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Pet Seeker
Pet Seeker is a platform enabling pet owners to streamline their outreach and search efforts once their pets go missing.
Designed by
Loh Chor Boon
Supervised by Professor Olivia Lee
Specifications
UI/UX Design
User Experience Design
Duration
Aug 2022 - Apr 2023
Discover
As a fellow pet owner...
I empathize with the distress of a beloved pet going missing.
The abundance of missing pet posters caught my attention and led me to delve into the matter, where I discovered the critical importance of the first 12 hours in locating a missing pet.
Interview Question
What was it like searching for your lost pet?
User Interviews
Talking to several pet owners, they shared that they spent a lot of time on methods like putting up posters, searching, seeking help from community groups and contacting local authorities without guarantee of receiving the help they need.
Insights
"I took a lot of time to create and put up posters alone."
"If only there was a location-based platform that can connect me with my neighbours, just like how I found Kino"
“The police took our statements but there was no follow-up, it was then we realized it was not under their purview.”
“Emailing SPCA was not effective for me as I have not gotten anything back from them, the recommended groups turned out to be inactive.”
Research
Even though there are online pet-finding websites like Picco Pets and Missing.sg that
assist in outreach, their specific report-based communication make volunteers hesitate to reach out to pet owners, leading them to feel even more lonely and helpless.
Pet owners will resort to large online groups for engagement but likely be overwhelmed by the flood of missing pet listings.
Research Findings
Based on my user and market research, I discovered that...
#1
Outreach efforts are scattered and hard for pet owners to connect with animal-loving neighbours who are likely to volunteer
#2
Existing online pet-finding websites and groups lack search-facilitating features
#3
Single-pet-focused online groups are the most effective as they are locating one pet at a time
Design Direction
How might we create a platform that centralises the
outreach and search efforts for pet owners with missing pets?
Design Criteria
Keywords that drive the explorations of my future concept explorations.
Exploration
From my explorations, I discovered that missing posters work best as entry points for volunteers to join a mobile application.
Optimizing the interactivity and engagement of physical missing posters together with a digital counterpart to discover the most effective medium.
It is an optimal platform to experiment with the route tracking tool, schedule and alert features that could be tools to help coordinate group search efforts in real time.
Empathize
Designing for an application, I crafted a user journey map and an ecosystem diagram...
to better understand who are the main personas involved and identify the pain points through the whole process of finding a missing pet.
An improved user flow of how I intend my users to use the application.
Prototyping
Paper prototypes and wireframing were done to have a rough idea of doing the actual prototype.
User Flows
I drafted different versions of flows to apply the branding style, and further refine features, the onboarding experience and prominent alert animations.
User Flow #1 - before branding
User Flow #2 - Applied branding style, onboarding experience
User Flow #3 - Further refined features and prominent alert animations
Final User Flow - Refined experience as a whole
Development
I developed the registration process to be instructional to guide panicking pet owners in providing information that can auto-generate missing posters, giving them a choice in how they want to be contacted by the public and making sure the visuals are coherent.
I also experimented with the layout of the missing poster to ensure it is eye-catching and informative while developing the search page's features.
Initial User Testing
I did a test on Maze and Outdoors with five pet owners and volunteers whose feedback felt that...
The call-to-action button visuals are not obvious.
#1
#2
The main search page
is overwhelming with many button-like visuals.
#3
Unsure of where to begin in helping someone find their missing pet.
Further User Testing
I led pet owners and volunteers through a simulation of the registration and pet-finding process, gathering their feedback to create a user-friendly interface that visually and experientially supports the various stages of searching for lost pets.
Branding
To create intentional and coherent visuals, I drew inspiration from emergency and pet-related applications. I aimed to strike a balance between seriousness and friendliness, incorporating large buttons to enhance usability.
Outcome
Pet Seeker aims to help pet owners by centralizing outreach efforts with a quick registration process and search features to coordinate personal community-driven search parties.
Onboarding & Registration
To start their journey, the concept is that pet owners can search for Pet Seeker on the web using keywords such as "missing pet" and they will then be guided through an onboarding process to get started with the application.
Walkthrough of the onboarding and registration process
Outreach Efforts
After onboarding, a 3-step registration process helps pet owners provide crucial information about their missing pet and generate a shareable missing poster in physical or digital format.
Pet owners initiate outreach efforts by inviting volunteers to join a search group through a digital link or them scanning the QR code on the missing poster.
Outreach Page
The outreach page is purposefully designed with three key features: guidelines, emergency contact, and a chat function. These features are tailored to address the unique roles and priorities of both pet owners and volunteers in their collective effort to find a missing pet.
Volunteers will receive guidelines on tips regarding the missing pet and the pet owner's contact.
Pet owners will receive guidelines on luring their missing pet and when to contact relevant authorities.
Both pet owners and volunteers can communicate with each other through the chat feature.
Search Page Features
The search page also has 3 main features: route tracking to visualize search efforts, scheduling search parties for efficient coordination, and alerts for updates on the missing pet's status.
Alert Feature
The alert feature in Pet Seeker includes three statuses: sighting, chase, and secure.
Users appreciate the pulsing dots and colour-changing backgrounds, resembling heatmaps.
The entire screen transitions from yellow to orange-red, indicating the increasing urgency and triggering spatial awareness. After a specific period, only the pet owner can update the status to prolonged, represented by a purple colour, suggesting a cold lead in finding the missing pet.
Reunion
If a pet owner confirms a reunion, the search features within the application will be ceased, and anyone who comes across the digital or physical posters will be notified.
People are also encouraged to assist in the removal of the physical posters as part of the clean-up process.
Final Prototype Walkthrough
Volunteer's POV
Pet Owner's POV
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