Designed a mobile app and website to support shelters reuniting lost pets to their families and managing pets during a natural disaster.
Overview
Working as one of the designers on my team, we researched, designed, and prototyped a pet rehoming application for our General Assembly UX Design bootcamp. For our two week sprint we looked into the demographics of the city of Houston, conducted user interviews with professionals, turned our ideations into wireframes, and designed a prototype. Our target city was Houston and we had to focus on the needs of the people there.
TEAMMATES
Blaise Suhr
Desaree Haber
Salena Hill
ROLE
UX Designer
METHODS & TOOLS
User Surveys/Interviews, Research, Comparative Analysis, Figma, Miro
PRACTICES
Sketching, Wireframing, Userflows, Prototyping, Usability Testing
Context
The impacts of Hurricane Harvey brought to light a range of issues in FEMA’s existing process. There was no existing way for FEMA to provide pet owners with a tool for finding pet shelters near them. Shelter Directors and Volunteers needed an easier way to share lost pet information. We also wanted to create a preemptive measure for pet owners to have before a natural disaster.
On a team of designers for this project I was focused on working with the research coordinator to draft interview questions, taking notes during interviews, helping cold call shelters and vet clinics to schedule, and helping with usability testing. I also took charge of coming up with the Information Architecture, User Flows, and Content Inventory.
Process
We started with the process of researching the demographic of the city of Houston and the effects of Hurricane Harvey to better understand its impacts on the city. We then drafted up our goals and questions for our user interviews. After compiling and Affinity Mapping the user interview information we created User Personas, came up with a Problem Statement, and brainstormed solutions. During the design phase we wanted to focus on the solutions we offered so we created an early stage prototype to test with users early so we could make iterations. After analyzing the usability test metrics we created our hi-fidelity prototype. We presented our project to our classmates and instructors to get more feedback on what we could do to improve the solution and designs.
Solutions
Problem
“Users need a preventive product that will help them locate and identify their pets, and find pet-friendly shelters so that they can prepare and plan in case of an emergency or disaster. Users need a way to create and share information through digital flyers so that they can share lost/found pet information faster.”
Creating a highly durable waterproof GPS collar that allows users to track their pets and receive alerts when they are out of bounds.
Provide a reference ID number and barcode ingrained in the collar to help pet owners and shelter professionals easily find/ID missing pets.
Provide an easy navigation to find pet-friendly shelters and receive alerts regarding their capacity during an emergency or disaster.
Research
Demographics
The city of Houston is the fourth largest city in America. Nearly a fifth of the population lives in poverty. The city has a large presence of Hispanic & Latino people with a population percentage of 45%. Houston has a highly developed medical industry boasting some of the United States’ largest medical centers. Houston is located in a hurricane hotspot in proximity to the Gulf Coast.
Shelters & Disaster Centers
FEMA has opened three disaster centers after Hurricane Harvey. During Hurricane Harvey temporary shelters were created out of high schools, churches, etc. because many shelters didn’t accept pets. A lot of pets were moved out of state to partnered animal shelters and organizations. There was no good system to make sure pets were accounted for. Millions of pets ended up having to be adopted because they could not be reunited with their original family.
Partnerships & Organizations
Animals were displaced in major cities such as Atlanta, New York City, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, and San Diego. Best Friends Network and Friends 4 Life partners emerged as a powerful force, helping to save around 6,000 animals. There is no current legislation protecting displaced animals for longer than the 3-day hold. An animal coming into a county or municipal or any animal shelter could be legally euthanized after only 72 hours.
Current Application Options
Persona
User Interviews
After looking through some general research on the effects of Hurricane Harvey, the demographics, and other applications out there. We conducted user interviews to speak directly with professionals in the field who experienced Hurricane Harvey or are currently working in the pet shelter industry. We quickly saw many common trends, one being that they all wanted a way to share information to multiple platforms. The professionals also needed a centralized database to organize information. Another need we saw amongst the interviewees was that they all wanted a way to connect to partner organizations and neighboring shelters.
Design
Part of the project was putting important aspects of UX design into practice. I was tasked with creating the IA for the application and a userflow to demonstrate an users task from start to finish.
The frames above are a visual representation of a user registering their pet after receiving the Petfi collar.
Usability
We performed usability tests with a low fi prototype to observe how users would navigate the app. The feedback we got on the app was positive, 5/5 of the users who tested the app had no difficulty completing the task. A few of the users wanted more avenues to get to the completion of their task which prompted us for a few changes to the different forms of navigation.
Next Steps
After presenting out research, solutions, and prototype to our peers and instructors. We received feedback on a few key parts of our product. The idea of creating a smoother UI and refining details was one. One of our solutions needed some tweaks, the price of the collar might be out of reach for some customers. Creating other options as well as maybe a free option for any user, users being able to print out their barcode and receive a pet ID when signing up. All the feedback we received would be part of what we discuss as a team to revisit and implement in the future.
Reflection
Creating a Product from scratch = Lot of effort and time management needed for workload
It was my first time working with a team on a design project and there were a lot of things I learned from the experience. I realized in my head I could conceptualize how I wanted the UI to look but I was unable to express it and put it on paper. Working with a group on a design project definitely opened up my eyes on the importance of collaboration and having peers to work with. As the project progress I learned to convey my thoughts better but I hope to continue to improve with more opportunities.