill’s Pet Nutrition shows that 73% of the tutors interviewed fear in-office work and 25% is worried about the new routine far from the pet

Some companies adopt 100% remote jobs, but others want in-office or hybrid. With this, there is a possibility that the pets get used to staying by themselves, and in the case of the recently adopted, start getting used to the new routine.

But unfortunately, some cases can develop separation anxiety.

Benchmark

For this, research was done on competing products competing products related to general remote interactions with pets. Positive and negative aspects of each product were discovered in user reviews in the Apple Store, Google Play, Amazon and Facebook.

Benchmark with strenghts and weakness

CSD Matrix

The CSD Matrix was made to organize certainties acquired with desk research, doubts and suppositions to be clarified.

CSD Matrix with certainties, suppositions and doubts.
Certainties: 1- People adopted pets during the pandemic. 2- Most people adopted cats. 3- People are concerned about pets being alone with the return to in-office work. Suppositions:
1- Most people used to be away from home for more than 7 hours before the pandemic. 2- Many people do not invest in pet services. 3- The majority of companies do not have pet-friendly initiatives. Doubts: 1- Have the majority of adoptions been limited to dogs and cats? Haven't there been various adoptions of other animals? 2- Are smartphones still the most widely used technology by people?

Quantitative research

The research was disseminated in Facebook groups and with friends’ help, to create personas, and also to get ideas of technologies that people use the most, how many pets they have, the hours a day when pets were left alone before the pandemic and currently, among other questions that arose during the research.

The first question was to know which technologies people are familiarise and to discover which are the main platforms for the product. Smartphones and laptops are the most used.

What technologies do you usually daily? 8 responses 100% Smartphone
12,5% Tablet
62,5% Laptop
50% desktop 0% Smartwatch 12,5% Others
12,5% Playstation 5

The second and third questions are about the quantity and which pets people have. The majority have cats and 50% have 2 pets.

How many pets do you have? 50% 2 pets
12,5% 3 pets 25% 4 pets 12,5% 5 pets What animals do you have? 25% dog 87,5% cat 12,5% bird

The following questions were about how many times pets stay by themselves at home each day before and during the pandemic. Most people before the pandemic stayed between 5 and 8 hours, while currently the maximum is 2 hours in most cases.

Before the pandemic, how many hours a day did your animals stay alone? 37,5% 5-6h 37,5% 7-8h 12,5% 3-4h 12,5% More than 8h Currently, how many hours a day do your animals stay alone? 75% 1-2h 12,5% 3-4h 12,5% 5-6h

It was also asked if people invest in any service for pets. Most do not invest.

Do you invest in pet services when you are not home? 87,5% no 12,5% yes If yes, which ones? pet daycare and pet sitter

And in the last questions, the majority answered that the company they work for, does not have the initiative to maintain proximity with the pets, nor that they usually take them together on trips.

Has the company you work for adopted or had any initiatives to maintain proximity with pets? 87,5% No 12,5% Yes When you travel, do you usually take your pets with you? 87,5% No 12,5% Yes

Personas

The personas were created from the research that was done, including the quantitative research.

Persona Joana Rodrigues "I have a great concern about leaving my cats alone without anyone to watch over them.” Age: 40 Occupation: Back-end developer Location: São Paulo - SP Bio: Joana is the owner of two cats: Simba and Frajola. Simba is a 12-year-old cat with health issues that require attention and monitoring. Frajola is a kitten adopted during the pandemic. Since March 2020, Joana started working remotely, allowing her more time to play, provide toys, and interact with the cats. Most used technologies Smartphone and laptop Objectives: Find a digital product that is simple and easy to use so that she can interact by chatting and seeing her cats. Frustrations: 1 - Return to working in person and leave the cats alone for many hours. 2 - Rely on the total availability of friends' time
Persona Vicente Fontana “I wish I could interact with my pets in a more accessible way.” Age: 30 Occupation: Waiter Location: Porto Alegre - RS Bio: Vicente is the owner of 2 dogs (Floquinho and Apolo) and 2 cats (Charlotte and Pandora). Before the pandemic, Vicente used to be out of the house for more than 8 hours a day, including weekends. During the pandemic, all employees had forced vacations, allowing him more time to stay at home, chatting, playing, giving treats, and taking walks with his pets. Most used technologies: Smartphone and desktop Objectives: 1- Find a Brazilian app that does not require a high investment to communicate and calm your pets 2 - Be able to share videos of your pets on social media 3 - Monitor all his pets remotely 4 - Be able to see pets that are not in the same room of the house Frustrations: 1- Always relying on mom to entertain the pets when he needs to go out 2 - Pets having to go back to being alone for 8 hours a day 3 - Not having the financial means to buy products created outside the country related to interactions with pets

UX Strategy Canvas

To create more consistent results, I made a canvas (using Jim Kalbach’s template) to guide the project strategy.

