UX Research
UX | UI Design
Prototype
Motion Design
Hanbyul Kang
Alexandra Molta
Kate Ma
Rui Sun
Sep - Dec 2022 (4 Months)
Young Ones ADC 2023,
UX | UI shortlisted
Millions of America's pet owners are struggling with pet care. CareCo is an app that helps new and current pet owners with pet care. Our app provides users with accessible and professional-grade pet care education through gamification and technology. Our app will support your pet care journey to provide happy, healthy life for your little companion.
There is a huge pet owner population in America. Despite the love and effort, information and education are not accessible. Pet care instructions, online articles, and videos are lengthy and scattered, confusing pet owners, which can lead to the mistreatment of pets.
We created CareCo powered by Petco to assist pet owners. Incorporating AR and AI technology and gamification of pet care education will allow pet owners to learn about their companion in a digestible and enjoyable way.
Petco is one of the biggest pet food and supplies chain that was founded in 1965. Beyond selling pet products, Petco offers veterinary services, behavior training, obedience training, grooming, pet insurance, and adoption events. Petco Love was created in 1999 to help promote and improve the welfare of companion animals and spend more than 30 million dollars to support this cause annually. Despite their hard work educating in humane animal treatment, Petco holds a lot of responsibility for impulse purchase of animals.
Vetster connects you to a near by vet assisting in person and with online appointment scheduling. They also offer prescription delivery in a certain areas. Users can review vet profile and their strengths to help them choose the best fit for their pet.
AskVet is a 1:1 wellness-supporting app offering a wide range of services beyond veterinary service. Users can experience customized nutrition plans and have habit and behavior training sessions to help the pet thrive.
Petfinder connects the shelter and adopters, creating a seamless adoption process. Adopters can search and filter their pet preferences, characteristics, and lifestyle to find their best match.
We interviewed pet owners and veterinarians to learn the different struggles and opinions on pet care.
When pet owners face struggle, they often turn to google and youtube searches resulting lack of information in emergency.
Veterinarian emphasized the difficulty on app based veterinarian diagnosis.
Pets are abandoned and returned to the shelter because they don’t foresee the responsibility of owning a pet. They are often unprepared to care for pets and provide a suitable environment for their pets to thrive.
Professional services are pricey and hard to access. Pet owners often turn to google and youtube for advice, and app-based veterinarian services cannot provide the same quality as a physical exam.
People need to be prepared to adopt pets, but they also need assistance during their pet care journey. The different levels of responsibilities often stress the families. Pet care education must be provided for all the family members to give equal love to their pets.
Accurate information, advice, and tips are needed during the pet care journey. However, virtual check-ins and exams have limitations and are not the same as physical exams. So we needed to find a way to assist pet owners during emergencies and to provide what they can do at home before the in-person visits.
During low-fidelity user testing, users questioned the language used in the app and wanted more descriptions during each process. We had to match the language used in the field and have more straightforward explanations and steps during the features.
Cora, our AI Chatbot, lessens the stress of worried owners. It will assist you in emergencies, answer questions, and provide information for at-home care based on video scans and photos of the pets.
Dr. Joe might ask pet owners to launch the camera and take 360 angle shots of the wounded area for a detailed diagnosis.
Pet owners can check off the symptoms that are not visible for a more detailed diagnosis before the VetCo appointment.
Final diagnosis report of pet. The report will be saved in the pet's profile to reduce hassle in your VetCo visit.
The AR simulator helps new pet owners to estimate the space and setting for pets. They can search and visualize the pet supplies to provide an excellent environment for their companion.
Error prevention pops up to inform pet owners that the pet needs more space or is unsuitable for pets.
Information pop-up activated by 3D touch. It will teach pet owners details about the material.
Final collected supply list to make pet owners' lives easier.
Users can experience a glimpse of their pet care journey. They can learn the needs and behavior of the pets by feeding, loving, and cleaning. When the user completes each task, a badge will be given to make an enjoyable pet care journey.
Progress report of the game. Users can view their progress in each state - hunger, mental, and cleanliness- to earn the badge.
A page where you can review badges you've earned. The hunger badge, mental badge, and clean badge.
Badge will pop up when users complete all the tasks and and fill the progress bar.
Our research and empathy interview opened us to two distinct user categories instead of just one broad group of users. Rather than focusing on per-adoption and preparation, we aimed to fulfill all the needs within the pet care journey.
From CareCo, we want to connect the users to other existing services from PetCo, such as obedience training, pet insurance, and adoption events. From the friendly interfaces, features, and services, we aim to provide accessible pet care for all.
