Pawsome
Empowering New Dog Parents through AI Innovation
Project Background
After forming our capstone project team, we connected over a shared experiences of owning pets or wanting to adopt one. After conducting some preliminary research, we noticed that while the pet market has been rapidly growing, many new dog owners still struggle to find trustworthy and relevant information despite the rapidly growing pet market.
This inspired us to design Pawsome, an AI-powered app designed to help new dog parents by simplifying the search for reliable resources and offering personalized support throughout the early stages of pet ownership.
TIMELINE
Jan - May 2024
TEAM
Sophia K., Ziying L.
MY ROLE
UX Research Lead & UX Designer
Tools: Qualtrics, Balsamiq, Figma, FigJam
🌟Nominated for the 2024 UX Design Awards in the “New Talent“ category
🏆Won the 2024 European Product Design Award in the Professional category for Interface Design/Mobile Apps
THE CHALLENGE
How might we help new dog parents find relevant, tailored info more easily?
The global pet market is expected to reach a market size of $500 Billion by 2030 (Bloomberg Intelligence, 2023). Despite this growth, new dog owners still face a ton of stress and anxiety navigating through a vast amount of information online, trying to find information that best matches their dogs' specific needs including breed, age, etc.
Our goal is to provide a more efficient way to help new dog parents access personalized, reliable information.
USER RESEARCH
Understanding dog parent’s needs and pain points
To better understand the problem space and user pain points, we conducted 60+ surveys and 8 user interviews with both new and experienced dog parents to discover how new dog owners navigated through the early stage of dog ownership.
The findings highlight three key insights:
🍽️ Overwhelming Choices
New pet owners feel overwhelmed by the wide variety of food options, not knowing which to choose.
🩺 Health Concerns
New pet owners worry about their dog's health and feel unsure about handling sudden health issues.
🐶 Community & Socialization
Pet owners value connecting with other dog owners for socializing and seeking pet care advice.
INITIAL IDEATION
Brainstorming design concepts
While brainstorming how to tackle challenges faced by new dog owners, we decided to leverage AI for its strong ability to collect and organize information, effectively helping users navigate overwhelming choices and find reliable answers.
Based on user research, we found that pain points and needs of dog parents mostly focus on three topics: nutrition, health, and community involvement. We then created three concept ideas in Balsamiq to target these three areas:
Concept 1 - Nutrition
Personalized dog nutrition plans tailored to each dog's profile with customized recipes
Concept 2 - Healthcare
An AI-powered diagnosis tool combined with a Q&A feature, providing additional support from professional vets
Concept 3 - Community
The 'Find Playdate' feature lets users swipe through profiles of other dogs. The 'Explore' community enables dog owners to share tips and information on dog care and parenting
CONCEPT TESTING
Scaling down the project scope
While all three concepts were appreciated, most users felt having all three in one app could be too overwhelming. They also found the third concept, focused on social interaction, somewhat disconnected from the other two that prioritized dog care.
As a result, we decided to integrate the first two features—nutrition and healthcare—while removing the community feature. This allows us to shift our focus to providing dog owners with efficient, personalized support for nutrition and health-related needs, which is also users core concerns as echoed in our survey and interview findings.
KEY INSIGHT
Addressing user’s concern with AI
During user interviews and concept testing, we recognized that many dog parents had doubts about the accuracy of AI-generated results, which wasn’t surprising. This concern was especially strong for health-related features—dog parents mentioned that they wouldn’t fully trust AI for important medical decisions affecting their pet’s health and would need human verification of the results.
This insight led us to add an “Ask a Professional” feature in addition to the original “AI Diagnosis” feature, enabling users to seek advice directly from professionals. They also have the option to attach an existing AI diagnosis result to provide more context.
USER FLOW
Mapping a new dog parent’s experience
After narrowing down our project scope, we mapped out the app's user flow, defining the core structure and navigation logic. This process led us to consider what kind of info we want to collect and how to ask the right questions to provide personalized information tailored to the needs of the user—or rather, the user’s dog.
LOW-FI PROTOTYPE
From Balsamiq to Figma
After finalizing the user flow, we transitioned from low-fidelity wireframes in Balsamiq to mid-fidelity wireframes in Figma. This step involved refining the layout and interactions according to the user flow, which allowed us to add more visual clarity and detail.
STYLE GUIDE
Establishing visual identity
After designing the logo, we chose a color palette of yellow, orange, and black to create a friendly, playful vibe that aligns with our topic and appeals to our target younger audience.
USER TESTING
User feedback and iterations
After finalizing the high-fidelity prototypes based on the established style guide, we conducted our second round of user testing to evaluate the design and user experience, which provided valuable feedback and insights on key features.
Feedback 1: Enhancing Pet Safety with Emergency Alerts on the Health Screen
Users recommended adding an alert to remind people that the health diagnosis feature is not a substitute for veterinary care, and pet parents should seek professional help during emergencies.
Solution:
Feedback 2: Refining Content Clarity and Expanding User Control
Users suggested refining the wording in the Nutrition interface for better clarity and adding "no" options to the diet customization questions for greater user control and flexibility.
Solution:
Feedback 3: Providing Tailored Diet Recommendations for Informed Decision-Making
Users wanted diet recommendations to be more personalized to their pets, rather than receiving general advice, to make more informed decisions when preparing meals.
Solution:
Provide personalized recommendations and analysis based on each pet's specific condition.
For example, including advice like:
"As Momo is a young puppy, it would be better to include higher protein meals to support growth and development. Thus we recommend…"
This ensures users receive tailored suggestions that address their pet's age, health, and dietary needs for more informed meal preparation.
DESIGN SOLUTION
Key Features
01 Personalized Onboarding
Upon first login, users input their dog's breed, age, and weight, allowing the app to personalize content and recommendations for their pet.
02 Health Page: Professional Q&A + AI Diagnosis
Users can submit questions and receive advice from veterinarians and pet experts. They can upload images (e.g., eyes or teeth) for AI analysis, providing preliminary diagnoses and recommendations.
03 Food Page: Customized Meal Plan
Users can upload their current meal plan for AI assessment or create a new one. AI generates tailored meal options based on the dog's information and dietary needs, allowing users to evaluate them by cost, convenience, and nutritional value to choose the best fit.
REFLECTIONS
Takeaways
Adapting the Scope with Constraints
I learned to leverage user feedback and concept testing to make informed design decisions. By actively communicating with teammates and gathering user input, we were able to maximize output within limited time and resources.
Thoughtfully Applying AI
At each design stage, we carefully evaluated whether AI was the most efficient solution and how to integrate it in the most effective way. User interviews and testing also provided valuable insights into user’s attitude and trust towards AI, which will be especially helpful for other future AI-related projects I might work on.
Evaluating Impact and Feasibility
Participating in a school-wide design exposition pushed us to critically evaluate the impact of our design. This experience strengthened my product thinking by emphasizing both its social and business value, which is essential for creating meaningful solutions with real impacts.
Next Steps
If we had additional time and resources to work on this project, some possible next steps would include:
More Usability Testing & Iteration
Conduct comprehensive usability tests with a broader user base to gather insights and feedback
Deploy App with AI
Deploy the app and AI features to test its real-world performance, AI accuracy, and overall usability
User Flow Refinement
Complete and refine the user flows and interactions across various features and buttons within the app
