an application for lost pets
Role
Sole UX/UI Design + Brand Designer, Secondary Researcher
3 months
Timeline
Tools
Altas Ti, Figma, Canva, Affinity Designer
This project came about as a term assignment for a research course at DePaul University, with professor Oliver Alonzo. I worked in a group of three other HCI graduate students, together we completed a literature review, user testing, and a final report. After the semester, as a solo project, I continued with our nexts steps and used our findings to actually create the mobile application"Fur Sight", foresight for lost pets, in Figma.
Brief
Losing a Pet is not only a tragedy, but also involves a surprisingly lengthy and detail- oriented process. In pet recovery, users are tasked with the meticulous jobs to spread accurate information and investigate leads, whilst bearing an incredible emotional load. To make matters worse, tracker technology is illusive, involving hefty price tags and complex UI systems. Current technological systems fail to unify the spread of information and support common tracker systems.
Problem
Identify common approaches to pet recovery
Gain more information about how current technological solutions are used
Understand if users' emotions effect their ability to locate their pets
Goals
Observational Research
2.1 Literature Review & Competitive Analysis
2.2 Interviews
2.3 Personas and Scenarios
2.4 Implications for Design
Literature Review
This phase revealed potential for a viable product, researchers relay that current methods like flyers and social media are often ineffective. In contrast, a mobile app would allow users to report lost or found pets, upload photos, and receive alerts. Features like geofencing, AI image recognition, and community networks could enhance reunification efforts.
PeTrace
Missing Pets
PawBoost
Lacks proactive strategies, such as saved pet information
Involves manual input for information sharing
Shares information on Facebook and Internal DataBase
Involves Tinder-Like UI of lost pets
Primary User is "heroic pedestrians" versus pet owners whom have lost animal(s)
Competitive Analysis
insights
Immediate
Actions
Community Engagement
Proactive
measures
Effective Communication
Tech Solutions
Hover to learn more about each theme in regard to pet recovery
We interviewed 8 adults (6 women, 2 men) aged 23 to 63. Participants were recruited through various methods. Some interviews were in-person, others via video conference. We analyzed the data using the AEIOU framework and arranged our notes in an Affinity Diagram to identify themes.
interviews Rounds
Persona & Scenario: Take #1
insights
Immediate
Actions
Community Engagement
Proactive
measures
Effective Communication
Tech Solutions
Hover to learn more about each theme in regard to pet recovery from Round #2
interviewS Round #2
Based off of Round 1, we interviewed 8 adults (5 women, 3 men) aged 24 to 63, focusing on our 5 themes. Data was collected via video conferencing and recorded for processing. Zoom recordings helped us transcribe and identify topic frequencies using Atlas. Ti. We organized data with a Codebook, informing our feature matrix and personas.
Swipe left or press right arrow key to view Judy The Active Techie
Swipe left or press right arrow key to view Omar The Ole Townie
Incorporate use of an automated system that creates action plans and informs users of next steps
Recommend action plans based on a pet’s personality and or patterns.
Have internal community engagement platforms within user groups and encourage user heroism.
Pre record pet demographics & automatically create infographics in emergency settings
The idea behind the logo was to design something that could both reassure users and bring a smile to their faces. Losing a pet is certainly not fun—Fur Sight serves to take the edge off of these intense emotions, and bring some transient comfort to users.
In an effort to reassure users, I wanted the logo to represent safety. I took inspiration from old school police badges. To incorporate a silly tone, I thought the badge should be animated, and preferred the eyes to somewhat intense, as if they were actively searching. Lastly, the NFL logo was a source of inspiration for the text within the badge. I realized the text should be angled at the same curvature of the badge's shape.
I designed the logo in Affinity Designer, from scratch. I ended up creating two variations, one for neutral mode, and one for active mode – when the user has reported pet loss.
Neutral Mode
Active Mode
Logo!
The prototype has two main user paths, one for losing a pet and the other for community building amongst Fur Sight Users. In future iterations, I will build out a third feature regarding the onboarding process using form UI. Read more on this in Next Steps.
Within this feature there are two paths, Plan A and Plan B. I decided to design plans with different degrees of priority. Pets are clever and sometimes they may have a habit of exploration. In these cases, owners may not need all the bells and whistles—they just want someone to help them troubleshoot. This is where Plan B comes into play. When troubleshooting pre-identified quick solutions, Plan A focuses on sounding every alarm possible, and lets users notify multiple resources with the same application.
This feature contains multiple user paths centered around community and heroism. In this panel, users can see the location of lost pets in their area, report and take pictures of animals that they feel may be a lost pet, view their Hero Status (a record of saved pets), and view their personal Fur Sight Heroes (users whom have helped them recovered pets in the past).
Features
Losing a Pet
Community Building
Hover over images to learn more about the functionality of each page
Hover over images to learn more about the functionality of each page
Home Screen
Action Protocol Screen
Plan A Screen
Plan B Screen
Community Home Page
Missing Pet Map Tag
Self-Report Camera Screen
AI Matching Screen
Fur Sight Heros Screen
Contact Screen
Next Steps…
This project was a huge undertaking. If I had more time, I would have flushed out the onboarding process and utilized form UI. In addition, I think the prototype could benefit from UX testing, such as Click and Tree tests. Lastly, I would love to delve into more academic research and discover niche audiences that could also benefit from the application.
Hover over each point to see what I will tackle next time!