Ux canvas with Challenges (What problems are you trying to solve? What obstacles must you overcome?):
How can we assist people in interacting with pets remotely?
 Aspirations (What are the ideal desired outcomes? What do you want to achieve?): 
1- A product easy to use. 
2- Being a product that can provide enjoyable moments of remote interaction between owners and pets. Focus Areas (What is the scope of the strategy? What will you focus on the most impact?): 
1- People who need to return to in-office work and are concerned about how their pets will react to it in their daily lives.
2- People who need to be away from home for many hours and are concerned about leaving their pets alone for an extended period, looking for a way to provide attention remotely.
3- People who cannot afford to purchase related products that are sold outside the country.
4- People who have pets with health issues and do not want to rely on friends and family for care.
5- People who use smartphones and notebooks/desktops and have pets.

Guiding Principles (How will you overcome the challenges? What specific mantras will guide your teams?):
Focus on the simple and fundamental.

Activities (What type of activities solve the problems? What capabilities achieve your aspirations?):
Benchmarking, quantitative research, personas, sitemap, wireframes and usability test

Outcomes (What metrics will be used to gauge success? What types of measurements will you employ?): Research and user tests

Sitemap

A sitemap was made to verify the basic flow and help in the creation of the prototype.

sitemap

References

To have inspiration, it was searched for some apps. Mainly video calls apps

examples of apps for references

Sketches

The Crazy 8 technique was used to help with the initial ideas. The drawings helped me to think about the main features of the product.

Sketches with crazy 8

Low fidelity prototype

Based on previous research and steps, it was possible to create a low-fidelity prototype and a wireflow.

Low fidelity prototype

User tests

Tests were carried out to check the usability of the product’s basic functions, flow and to identify possible failures. The tests were made with 5 people, through Discord and Google Hangouts. The script was as follows:

Scenary for user tests: You live alone with your pets and you have been working from home all this time.The company you work for sent a message saying everyone should come back to work. There is no one you know who can take care of your pets all the time, so you're worried about leaving them alone. You've discovered a digital product that can help you interact with your pets and signed up. Tasks: 1 - Invite one of your friends to see with you what your pets are currently doing  2 - Turn on sound notification 3 - Send a friend a short video via Telegram/WhatsApp of what your pets are up to right now. 4- Your best friend has created an account on the app. Add them.

The test has validated the proposed experience flow and to find some problems and observations.

Interface feedback:

  • Some icons need to include the name of what they do or mean

Improvements:

  • Add a back button on the pet interaction screen, while leaving the call off button only in case a friend is present on the stream
  • Think of a way so that the screenshot and record options don’t look hidden
  • Improve contact by adding text in the settings
  • Add the option to call to see the pet in the friends’ list or in the friends’ details
  • The alert button could also provide some shortcut to change the sound and presence settings
  • Add pet sound volume button

Style Guide

Colors

For the choice of colors, it was thought of the moments of interaction with the pets. The orange means vitality, joy and agitation and the blue represents calm, tranquility and security.

colors primary, secondary, neutral and additional

Typograph

The typography chosen was Roboto for its simplicity, legibility and for having a variety of weights.

tipography

Buttons, forms and icons

They were created from a combination of chosen typographies and colors

High fidelity prototype

After testing and defining the style guide, high-fidelity prototypes were made with the necessary adjustments applied.

Image with high quality Prototype

Future plans

There are future plans that have been thought out for the product. From features to partnerships, more research and more testing will be needed. Some of the future ideas that were thought of and some suggested in the tests:

  • Commercial agreements with pet product stores such as Cobasi, Petz, Petlove and Zee Dog.
  • Partnership with local veterinarians to be able to answer questions and be able to help with emergencies in nearby places.

partnerships image with cobasi, petz, petlove, zeedog and vets

Contact

  • alicearuiz@hotmail.com
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