Your Dog’s Wellness, Simplified
Imagine a dedicated dog owner juggling work, family, and their dog’s healthcare. With so much on their plate, it’s overwhelming—and yet...
"I’d do anything for my dog."
Inspired by my own experience, I set out to design a solution. Research showed that keeping up with vet appointments, meds, and records can be a real headache.
I designed a mobile app to simplify pet care, offering peace of mind and a smoother, happier way to manage pet health.
Deliverable
Company
Year
My Role
Mobile App
Educational Project
2024
Sole UX/UI Designer
Type
Tools
Methods
Lean UX
Figma
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Research & Strategy
Experience
Interface
Prototyping
Testing
Discovering the Challenge
Untangling the stress of pet healthcare
While engaging with dog owners, I noticed a recurring frustration: managing their pets' healthcare often brought unnecessary stress and anxiety. This observation sparked a question: Why is caring for beloved pets so overwhelming? Driven by curiosity, I began to explore the issue more deeply.
Unpacking Research
From chaos to care
Research revealed that maintaining a dog’s health requires holistic and breed-specific care, yet current solutions are fragmented and overwhelming for owners. Healthy dogs benefit from consistent veterinary care, which prevents diseases, enhances mental wellbeing, and fosters happier relationships with their owners.
However, challenges like the high cost of veterinary services, difficulty tracking breed-specific health benchmarks, and reliance on complex or clinic-focused digital tools frustrate many owners. This gap highlights an opportunity to create an accessible, user-friendly platform that simplifies managing a pet’s healthcare and improves the overall experience for dog owners.
Although the technology and systems in place had clarified my assumptions, it felt as though I was missing something.
Rather,… missing someone.
Finding a Target
The real dog 'owner'
Though all this information began to validate my hypothesis, I was missing the human. Who experiences this problem, and how does it affect them?
Over half of pet owners see their dogs as equal to human family members. My research identified younger, tech-savvy, cost-conscious adults, often in parental roles, as the target audience. With a clear problem and gap in current solutions, my product design focuses on simplifying pet healthcare management for this group.
Framing the Problem
Many dog owners face significant challenges in managing dog care.
Busy schedules and fragmented tools make managing pet health overwhelming for many dog owners. Existing digital solutions often lead to frustration, burnout, and inconsistent care. Breed-specific health needs, routine care tasks, and the financial strain of veterinary services compound the challenge
Could a way to help manage a dog’s healthcare and wellbeing be found?
Going Deeper
5 dogs, 5 owners, endless insights
I conducted targeted user research using a carefully designed screener survey to validate my hypothesis and gain deeper insights. This approach allowed me to interview 5 diverse dog owners strategically selected across different ages, pet ownership experiences, and household dog compositions. Through these interviews, I refined my problem statement and uncovered nuanced perspectives about the user experience.
"It's hard to get reminders that the visit needs to happen, and inevitably things come up… it's a lot trying to manage. The doctor's schedule was limited and my schedule was limited."
Andrew
"We had a great vet and we trusted her advice. We absolutely got a second opinion from our family friend who's a vet."
Chris
Themes began to emerge across my 5 interview participants. I compiled them into an affinity map.
The Discovery
This ain't a walk in the park.
If only it were easy to follow the design process from empathy to definition, ideation to prototype, and testing. A linear path would be a dream. But much like taking a dog for a walk, my path was like a good scent to the canine nose.
It became very clear that the dog owner I had targeted, split into two personas:
The Scheduler
The Verifier
A direction forward
Designing a scheduling app with and for dog owners.
This choice was informed by extensive research and analysis, focusing on the scheduler's primary needs and pain points. I asked myself, which solution best met my principles of usability, convenience, and engagement? Which solution could I see the scheduler actually using?
I chose to design a mobile app that integrates scheduling, rescheduling, and health record management and is tailored specifically for dog owners.
User Flows
Managing the dog trail
I designed three key user flows for my MVP prototype. These flows help new users easily schedule appointments, allow existing users to quickly reschedule, and simplify access to their loyalty rewards.
