As a cat owner, I consistently faced challenges in finding the best pet food for my feline friend. To address this issue, I began with certain assumptions related to what people consider when choosing pet food. Subsequently, I raised key initial questions:
To gain insights, I conducted a small survey within Dubai and Abu Dhabi pet owners' Facebook groups. This helped me collect answers, understand user pain points, and establish archetypes for later use.
After organizing the survey responses into an empathy map, I identified three main user pain points:
Group 1: Pet owners with pets under 1 year
Group 2: Pet owners with pets over 1 year
Based on the identified user groups, I created two personas to gain a deeper understanding of the target audience and to develop features that would satisfy their needs.
I created a user journey map to visualize how individuals navigate the process of selecting pet food. This approach allows me to perceive the app I'm developing from the user's perspective.
The insights I gathered from empathizing with the users helped me refine the problem statements and answer the 5Ws and H questions: Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How:
In order to generate ideas for the app’s construction, I evaluated more aspects and see what was working and what was not from the users’ point of view.
The objective of the Competitive Audit was to compare the process of selecting and purchasing a product on each competitor’s mobile app.
I assessed three direct competitors, Dubai Pet Food, Chewy, and Pets Delight, to understand the existing practices of other pet food apps and identify any unmet user goals.
Additionally, I examined indirect competitors, Think Dirty and Healthy Living, to explore their features related to educational content and the ability to preview ingredients and reviews of a product.
The User Flow enabled me to follow the user’s actions from the entry point to the final step of choosing and purchasing pet food online. This identification process helped me determine which features were essential or could be enhanced.
I user-tested the lo-fi prototype by using Maze.co. I prepared 5 main tasks for the testers to complete and asked them the problems and suggestions they have for each task.
By using Affinity Map to gather answers from the first test, I identified four patterns and insights to improve on:
I user-tested the hi-fi prototype using the same methodology as the first test in order to see if I had addressed all the challenges users faced in my lo-fi prototype.
There was one main problem the user faced in the second test: not knowing how to use the features on the Compare Page. Thus, the main insight I would improve was:
The Search feature includes three aspects designed with accessibility in mind. These aspects help users find a product quickly.
The Healthcare Tips feature is designed as swipe-to-read cards so that the user can skim through the information quickly and still understand the points of the articles.
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The Product Page includes the details, ingredients, reviews, and Q&A related to the product. The information is designed as a tab on top. However, since most users look under the product’s image to find more information, I also designed another set of tabs under the image to guide the user.
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The Compare Page helps users compare a maximum of 5 products.
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The design creates a quick and simple process of checking out. Since the check-out process was not defined as a problem in this project, I only designed the main action to check out.
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