Caring beloved ones
Connecting Pet Lovers and Simplifying Pet Care: A Case Study on WeR4Pets, an Intuitive Mobile App for Pet Owners
Overview
We4Pets, developed by Pedigree, has emerged as a beloved app among puppy owners in Thailand and the Philippines. Its primary goal is to guide new owners in providing optimal care for their furry companions from day one. The app offers valuable assistance in establishing routines, ensuring essential meals, and implementing necessary training techniques to keep dogs healthy and well-trained.
Here are some of the benefits of the in-store experience:
- We4Pets app designed to enhance pet ownership experience for new puppy owners.
- Focus on guiding owners in establishing routines, providing meals, and implementing training.
- Developed by Pedigree for users in Thailand and the Philippines.
Challenge
The Interesting Shoe Rotation project faced several challenges in creating a memorable and unique customer experience.
These challenges included designing a seamless and user-friendly online and, in-store platform for customers to browse and purchase the shoes, providing personalized recommendations to customers based on their preferences, and creating a post-sale experience that would exceed customer expectations.
Designing a mobile-first product for an inclusive target audience. The client requested to have the most simple UI to keep the engagement and user interest to write a message to that who have been inspired from.
- Designing an intuitive and user-friendly app interface for users with varying levels of pet ownership experience.
- Developing a comprehensive system to guide owners in establishing routines and meal plans.
- Incorporating effective training modules to educate owners on essential techniques.
Solution
Extensive research and development efforts were undertaken to address the challenges faced by We4Pets. The focus was on creating an app that is not only visually appealing but also intuitive and easy to navigate. A personalized recommendation system was implemented to generate customized routines and meal plans tailored to each dog’s specific breed, age, and dietary requirements. Interactive training modules were developed to provide step-by-step instructions and visual aids, empowering owners to effectively train and care for their pets.
Competitive Analysis:
I did a competitor analysis to understand competitors’ strengths and weaknesses compared to our product. Also, this analysis was significant because it helped us recognize how we could enhance the business strategy. I downloaded and then analyzed apps; three were not direct competitors in the market. I compared the User experience of each competitor’s app as a new user and a returning user. What’s more, I also juxtaposed negative comments from the Appstore and Android Play Store to get the essence of what the users struggle with the most while using them and what they are not too keen on.
Interviews & Focus Group:
User interviews were conducted to aid qualitative research. From the ten user interviews based in Thailand and the Philippines, it was clear that there were common pain points while using any such application.
Also, I ran a section of a focus group to understand their needs as dog lovers who love to mobilise pet cares.
This helped me understand the core needs and requirements of the user so I could narrow down what features to add and which parts to focus on while designing to ensure a smooth experience for the end user.
Personas and their stories 🇵🇭 🇹🇭:
I and the stakeholders came up with three different personas: First-time puppy owner, Dog owner, and More than a dog owner, which helped me explore the needs of a larger group of users. Afterward. Design and communication opportunities at each stage were identified.
Problem Statement:
The problem statement, also known as point of view, I came across from the insights from user research, User persona, and Empathy mapping. To find the solution, I synthesized the data and information I collected to define the statement. For the Problem statement, I used templates like [User] [Need] & [Insights]
Users will experience the service by using a mobile app. I must ensure that my designed digital experience is friendly, usable, desirable, credible, and accessible. Few Offering solutions based on user behavior, attitude, lifestyle, and insights from the research I’ve offered on this project are:
- Personalisation food suggestion.
- Dog life-time activities and tracking them.
- Health check/ Vaccinations reminder.
- Having a question and answer session with high moderation.
Later I jump into the HMW (how might we). The plan is to generate as many questions as to validate and find out insights. This will be broader in number and idea but must be narrow for answers. A few How Might we question I brainstormed during the process:
- How might we make them work regularly
- How might we help users schedule vaccinations?
- How might we help them keep tracking user communication?
- How might we help them to create a training centre for all breed of dogs?
- How might we introduce new products to them?
- How might we guide them properly to find the product they are looking for?
Opportunities:
Refer to our findings and problems, I created some solutions which required new features to develop as below:
- Community centre (Forum)
- Gamification based on user activities
- Food calculator to give puppy owners the size of portions of each meal based on puppy bread, size and age.
Result
Using the above information, here are the team’s ideates for solutions. There are no silly or wrong ideas! Everything must be expressed and documented.
One step further from the definition is the Ideation phase, where the key is forming actual concepts and solutions, not just abstract reports.
In design thinking terms, “Ideation” is “the process where you generate ideas and solutions through sessions such as Sketching, Prototyping, Brainstorming, Brainwriting, Worst Possible Idea, and a wealth of other ideation techniques.”
Wireframe:
As a team, we had a couple of ideas with different approaches, and we began to sketch them as wireframe and wireframe-flow to visualize and test each to find the most friendly and smooth one. The main challenge we faced during this stage was the flow of onboarding which took a lot of work to make it easy, fast and friendly to users in-store. Another point that we were focused on was keeping the engagements high, so we came up with the idea of creating a way of communicating with a royalty awarding system and sending not many routine notifications.
High-fidelity UI Design (prototypes): Once the initial flow was completed and the wireframes were ready, I started creating a couple of the app’s main screens. The two most important things were choosing a typeface and a set of colors (making sure I would stay within the brand identity). I made a simple UI Style Guide to maintain consistency, but at the beginning, I created three different options to present ideas and concepts. I started our design system and application with the idea of “Fun, Lively, Cute” (like Young adult tone not too Child).
I had finalised the design after we ran an internal survey and test which helps us to understand that we should combine some of the elements and create a version 4, that is the final and published version
Marketing Material: In the first phase I have created supporting visuals and a single landing page for marketing purpose which has published on Pedigree company website.
The We4Pets app quickly gained popularity and became a favorite among new puppy owners in Thailand and the Philippines. Users reported improved pet ownership experiences, with increased satisfaction and engagement. Within the first six months of launch, the app garnered over 500,000 downloads, demonstrating widespread adoption and positive reception. Users praised the app’s simplicity, effectiveness, and comprehensive guidance, noting enhanced knowledge and confidence in caring for their pets, resulting in healthier and happier dogs.
- Positive user feedback and increased satisfaction.
- Over 300,000 downloads within the first six months.
- Enhanced knowledge and confidence reported by users.
- Healthier and happier dogs as a result of improved pet care.