Paw Tracks App - Pet Health Tracking
Stay on top of your pet’s health and well-being with this all-in-one pet care app. Designed for busy pet owners, this app allows you to set personalized reminders for daily, monthly, and yearly tasks like feeding, exercise, grooming, medications, and veterinary appointments.
With the ability to create multiple pet profiles, you’ll never miss an important event while ensuring your pets stay happy and healthy no matter how hectic life gets.
My Role: UX/UI Research - UX/UI Design
OVERVIEW
The Challenge:
Many pet owners with busy schedules struggle to keep up with their pets’ health and routine care, often forgetting important tasks like feeding, grooming, administering medications, and scheduling exercise. This can lead to stress for the owner and potentially impact the pet’s well-being.
The Solution:
This app solves these problems by offering an easy-to-use platform that provides personalized reminders and tracking for all aspects of pet care, helping pet owners stay organized and ensuring their pets are happy and healthy.
The Audience:
The participants include a wide range of pet owners who desire to keep track of daily, monthly, and yearly tasks centered around the health of their pet(s). The typical user values simplistic structure and consistency.
PROCESS
RESEARCH
Client Goals & Desired Outcome:
To create an all-in-one pet health care mobile app including these goals:
1. Remind the user of daily tasks such as feeding their pet, exercise, and sleep times
2. Remind the user of monthly and yearly tasks such as heart worm and flea medications, as well as their pet’s yearly veterinary appointment.
User Research:
I began building the foundation for my design by conducting both quantitative and qualitative user research. I recruited participants from various platforms, forums, and my personal network.
Quantitative Research:
I created an online Google form to distribute a survey to my participants. This helped me gain insights into user behaviors and thoughts.
14 Participants
Survey emailed using Facebook, Email, and Text Messaging
Qualitative Research:
I followed up the survey with 1-1 interviews to gain deeper insights of a user’s emotions, desires, and expectations while using the Paw Tracks app.
3 users were selected from the existing participants that fit the following criteria:
Current pet owners
Focused on their pet’s health
Interviews were conducted via text and instant messaging.
USER RESEARCH RESULTS
Takeaways from User Research:
The majority of users make choices based on apps that are already familiar to them.
They tend to gravitate to universal patterns and buttons. Consistency is key to a productive, easy-to-use app.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
This project began with researching 2 competitors to understand their product’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as gain an understanding of basic user expectations when using pet care apps. I looked at “Pet Care: Knowing Your Pets” and “Pup-To-Date”.
Pet Care: Know Your Pets
1. Comprehensive Pet Management
You can manage multiple pets (dogs, cats, birds, fish, and more) all in one place. It stores vital details like age, injuries, medications, and vaccination history for easy access in emergencies.
2. Event Logging
The app allows you to log over 68 different types of events, from medical treatments to daily activities like feeding, walking, and even mood tracking. Each event can include detailed parameters such as time, cost, and duration.
3. Batch Actions
If you have more than one pet, the app supports batch actions, so you can log an event for multiple pets at once without repeating the same steps.
4. Tracking Health Metrics
You can track various health metrics such as weight, height, temperature, and even behavioral changes. The app also offers visual representations of this data using charts, helping you monitor any trends or abnormalities.
Pup-To-Date
1. Schedule Management
The app offers two views for tracking your dog’s activities—one by event and another over multiple days. This helps you identify patterns in your puppy’s behavior, like potty habits or sleep cycles, making it easier to prevent accidents and create a routine.
2. Smart Reminders
One standout feature is the ability to set reminders for various tasks such as feeding, potty breaks, or medications (like flea/tick treatments). These reminders can be scheduled for a specific time or triggered based on the last event.
3. Customization
The app allows for high customization—users can adjust reminders and schedules based on their dog’s unique needs, including specifying start and end times for activities.
4. Pro Version
The app is free to download, but there is a paid version that unlocks additional features, such as advanced tracking options and more detailed scheduling views.
STRATEGY
Personas:
Using the data from my research, I developed several user personas that reflected common behaviors, goals, and needs shared by the participants.
CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
User Stories:
Site Map:
Digital Wireframes:
Demographics
Single, Middle-class
Early 20’s
Dog Dad
Loves his Golden Retriever named “Bruno”
Behaviors & Beliefs
Checks multiple apps daily to stay updated and productive
Spends his spare time with family and friends
Loves to take Bruno for hikes
Goals & Needs
Wants an app to assist with Bruno’s health
Organizing Bruno’s annual vet visits and dental cleanings are very high priorities
Simple design with tons of features
Demographics
Single, Middle-class
Mid 20’s
Dog Mom
Loves her Aussie named “Mable”
Behaviors & Beliefs
Avid App user
Spends her free time with Mable and her family
Loves to host play dates for Mable
Goals & Needs
Wants a cute app to track Mable’s daily exercise
Reminders for Mable’s grooming appointments are super important
Tracking Mable’s monthly medications is a must
Demographics
Married, Upper Middle-class
Late 20’s
Dog Mom with 1 human on the way
Loves her Cocker Spaniel named “Fritz”
Behaviors & Beliefs
Daily multi-app user (weather, finance, social)
Spends her free time with her husband, their dog, and preparing for the new baby
Goals & Needs
Wants an app to track Fritz’s monthly medications
Reminders for Fritz’s annual vet visits is desired
Tracking Fritz’s anxiety would be very helpful
I developed a customer journey map for Logan to deeply understand and empathize with his struggles to keep track of Bruno’s health care.
Having multiple pets myself, I understand Logan’s frustration at trying to remember all of the daily, monthly, and yearly tasks that come with owning a pet.
To determine the key features of the pet health tracking app, I developed user stories centered around tasks and possible motivations. After compiling as many as possible, I prioritized them to address Logan’s most critical needs in the minimum viable product.
As a pet owner, Logan needs to track his dog’s yearly veterinary visits so that he doesn’t miss Bruno’s appointment
As a pet owner, Addie needs to track her dog’s monthly medications such as heart worm and flea, so that she doesn’t forget to give her pet the medicine
As a pet owner, Beth needs to track her dog’s grooming appointments to keep her pet clean and healthy
User Flows:
I designed user flows to illustrate the journey a user would take through my interface to accomplish the high-priority tasks outlined in my user stories. This process aided in understanding the necessary visual hierarchy and the relationships among the various elements.
User Story: As a user, I want to be notified of the ETA of my bus
Once I identified the screens needed from the user flows, I developed a site map to organize these screens and establish the hierarchical structure of my app.
Using Figma, I created digital wireframes to use with early stage user testing. Testing was completed by sharing the wireframes via email. Once the participants received the wireframes, we jumped on a video call where I walked each tester through a scenario and gave them two tasks to complete.
Main Feedback:
Testers desired the dental care reminder on the daily list instead of the yearly list
Testers liked the fun and consistent interface
BRANDING & IDENTITY
Branding Story:
To create the brand quickly and easily, I did the following:
Made a list of words that I wanted the app to represent
Created as many potential app names as I could, making sure they were:
Simple to say and spell
Clearly noted the app’s purpose
Easy to remember
Quickly sketched a couple of designs without overthinking them
VISUAL DESIGN
Logo Story:
Creating the logo was fun and fairly simple. I took the following steps:
I started with the idea of a paw print
I drew out a few sample logos until I finally settled on a combination of those drawings
High Fidelity Prototype:
I added the branding to the wireframes to build a clickable, high-fidelity prototype. Once the wireframes were styled, I conducted another round of usability testing with three participants.
User Testing Feedback (Main User - Logan):
FINAL PROTOTYPE
Upon reviewing the feedback I received in my usability tests, I adjusted the design and the final mockup to:
Moved the Dental care reminder to “Daily” instead of “Yearly”
Changed the calendar to a clock on the “Daily reminders” screen
FINAL THOUGHTS & NEXT STEPS
Documentation:
• Reinforcing the importance of detailed lists
• Managing complex tasks requires tracking every step
• Properly managing phases ensures nothing is overlooked
• Organization delivers a smooth, functional product
Next Steps:
• Anxiety and Stress Tracking
• Sleep Tracking
• Emergency Event Tracking (We hope you never need it)
• Possible color updates based on accessibility testing
