This project was inspired by a personal frustration of mine when it comes to pet ownership: as an exotic pet owner with a high-needs pet, I know how difficult it is to find care when traveling. I also know the lack of resources and high financial burden that comes with owning an exotic pet. I decided to find a way to address this in this UX case study.
Design a phone application that provides care options and resources for exotic pet owners.
Because of the difficulty in finding exotic pet owners, my research was mainly conducted through different exotic pet forums, specifically through Reddit: I chose this method because it would give me a variety of responses from a variety of pet owners. Consequently, my results tended to be skewed in preference to online resources and those that were placed in more remote areas. However, through this method, I did receive quite a variety of pets. These pets included: rats, conures, rabbits, snakes, and geckos. A key point is that many had more than one exotic pet; consequently, this meant that my interface had to give the option to at least add more than one pet per user profile.
After receiving 30+ surveys, a significant portion of participants were aged 20-30, but this was to be expected because of the method these results were collected by. Many did have a care plan already in place when having to find care for their pet, but many also answered that they had trouble finding long-term care options for their pet. About 70% answered that their current care plan tended to be in the form of friends or family members although a smaller portion do use local pet boarders, rescues, or vet offices. Moreover, around 18% of participants expressed trouble finding care or resources in their area. However, the biggest concerns that participants had were about their pet’s comfort (25%) and the lack of specialized knowledge (21%) when it comes to caring for their pet.
Furthermore, these concerns translated over to what features potential pet sitters should have for participants to hire them. Over 30% of participants prioritized how much experience a potential carer had when it came to their pet’s medical needs or care. Additionally, a significant portion of participants wanted carers to have undergone a background check and also have positive reviews. Another important feature for participants would be that their carer would be in active communication with them: 22% of participants expressed that they wanted carers to update them frequently about their pet’s care.
Many participants were uncomfortable at the thought of using a pet-setting app, with 62% of participants expressing discomfort. But most importantly, none of the participants had ever used a pet sitter app before. The main takeaways for an app like this to be successful would be establishing trust with users, promoting communication, and prioritizing carers with experience in exotic pets.
Based on the research conducted, the established goals in making this interface was...
1. Establishing trust between a potential sitter and pet owner
2. Creating connections between pet owners in areas where resources are limited
3. Creating pet profiles (with detailed care plans)
Considering the purpose of this app, I wanted the color palette to utilize more naturalistic colors like green and blue. And the limited uses of brown were to give the app a more homely feel. Furthermore, considering how important building trust was, the significant amount of blue in this interface was intentionally used to help users associate the interface with loyalty and trust. The font chosen was to give the interface a more playful and lively feel.
To maintain a cohesive visual identity, I designed my icons with heavier lines that complement the FatFrank Heavy font's aesthetic. As a result, I ensured consistency in design elements such as typography and iconography. I refined the initial set of icons on the left to create a more effective navigation system and to better complement my components. The evolved group of icons on the right now better conveys the intended purposes and works seamlessly in tandem with the rest of the design.
This is to help with creating connections between pet owners, specifically those that live in areas where resources may not be as accessible. Each profile focuses on giving a brief description of their pet’s medical information and housing set-up: the reason for this focus on the pets rather than the actual owners is that we want owners with similar experiences with their pets to be able to find each other. The algorithm for “matching owners” would also be based on pet species and medical history rather than other factors (i.e. proximity).
To increase trust, I wanted to add a review page and a verified button for those who have received background checks. This is especially important for house sitters so that users can trust a potential pet sitter. Potential sitters would also be required to explain their experience and what services that they can render.
To promote real-time communication, the home page acts as an update page during the duration of your care. The message function allows for more direct communication between the carer and user.
Goes through the standard process of creating a pet profile, finding a potential carer, and communicating with that carer or other users.
If I had more time, I would have liked to build a more detailed and structured Care Plan interface that would help guide the user into creating a detailed and expansive guide for potential carers. I would have also liked to make the interface for matching pet owners more personable and customizable.
Although this initially started as a passion project, this idea is something that I would actually like to expand on just because of the demonstrated need for a service like this. Owning an exotic pet is already inaccessible, costly, and difficult to find resources for: making resources accessible and educating potential exotic pet owners is a valuable cause that I do think goes overlooked.