Explore my Portfolio

What would you do if your dog is missing while reading this?

When dog owners are busy, how can they ensure their pet is always safe? Buddy offers a solution: a smart collar that allows the owner, friends, and neighbors to efficiently coordinate a search using a mobile app should the dog ever disappear. My scope was specifically to tackle the UX challenge of the 'Find your pet task flow', and the deliverable was a design proposal for a desktop application, building directly upon the existing user research and insights.

My dog, Max, is gone. I'm panicked, overwhelmed, and completely helpless. I need to be out there searching, but I still have to go to work. I don't have time to print flyers, drive around for hours, or coordinate a city-wide search.

The current process for finding a lost pet is slow, disorganized, and demands full-time effort—effort that busy pet owners simply don't have. Buddy solves that agonizing dilemma. We needed a system that lets pet owners instantly leverage their entire community from their desk, turning panic into a coordinated, efficient, digital search.

Initial project brief

Project Scope and Mandate

Core Objective (The Goal)

The primary goal was to select one pre-existing user story and develop a design proposal that includes the following deliverables:

Hypothesis & Strategy: Propose a hypothesis regarding the system's key features (what the system must or must not have) to successfully resolve the chosen user story.

* Design Artifacts: Deliver the following core design assets: * Task Flow: Diagrams describing the content and screen-to-screen navigation. * Wireframes: Low-fidelity structural layouts. * High-Fidelity UI Screens: A minimum of two final screens showcasing the user interface.

Project Constraints (The Rules)

hese rules defined the boundaries of the design work: Platform: The functionality must be designed for a web application (desktop or tablet view). Core Focus: Although the Buddy Collar has many features, the project scope was strictly limited to the "Find My Dog" functionality. Scope Limitation: Only one user story was to be selected and developed. Integration: To simplify the process, the design did not need to consider integration with the collar's other features or functionalities. Creative Freedom: The designer was encouraged to propose any solution that effectively solved the chosen user story. A descriptive wireflow (content description) was encouraged but not mandatory.

Design process

Key Insights from Foundational Research

The design strategy for the 'Find Your Dog' task flow was built upon synthesizing existing user data, highlighting the following critical insights into the user's emotional state and logistical needs:

A. The Crisis of Time and Stress

Insight: Losing a pet is a moment of high cognitive load and panic. The user is emotionally compromised and needs the system to be intuitive, requiring minimal complex decision-making during the search activation process.

Design Implication: The core action (initiating the search) must be single-click and immediate, automating as many subsequent steps as possible.

B. The Need for Centralized Coordination

Insight: Current search efforts are fragmented and inefficient, relying on disorganized social media posts, scattered paper flyers, and chaotic group chats. The user struggles to manage multiple communication channels while simultaneously trying to search.

Design Implication: The desktop app must serve as the single source of truth (a command center) where all communications, sightings, and progress are mapped and managed efficiently.

C. Leveraging the Community (The Power of Collaboration)

Insight: The success of a search is highly dependent on the speed and effectiveness of community collaboration (friends, family, neighbors). Busy owners cannot handle the search alone.

Design Implication: The system must proactively facilitate collaboration, enabling authorized users to join the search effortlessly, report precise sightings, and receive targeted updates, moving the burden away from the owner.

D. Conflict of Responsibilities

Insight: Pet owners, especially those who work, cannot devote their entire day to street-level searching and flyer posting. Their primary tasks (work) often prevent active, time-consuming searching.

Design Implication: The app must be designed to act on the owner's behalf, automatically generating and disseminating professional, location-aware search materials without the owner leaving their desk.