4 Months
Research + Design
Overview
In this semester-long project, my team partnered with Pumpkin, a pet health insurance company. We explored how new cat owners take care of their feline's health. Based on our research findings, we created a Cat Symptom Checker app.
Process
Discovery + Research
Data Analysis
Concepts
Wireframes
Usability Testing
Role
Timeline
Tools
Problem Statement
In our initial literature review, there was one finding that stood out to us: Cats are less likely to be taken to the veterinarian than dogs. In our research we found that when new cat owners try to learn about their cats symptoms, they often faced misinformation and unspecific answers.
User Interviews
My team conducted interviews with both new cat owners and "cat owner experts" to learn more about the cat ownership experience. We wanted specifically to learn what challenges new cat owners experience.
We quickly identified that new cat owners often struggle with understanding their cat's health and navigating the vet experience.
User Persona
I created user personas for both the New Cat Owner and Expert Cat Owner archetypes, based on our interview data.
Empathy Map
I also created empathy maps for each persona to build out what the user thinks, feels, says, and does.
Concept Testing
We tested multiple concepts with our user group and picked the one that performed the best, as well as meeting our design requirements.
Wireframes
We created wireframes to test our design further before finalizing the design.
Task-Based User Testing
To learn about how to further improve the app design, we conducted task-based testing with cat owners. We asked users to complete specific tasks in the prototype:
Search Symptoms
Learn about Conditions and Treatments
Leave notes in the Journal
We then asked users to rate the difficulty of the tasks and asked for feedback on the different features.
