UX Case Study

University Group Project

Exemplar of the Course

PawPal+: Smart Pet Care System

Annabelle Xie Helena Cui Chuqiao Meng

Problem Statement

Managing cats’ weight and health status poses a significant challenge.

Obesity is a common and serious problem in domestic cats. Studies have reported that some populations have a prevalence of overweight and obese cats of up to 63%. For owners, especially those with busy schedules, effectively managing their cat's weight and overall health status poses a significant challenge

Objectives

Assisting owners by implementing a health-focused product for their cats.
In this project, we focused on fostering cat’s weight management.

My Roles

Each group member focuses on developing one function on one platform
Conducting research and analysing insights
Designing smart feeding function of the Mobile App

Project Overview

The Solution

Trans-theoretic model to facilitate owners to take actions

1

Aware - Remind users to make necessary changes

The PawPal+ system is embedded with multiple smart devices, such as smart feeder, video camera, smart litter box etc to monitor various data of the cats.
Based on the collected data, the system would remind users when detecting the cat is overweight.

2

How - Notify users of available changes

Users will be provided with caring tips on how to manage their cat’s weight
The user will be reminded to change the feeding plan of the cat.

Act - Help users take actions

3

Users could set up the cat food they are feeding. Based on the cat’s data, calories of the cat food, and feeding goal, the feeding plan will be auto-generated.
Users are allowed to set different feeding plans for different cats.

Discover

Define

Develop

Design

Design Process

Discover

Literature Review

Cat’s weight loss is more complex than simply reducing the portion size

Once the cat is identified as overweight or obese, it is essential to adjust feedings for weight loss using an appropriate nutritional product, portion, and meal frequency. However:

"It is NOT appropriate to simply reduce the volume of their current food. This will cause malnourishment over time."

The portion size should be gradually reduced. In addition, correct monitoring is the most critical component of the weight loss strategy. It is essential to monitor body weight after the ideal weight has been achieved to ensure that the lost weight is not regained.

Interview

Users do not have a clear clue…

We conducted semi-structured interviews with cat owners. Each interview took 40 min to 1 hour, aiming to gain insight into the user's knowledge and experience of cat weight management.

During the interview, we found out that most interviewees do not have a clear view of how to assess if their cats are overweight nor how to manage cats’ weight.

Competitor Analysis

Smart pet care products are not so smart

Due to the limited budget, we were not able to purchase smart pet care products to actually assess them. Instead, we analysed the online reviews, introductory videos of different competitor products and feedback from friends who actually use those products.

Theme1: Challenges

We have researched three major competitors

We found that even though there are an increasing number of smart pet care products, featuring different devices such as smart feeder, smart litter box etc., those products are simply tracking the data without providing any insights.

Take-home Insights

Assist users in creating suitable feeding plans effortlessly

Assessing if the cat is overweight is a tricky task for most users

Theme2: The Gap

Some cat owners are not aware of the severe consequences of obesity.

Most owners lack knowledge of how to help their cats keep fit.

Current smart pet care products only track data, instead of analysing the data to provide caring advice.

Current smart feeder apps require meticulous, daily input for feeding plans. This highlights the need for a more automated, simplified solution.

Theme2: User Needs

Able to track and know the cat's status. Getting informed when anything goes wrong.

Feeding and caring for their cats fosters emotional connection for owners, implying that technology should support, not replace, this engagement.

Users with busy schedules find difficult to manage to feed their cat in schedule.

Effectively setting up smart feeding plans without manually input every information.

Anne

The cat owner with busy schedule

Live alone

Teacher

I have a full-time job and spend most of my time away from home. I have two lovely cats, Marshmallow and Ball. The vet Recently told me that Marshmallow needs to lose weight to achieve better health.

“

It is very difficult for me to help Marshmallow to lose weight given I am not at home most of the time.

My Goals

I want to make sure my cats are both in good health.
I wish I could help Marshmallow lose weight without changing Ball’s feeding plan.
I appreciate the strong bondings between me and my cats, I want to feed them myself whenever I can.

My Frustrations

Different cat food has different calories, I am not sure how to help Marshmallow lose weight.
It is difficult to tell if my cats are under some health conditions.
I am too busy to feed Marshmallow manually every meal.

2 Cats

Define

Persona

Anne wants to help Marshmallow keep fit

Create a new “On Diet” feeding plan for Marshmallow

Home Screen

Smart Feeder

New Feeding Plan

Choose Cat

Choose Feeding Goal

Confirm Feeding Plan

Adjust Feeding Plan

Specify Feeding Goal

Task Flow

Develop

Testing & Improvements

After spotting the design flaw, I made two major improvements

In the development process, I mistakenly rushed into the design without conducting a thorough analysis of the task and information priority on each page. As a result, some design flaws appeared in the wireframes.

To enhance the design, I took steps to rectify the situation. First, I conducted a cognitive walkthrough on my own. Additionally, I gathered usability testing results from three participants and sought feedback from my mentor.

Reorganize the information in feeder page

In the previous design, information is overloaded in one card, which may cause a high cognitive workload for users.
The visual structure of the feeder information is poor, and they are mixed with the function of “feed treat” and “record voice”
In the new design, Each section is on a different card and the information is reorganized, which made the structure and information on this page more explicit.

1

Change the number of steps into 4

Previous design can cause easily cause confusion as two steps are mixed into one. And some of the interaction does not make sense. The new design fixed this problem.
The new design also automatically generates the feeding schedule after the user sets up the earliest and latest feeding time.
Dragging to select the feeding times is more efficient and less likely to cause error.