Homeward

A mobile lost and found platform for cats and dogs.

Responsibilities

UX Research

UX Design

UI Design

Usability Testing

Team

Kala McDonald

Tanner Wheat

CJ Peters

Homeward is a product I designed with 3 other UX designers as our final project in the UX certification program at Southern Methodist University. It is a mobile application that takes the stress out of losing and finding cats and dogs. Together, we ideated, researched, designed, and tested the design over a 14 week period. At the end of the course, we presented our work to our classmates and teachers.

The Problem

How might we provide hope to those who have lost their pets, and provide clarity to those who find them?

1/3 of all dogs and cats go missing in their lifetimes. A shocking 80% of those missing pets are never found. Many people view their dog or cat as a member of their family, which makes the experience of losing them deeply painful and stressful. People who find lost pets often experience confusion and helplessness when trying to help the animal reach safety.

The Solution

An all-in-one mobile lost and found platform for cats and dogs that features a microchip scanner directly within the app.

Define

Understanding Our Users

We began solving the problem by taking a deep dive into the experiences of the people affected by the problem. We put these people into two groups.

Primary Users

Primary Users

Everyday people who have lost or found a cat or dog

Extreme Users

Extreme Users

People who work in shelters or volunteer as fosters

We then sought out target primary and extreme users for interviews. Talking to them about their experiences helped us better understand their struggles and desires for specific solutions.

I’d like to see an easier way to look up lost dogs. I can’t even count how many times I’ve seen someone say “I remember a post but can’t find it now”. Need to search by breed/color/sex...So many posts say something like “found this baby” and you have to look at the picture to see the type of animal/color/etc.

We end up picking up dogs that get out all the time. It's almost never when vets or shelters are open so we can't get chips scanned. We have a dog and can't really keep another one overnight.

It's hard to try to make sure you are posting on every possible site to better the chance of the dog being found and weeding through the posts of people wanting to take the dog, not actually the owner. Even if you have resolved the case, people can still and do reach out wanting to have the dog.

Armed with the knowledge we gained from these interviews, we engaged in empathy and journey mapping, to put ourselves in the shoes of our primary users and extreme users.

Empathy Map

Finally, we conducted competitor analysis to determine what features are available through competitor apps on the market. From this research it became clear that our differentiating feature would be an RFID microchip scan process.

  Home to Home Pet Finder Paw Alert Paw Boost Shadow
Mobile app
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
RFID microchip scan
no
no
no
no
no
Contact pet owner
no
yes
yes
no
yes
Social media alerts
no
no
no
yes
yes
Animal services
yes
yes
no
no
yes
Found pet listing
yes
yes
yes
 Desktop only
yes
Fostering
yes
yes
no
yes
no
Pin pet location
no
no
no
no
yes
Reward option
no
no
no
no
yes

Key Features

Full Data Integration

Full Data Integration

Homeward is the only tool a user will need since it compiles all the lost and found data in one place.

Filter and Search

Filter & Search

Effeciently search for lost or found pets by filtering location, breed, sex, and color.

AR Microchip Scanning

AR Microchip Scanning

A step-by-step process to identify animals seamlessly within the app, via the AR virtual microchip scanner.

Epics and User Stories

Reporting a found pet

As a person who found a pet, I need a way to pin the location where I found the pet so other users looking can search by area.

Reporting a lost pet

As someone who lost a pet, I need to be able to close out a case once resolved so that the pet feed is not cluttered with resolved requests.

Searching for pets

As someone who has lost a pet, I need to be able to filter for different characteristics so that I can easily search for my pet.

Microchip scanning

As someone who found a pet, I need my phone's camera to scan for a microchip so I can easily see if the dog is chipped.

Develop

Before we started designing all the screens that would make up our app, we carefully considered each step necessary for our users to accomplish their goals. We put these steps together in the form of user flows.

User Flows

We sketched out ideas for all of the screens needed to accomplish the tasks in the user flow. When we were happy with the sketches, we translated them into a lo-fi mockup using an asset pack in Adobe XD. Finally, we refined the lo-fi mockup into a testable high-fidelity design.

Low-fidelity to High-fidelity Designs
A Few High-fidelity Screens

Deliver

We wanted to see where users would struggle to achieve their goals in our app.

Testing Goals

  • Search filter feature
  • Map and list functionality
  • AR microchip scan process
  • Editing existing posts
  • Closing cases

User Goals

  • Report lost or found pet
  • Scan a pet for microchip
  • Set specific search filters
  • Search by location
  • Contact and message other users

To do this, we invented two different scenarios, each with a series of tasks. We asked the testers to complete each task and talk about their thought processes.

These tests were conducted at the height of the COVID pandemic, so our testing was remote. We carefully planned each session and gave our testers specific setup instructions. We observed and communicated with the testers through zoom.

Scenario 1

Check to see if the lost dog is microchipped and create a report for him.

The narrative for the 2nd scenario that we presented for our 7 test users was the following:

"A couple days ago you find a lost dog and bring it home with you. After having it a few days, you check the app store to see if there is an app that might help you find its owner. You find Homeward and download it for the first time."

This table shows the results of the test, listing each of the users on the left and the specific tasks we asked them to accomplish with the prototype on the right.

  Task1 Task2 Task3 Task4 Task5 Task6 Task7 Task8 Task9 Task10
UserA
yes
no
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
UserB
yes
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
UserC
yes
no
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
UserD
yes
no
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
UserE
yes
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
UserF
yes
no
yes
yes
yes
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
UserG
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes

The results of these usablity tests immediately revealed the difficulty involved with task 2, the app's AR microchip scanning process.

Scenario 2

Edit your post about your own lost dog and look for potential matches.

The narrative for the 2nd scenario that we presented for our 7 test users was the following:

"You have already reported your dog, Ollie missing through the Homeward app. You are now opening the app to look for other dogs in the area that may be him or check for any notifications."

This table shows the results of the test, listing each of the users on the left and the specific tasks we asked them to accomplish with the prototype on the right.

  Task1 Task2 Task3 Task4 Task5 Task6 Task7 Task8 Task9 Task10
UserA
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
no
UserB
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
UserC
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
UserD
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
yes
yes
no
UserE
no
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
UserF
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no
UserG
no
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
yes
no

The results of the usability tests for this scenario showed very clearly that there were problems with tasks 1 and 10 across the board.

Refine

This project left us with a strong app design, ready for mobile development. If we were to take the project further we would implement the following changes:

  1. Include more direction for the AR scan process.
  2. Relocate user's report within the app.
  3. Show a current location feature on the map.
  4. Put main functionality toward the top of app to reduce scrolling.
  5. Add "I" to found a pet or lost a pet.
  6. Conduct another round of usability testing with our proposed changes and then measure for a SUS score.

We were encouraged by the enthusiasm our testers had for our app. They said:

"Ready to go to market TODAY!"

"It looks like a real functioning app! Loved the aesthetic. It's very simple, very easy to navigate."

"Everything went quickly. If you lost your pet, you probably are panicked so you want it to go quickly."