Testing a Paper Prototype
Barking up the right tree
With my user flows and key features decided, I started sketching screens with sharpie and paper.
Considering the scheduler's JBTD and the limited time for usability learning in mind, the interface needed to feel intuitive and familiar. The MVP features had to be clear and easy to use. Moreover, all of my interviewees were iPhone users. hmm…..
I reflected on Jakob’s Law, which suggests that users expect a site (or app) to work similarly to those they are already familiar with.
Considering all this, I incorporated the MVP features neatly into a familiar mobile app interface, ensuring a seamless and user-friendly experience.
Low-Fidelity
Design That Fetches Results
Creating a lean design system helped me craft multiple screens that flowed my identified user flows.
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Style Guide
Identity Unleashed
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High-Fidelity
Uniting paws and purpose
This was the most fulfilling design process, putting all these elements together.
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Usability Testing
Going on a walk… twice.
I conducted usability tests with 10 dog owners in two cohorts of five. The first round revealed that participants navigated tasks well but encountered challenges integrating scheduled appointments into their primary calendar, incorporating rewards into the scheduling flow, and maintaining consistent freedom and control. I focused on diagnosing these issues in the second round and then designed effective solutions.
The Tasks
Scenario 1
Schedule a vet appointment for a dog.
Users were asked to schedule a vet appointment for their dog on a specified date and time, including specific vaccines and services.
Scenario 2
Reschedule an existing vet appointment.
Users were asked to reschedule an existing appointment to a different date and time.
Scenario 3
Apply a loyalty reward to a future appointment.
Users were asked to apply a specific loyalty reward to their next vet appointment.
The Results
A Wagging Tail!
Usability testing showed DogWell’s strong visuals and intuitive navigation. Users praised its appointment scheduling, clear layout, and practical features like reminders, making pet healthcare management engaging and effective.
"The appointment cards are so clear and easy to understand—having all the details in one place really makes scheduling feel effortless."
Lauren
"I loved the simplicity of scheduling appointments; the step-by-step process was intuitive and quick."
Caitlin
Insights
Digging Up Key Discoveries
Business Practice vs. User Experience
Businesses often separate loyalty functions for rewards forcing users to search or re-enter the app during checkout. UX favors integrating rewards seamlessly into scheduling and rescheduling.
K.I.S.S.
Keep It Stupid Simple is great in design. Still, it takes so much effort, removing and thinking through the user experience again and again and again, to create something that ultimately is unnoticed.
UX Copywriting
UX copywriting goes beyond words—it's about guiding, engaging, and supporting users. The right words enhance clarity, build connections, and create a smooth, enjoyable experience.
Consistent Heuristics
Heuristics ensure users feel secure by knowing their location in the process. More importantly, offering control to reschedule, edit, or remove without losing data enhances the experience.
Intrigued?
Try out Dogwell's app prototype
Tap “Enter App” to explore the High-Fidelity Figma Prototype
Reflections and Impact
Changing the Future of Pet Health
DogWell could be a viable solution to manage a dog's health throughout its life.
As an educational project, DogWell was focused on addressing the specific needs of dog owners discovered through extensive research, with less emphasis on technical feasibility and business viability. However, transitioning from a conceptual solution to a viable market product requires further steps.
To ensure DogWell's success, I considered several market entry strategies that balance user needs, technical feasibility, and business viability. Here are three possible options for entering the market.
Next Steps
Standalone Mobile App
DogWell could be launched as an independent mobile app that offers comprehensive pet healthcare management features. This approach would require robust backend development to handle data storage, notifications, and integrations with veterinary services.
Platform Integration
DogWell could integrate with popular platforms like Google Calendar or health tracking apps, providing additional pet healthcare features. This could be achieved through APIs and partnerships with established platforms, reducing the need for users to switch to a completely new system.
Veterinary System Plugin
DogWell could be developed as a plugin for existing veterinary management systems like Pet Desk or VitusVet. This would allow DogWell to leverage the infrastructure of established platforms while adding value through enhanced user-facing features.
Option one is the most feasible, effectively addressing the needs of dog owners while providing a sustainable business model.
