For traveling cat owners
Take better care of your cats with MEOWFILE
Dates: April 2023 - November 2023
Role: UX/UI Designer
For: Springboard Bootcamp Individual Project
Why does cat-sitting need to be complicated and stressful?
As a cat owner, I am always worried about my cat while traveling and leaving him alone at home although I have arranged my friends to come over and and take care of him every other day. To help reduce this anxiety shared by many other cat owners, I designed an app named MeowFile that serves as a one-stop communication bridge between cat owners and cat sitters by sharing care instructions, task lists, and feedback, therefore gives the owners a peace of mind while away.
Problem Statements
It takes efforts from both parties to ensure the cat’s wellbeing while staying at home alone: the owners who leaves detailed instruction that covers all necessary situations, and the sitters who can follow the instructions and report back. Therefore, MeowFile aims to solve problems like:
How might we help cat owners to leave care instructions as detailed as possible?
How might we help cat sitters to find information needed easier and faster?
How might we improve the communication between the owners and the sitters?
How might we reduce cat owners' anxiety when they let their cats stay alone at home?
How might we “prove” to the owners that their cats are doing good?
User Research
I conducted five moderated interviews based on which two types of the user groups were created: cat owners and cat sitters, and of course, sometimes an user could fall into both categories.
“I might be a little paranoid, but I worried a lot about my cat.”
“I think there’s some baseline information that should be shared, and sometimes people don’t realize they need to share it.”
Ideation Process
1. Some early ideas
2. Defining red route user flows for
Cat Owners who need to prepare and arrange for a cat sitting session
Cat Sitters who need to visit and complete tasks about taking care of the cat
3. Sketching the user flows
I considered several fancy solutions, like a motion-tracking device that monitors the real-time location and action of the cat, or a virtual assistant tablet that allow the sitters to ask question or live video chat with the owner. However, after analyzing the thoughts, needs and behaviors of the participants during my information interviews, I decided to go with the the very down-to-earth and relatively simple one: designing an app that combines the functions of note-sharing, calendar view, and task list. In the end, what the owners care the most is if the cat could be taken good care of by others just as by themselves.
Therefore, with the help of MeowFile, not only owners can travel with a peace of mind by leaving instructions customized to their cats and receiving feedback, but also sitters can perform tasks better with detailed guidance.
Wireframing and Prototyping
Using Figma, I created low-fidelity wireframes for the following for red route:
For cat owners: Logging into the app and find the right place to add a new instruction about feeding your cat.
For cat owners: Imagine you have a second cat that need different care or living at a different home, add a new cat profile for this cat.
For cat sitters: Perform the feeding task for the day, and mark it off the list.
For cat sitters: Imagine you have a question that you can’t find answers to, ask the chatbox.
With the help of a mood board that tries to present a friendly and trustworthy brand image, the above low-fi wireframes were turned into a hi-fi mockup:
Usability Testing and Results
The first version of the interactive prototype was tested on five participant, each were asked to complete a set of tasks as either the owner or the sitter. The usability testing helped a lot in collecting constructive feedback, which are further breakdown into critical, major, minor, or normal issues by priority.
Going Forward
The prototype I have for now is the MVP version of the product addresses specific red routes and critical usability issues. Going forward, I’ll keep refining it based on those remaining lower priority feedback I received, as well as adding new pages and features to round out the design.