ADMIN SYSTEM
High performance admin system personalized to business and user needs
A mobile app that empowers dog owners to improve their pets’ health through personalized, home-cooked meals. By creating intuitive tools tailored to individual needs, the app simplifies the process of planning and preparing nutritious diets which makes healthy choices more accessible, actionable, and sustainable for pet owners.
Project type
Passion Project
MY ROLE
Product design
User research & testing
Interactive prototyping
TIMELINE
Feb 2022 - May 2022
Personal story
What is kibble made of?
Does it taste good?
More importantly, is it safe?
My dogs love to eat and I adore seeing their tails wag and their happy faces when they see food. I had been feeding my dog kibble until one day my dog’s food allergy condition was out of control. I stopped and started questioning: “What is kibble made of? Does it taste good? Most importantly, is it safe?”
For this project, I wanted to explore the topic of dog diets and look into options for dog owners who are struggling with kibble.
BUSINESS PROBLEM
Unlimited data storage is driving up infrastructure costs
Currently, all users have unlimited storage, but as dataset sizes grow, this approach is becoming unsustainable. To address this, our team decide to introduce a monthly storage fee for high-usage users while providing admins with tools to monitor and manage storage within the admin portal.
Solution
Start with research
Problems in Kibble
4,000
pets died as a result of consuming the recalled products in 2007
113
pet food recalls from January 2017 to January 2022
Average recall frequency
1.88
times per month
22.6
times per year
Current ways
1.
Buying fresh made meals from commercial brands like Just for Dogs, Farmer's dogs, etc.
Issue: Expensive, commercial fresh dog food can coast $2.8 to $10+ per day
2.
Home cook dog meals by intense researching through different websites, articles, and videos to find the recipe
Issue: The information on this topic is very scattered, there is no one website designated for homemade pet food.
Conclusion
Many dog owners are considering switching from heavily processed kibble diets to homemade fresh meals. However, the existing options are very restricted. Dog owners find it difficult to change their pets' meals due to high prices of the commercial fresh dog food, and the lack of recipe information on the internet. I decided to focus on the qestion:
“How to provide tools to assist dog owners to prepare fresh meals for their dogs?”
USER INTERVIEW INSIGHTS
I conducted user interviews with 5 dog owners to learn about the frustrations and difficulties that dog owners have in this topic. The participants are coming from different backgrounds, and have at least one dog.
Ingredient & Nutritions
Users are not confident in the right selection of the ingredients. They are not fully aware of the toxic food and are unsure about how to balance the nutrition
Individual Needs
Both users and their dogs have special needs. Dog owners' budgets schedules, and cooking skill levels vary depending on their situations. Dogs also have special health conditions, food allergies, and preferences on food.
Planning
Dog owners often find convenience as a factor that discourages homemade dog food. They think that cooking for dogs requires a lot of planning skills which is challenging.
User journey map
By focusing on a specific user, I was able to connect and understand their difficulties which allows me to make user-centered decisions in the next steps. I use the User Journey Map to visualize the user's needs and behaviors which helped me discover the potential opportunities in different stages of the cooking process.
HOW MIGHT WE
It has become clear that many uncertainties set up a big learning curve for dog owners which discourages them to make homemade fresh meals. To tackle users’ main concerns and improve overall cooking experiences, I decided to focus on:
HMW find the right recipe for dog owners so it fulfills their individual needs?
HMW solve users' cooking concerns so they can cook confidently for their dogs?
HMW encourages users in cooking so they can cook more often for their dogs?
wireframes & userflows
VISUAL STYLE GUIDE
USABILITY TEST & ITERATION
3 major design improvements were made
After finishing the first round of high-fidelity designs, I validate the design through a round of usability tests. All 5 users were able to successfully finish the 3 tasks.
Improvement 1
Improvement 2
Improvement 3
With the changes made in the previous step, I conducted an additional round of usability tests to ensure the quality of the design. This time, users are able to finish the tasks without any confusion. They agree that the design is easy and intuitive to use. Moreover, they comment that design is fun and interesting.
Onboarding + Recipe Matching
Find a Recipe Based on Needs
Customize a Recipe
Screens
REFLECTION
I was having a blast designing this app for our beloved pets. I learned and practiced the entire design thinking cycle. I was able to practice making user-centric design decisions through user research. In this project, revision is an old friend. After rounds of usability tests, I learned that changes make better designs. With the experience in this project, I started to embrace changes as the opportunities for improvement. Design should be able to adapt toward higher goals. This project also planted the seeds for me to grow emphasis, and think critically.
