Overview
My Role
UX Designer UX Researcher Interaction Designer
Designed For
SI 612 — Pervasive Interaction Design at The University of Michigan
Team
Naz Dorandish Justin Lee
Timeline
Sep 2024 to Dec 2024
01 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Pet owners often struggle to monitor their pets' health, behavior, and safety, especially when away from home. This lack of real-time insights can lead to anxiety, missed early signs of health issues, and difficulty ensuring their pets’ well-being remotely.
PetPal aims to bridge this gap by providing a smart, connected solution that offers real-time tracking, health monitoring, and automated care features, giving pet owners peace of mind and confidence in their pets’ well-being.
02 RESEARCH & DISCOVERY
Diary Study
Surveys
01
Owners feel anxiety when away from their pets
To truly understand the challenges pet owners face, we conducted a diary study and survey, capturing real-life experiences of pet parents managing their pets' health, behavior, and daily care.
We used diary studies to capture real-time insights into pet owners’ daily challenges, habits, and concerns, allowing us to understand their needs in a natural, unfiltered way. Nine participants filled out diaries twice a day for dive days.
"Usually I get pretty anxious about my cat's health because of his kidney issues. In the past… I'd have to text my mom to see how he was doing."
"Since I was out for most of the day she was anxious and was hiding till I got home."
“I'm concerned about keeping up with my cat's asthma and making sure he gets his inhaler every day, especially when it gets busy at work”
We used surveys to gather broad insights from pet owners, identifying common concerns and trends in pet care to inform our design decisions. We received qualitative and quantitative data from 29 respondents who were current pet owners. Below are some statistics gathered from the survey.
Research Summary
Research findings from these two studies allowed us to identify key findings and areas of opportunity.
02
Preventative Care is Difficult
03
Monitoring pets’ health and behavior details is overwhelming
Busy pet owners need a solution that provides continuous monitoring and proactive alerts for unusual patterns, ensuring optimal care and peace of mind.
03 EMPATHIZING WITH THE USER
After collecting research data and insights, we narrowed down our proposed solution to build a Smart Pet Tracker integrating IoT devices, targeting busy owners who need help taking care of their pets while away from home. We built Personas, Empathy Maps, and Journey Maps to set the project scope and then rapidly evaluated the proposed solution through User Enactments to guide the final concept.
Low Fidelity Prototype
A low-fidelity prototype was designed after our initial research. This low-fidelity prototype was used in our user enactment scenarios.
(Toy & Collar)
04 IoT COMPONENTS & SOLUTION
Smart Collar
Tracks and logs pets’ health and behaviors, notifies users when unusual patterns are detected.
After testing our low-fidelity prototype, we found that users value user control and customization, passive monitoring, and health tracking. Our final concept focused on the Pet-Pal’s ability to enhance and support per care.
Smart Collar
Smart Toys
Smart toys and other IoT connected devices can be activated directly through the app, automatically and remotely.
Final Designs
IoT Components
Key Interactions
Mobile App
Remotely care for your pets anytime
Receive alerts for unusual behavior and respond instantly with voice commands or interactive distractions. The system tracks food intake, notifying you if your pet eats less than usual. Dispense food and water remotely and log meals to support their well-being.
Connected food dispenser
The mobile app allows remote control of the food dispenser and logs feeding data.
IoT Feeder Prototype
Stay informed with real-time updates and alerts
The smart collar continuously monitors your pet’s health, detecting unusual patterns like heart rate fluctuations and changes in energy levels. Get instant alerts and access a detailed health log with system-generated insights, ensuring your pet stays active and well.
Monitor behavior and customize automated care
Track behavioral patterns, such as excessive sleep or activity changes, and use insights to personalize automated care. Schedule IoT toy activation or snack dispensing conditionally or at set times to keep your pet engaged and healthy throughout the day.
05 REFLECTION
Working on PetPal was an invaluable experience that pushed me to grow both as a UX researcher and designer. From exploring a wide range of research methodologies, like contextual inquiry, surveys, diary studies, user enactments, and the Wizard of Oz technique, to watching our rough concept evolve into a fully realized product, this project highlighted the importance of research-driven design.
The design phase brought its challenges and rewards. Developing the app interface, crafting props, and building the smart collar prototype—using 3D printing and programming the Photon 2 to display key health data—taught me the importance of balancing creativity with technical feasibility. It also reinforced how impactful prototypes can be in communicating ideas, sparking meaningful feedback, and building stakeholder confidence.
More than anything, this project highlighted the power of collaboration. I’m incredibly grateful for my teammates’ dedication and ingenuity throughout the journey. Our efforts culminated in a successful demo presentation, earning us two awards: Most Convincing Demo and Most Feasible Opportunity.