As pet ownership continues to rise, with over 60% of Los Angeles households owning pets, the demand for pet care and pet-centric services has grown exponentially. However, recent studies reveal that while the pet care industry in LA is valued at over $1 billion annually, 40% of pet owners express difficulties in accessing reliable pet care services and resources tailored to their specific needs.
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This inspired me to work on a UI/UX project for LA Pet Apparel, where I designed a user-friendly pet care platform tailored to the unique needs of pet owners. The project focused on creating an engaging and seamless experience that aligns with the lifestyle and preferences of LA’s diverse pet-loving community.

1. Lack of Comprehensive Information in Finding Pet-friendly Locations
The current tools to find pet-friendly locations often lack specifics like rules, amenities, and accessibility features, making pet owners struggle to find detailed, reliable, and up-to-date information about pet-friendly locations.
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2. Irregular Scheduling Needs
Unlike humans, pets often have unique care schedules that don't always align with daily routines. For example, feeding might be twice daily, grooming every few weeks, and vaccinations annually, making it hard for owners to track these varying intervals.
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3. Lack of Long-Term Engagement with Pet Care Apps
Many pet owners stop using pet care apps due to their lack of robust functionality, such as personalized recommendations, activity tracking, and detailed health insights, making the apps feel too basic or unhelpful over time.

To gather insights, I conducted 10+ user interviews and distributed surveys to explore pet owners’ needs, motivations, and pain points. Here are the main areas of focus in my interviews.

In order to understand customers in all dimensions — rationally, emotionally, economically, socially, and culturally — I created user personas to represent the diverse characteristics, behaviors, and needs of pet owners and to understand their specific motivations, pain points, and expectations.

This initial information architecture focuses on finding pet-friendly locations. It acts as the foundational structure for user navigation, which is vital in supporting our primary goal: providing pet owners with detailed, accurate, and up-to-date information about pet-friendly places.

I have created multiple iterations of the pet care health platform, each focusing on refining key features and improving the user experience. These iterations were guided by user feedback, research insights, and design principles.

This function is designed to simplify the management of pet care by providing pet owners with personalized reminders for feeding, grooming, vaccinations, and health care appointments.

This feature aims to provide users with an intuitive and detailed map that highlights pet-friendly locations in the Los Angeles area. After several discussion with the team, we have decided to separate this feature into a website to provide users with a larger, more flexible interface for viewing detailed location information, such as reviews, amenities, and filters. allowing better accessibility across devices.

To further boost long-term engagement with the app, I designed some dynamic island features to give personalized updates to help keep pet owners attentive to their pets’ need. I have also created real-time Apple Watch notifications so that when the owners are walking their pets or doing other activities, they can simply look at the notification from their watches instead of having to put down the stuff they are doing and take out their phones. By offering personalized updates, users are more likely to stay engaged with the app without feeling overwhelmed or distracted.

① Color Psychology
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Throughout the design process, I learned how different colors convey unique meanings and evoke specific emotions. For instance, purple was chosen as the lively theme color for the app because it symbolizes creativity, care, and a sense of whimsy. These qualities align perfectly with the app’s goal of fostering joyful interactions between pet owners and their pets.

② Design is always changing

As I worked on the different iterations of the app design, I learned that design is not a one-time process; it’s an ongoing journey. It’s crucial to stay open-minded and willing to adapt my designs to meet the evolving needs of users. I need to continuously refine my designs based on user feedback and new insights to make ensure that the product remains relevant and valuable.
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③ UI Audit

Based on UI Design Guideline given, I conducted a UI audit to ensure that the design of the app adhered to established UI design guidelines for usability. One area that grabbed my attention is accessibility. Throughout the process, I have to ensure that the app meets WCAG 2.1 color contrast standards. This not only enhances the user experience but also ensures that the app is accessible to a wider audience.