Tabby
A checklist app for pet owners
Duration: September - December 2023
Role: Researcher, Designer
Intro
Tabby is more than just a checklist app – it's a tailored solution crafted for busy pet owners. Beyond the convenience of checklists, Tabby facilitates seamless collaboration with household members and pet caregivers. With this unique feature, Tabby transforms pet care into a collaborative effort, ensuring our furry, scaly, or feathery companions receive the exceptional care they deserve.
What is the Problem?
Pet owners, especially those with multiple household members, face challenges in coordinating and syncing pet care needs 🐶
Based on personal experiences and discussions within my networks, I recognized prevalent challenges in pet care, such as over/under-feeding due to communication gaps, missed coordination in multi-person households, and maintaining consistency in pet habits. While daily task checklist apps are widespread, specialized applications for pet care are still relatively uncommon.
The Solution
Design a checklist app for pet owners:
✅ That streamlines and synchronize responsibilities for efficient task management
✅ Addresses challenges in coordinating pet care responsibilities
✅ Enhances collaboration for a smoother pet care experience
Goals for design
Through a combination of competitor research and interviews, I gathered insights into user expectations and needs for a pet care app. These insights allowed me to derive specific goals for the user, business, and product, branching off each idea strategically.
What did I research?
I identified commonalities, including a focus on checklists, task tracking, and collaborative features. The goal was understand what pet owners/households would find useful in a pet checklist app and how that would be useful
I compared apps like Wag, Todoist, & habitica. Among these three apps, they shared distinctive traits tailored to pet owners, checklists, and a collaborative aspect—attributes that align with the intended purpose of Tabby.
📝 Standouts from other apps:
a minimal checklist feature
the ability to collaborate
capability to have multiple pets
possibility of incorporating outside care givers
Where the competition succeeded…
2 out of 3 apps had a fun and playful vibe
Todoist maintained a clean, minimal UI that
All were functional and colorful at the same time
All had organized ia as well as simple navigation
My research extended to user interviews
My interviewees represented diverse backgrounds, with a significant emphasis on pet owners. These users expressed a shared goal of seeking better ways to track their pets' habits and needs. Additionally, among them were pet owners who enlisted the help of caregivers, either sporadically or consistently.
Objectives
Through a combination of in-person interviews and virtual interviews, I want to gather information on the needs of users when it comes to pet care and tracking specific pet care tasks.
Goals
To identify specific tasks, schedules, and tracking needs users need when it comes to taking care of their pets.
Users were asked questions like:
What aspects of time management related to pet care do you find most challenging?
Are there any challenges you encounter when trying to keep everyone on the same page regarding pet-related tasks?
Do you currently use any tools or methods to help you stay organized and keep track of your pet-related tasks?
What are some of the most important aspects of pet care and management for you, personally?
Revealing some standout needs and wants among participants:
“Health monitoring is essential to me, especially Max's weight management. I'd like the app to help me track Max's weight“
“The most challenging aspect of time management is coordinating the different needs of our pet”
“Simplifying medication management”
🤔 What did these interview results tell me?
While users currently manage specific pet duties, their approaches range from jotting notes on a kitchen whiteboard to utilizing a shared household calendar.
A centralized "hub" for storing vital information such as medication details, habits, new diets, etc., emerged as a prominent need and want among the interviewees.
Enabling access to the "hub" for both household members and external caregivers would be highly beneficial.
visualizing the research with Journey maps
Journey maps greatly helped to visualize all the ins and outs that a user might encounter. It was almost like it allowed for me to zoom out and have a bird’s eye view of my research and assess potential areas that may be overshadowed and lacking in more detail. It helped to identify potential hiccups like:
😠 paid features that users may not want to pay for
😔 household members may not want to download the app
Planning with User & Task Flows
At this stage, the MVPs are crystallizing, forming the core foundation for the app. The consideration of impact versus effort played a crucial role in pinpointing key features within the allocated time. Despite a multitude of feature ideas, the ultimate decision was guided by the balance between impact and effort.
Currently, the identified MVPs are:
👨👩👦 Onboarding for the pets and household members (if applicable)
🗓 Creating and editing a task on a calendar
📝 Checking off and deleting tasks
Building Wireframes 👷🏻♀️
When we compare the first version screens to the hifis, you can certainly tell that it came a long way.
Some notable updates throughout the iterations:
moved the Pets and Household sections below the Tasks section for better hierarchy
ultimately settled on a navigation bar with three buttons total
to incorporate more depth, sections and accent colors were utitlized for better separation
refined the copy to be more concise
After iterations, we've reached the Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
With the help of user and task flows, the MVPs were constructed, specifically onboarding, task creation, and editing
Information architecture was a big challenge in the process; organizing the information in the most effective way took more time and consideration and it paid off nicely
Screens were built with the intention of using them for usability testing to validate the UI, function, and flows of the initial features; as well as the tight timeline
Usability testing the MidFis
I targeted users with a minimum of one pet, considering multiple caregivers a plus, and welcomed users across a broad age range. With a tight deadline in mind, I conducted usability tests on the mid-fidelity wireframes, concentrating on evaluating three key features of the app: onboarding, task creation/editing, and a peek into how might users interact with screen notifications.
Testers were asked:
Can you share any difficulties or frustrations you encountered while performing the tasks assigned to each feature?
Did you find the Edit/Delete sequence intuitive? Were there any steps that were confusing or could be improved?
🗣 And here’s what they had to say…
Key takeaways from usability test results
Testing was largely a success, but slight adjustments were needed for an improved flow
Improvements were needed on the intuitiveness of certain features, specifically editing/deleting tasks
Users suggested other features would be nice to have; like having the capability to attach photos to tasks
In general, despite users suggesting additional features, I prioritized advancing with the MVP features, concentrating on enhancing the existing processes.
Branding & UI Kit
🎨 The Color Palette
The selection of the color palette was guided by two fundamental concepts: playfulness and functionality. The chosen colors aim to convey a sense of playfulness, drawing inspiration from the lively nature of pets, while also embodying the practicality associated with checklists.
🪧The Logo
The goal in designing the logos was to capture the vibrant energy of pet care, often mirroring the exuberance and excitement exuded by pets themselves. The Tabby logo seeks to embody the amalgamation of effort and care intrinsic to pet care practices, reflecting the dynamic and nurturing aspects of the experience.
the final results
dissecting the final screens
The biggest changes from the midfis to the hifis revolved around adjusting the hierarchy and implementing improved UI components
Tasks were deemed to be the area that would have the most interaction so the “Add a task” function was moved below the list
Verbiage, such as “Due Tasks” was changed to just “Tasks” to avert from any negative or urgent connotations on users
Alignment was adjusted as well as type sizes
Color and emojis were added to contribute to the fun and playful intention of the app
Adjusted header hierarchy to match other screens
Improved UI to add more depth between elements
Closing thoughts
Overall, I am excited about the outcome of Tabby. I think it serves as a solid foundation, providing numerous windows for improvements.
Learning, challenges, & outcomes:
Taking the time to solidify the intention of the app in the beginning helps in the long run (ie. more planning, especially details!)
Next time, I’d like to narrow the MVP tasks a little more. Doing so, I think, would allow me to hone in on a smaller scale and make a greater impact
Being more mindful of time gaps between each piece in the project. I think the larger the gap between areas, did more harm than help. Going forward, I want to be more mindful of that time
Opportunities:
I would like to fine tune the UI and the flow of the capabilities a bit more; to be more intuitive and more simplified
It’d be great to introduce more features that rised to the surface throughout this while process; like a chat feature, the capability of having monetary exchanges, ability to add photos to tasks…the list goes on!
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