Share-imals Pet App Documentation Page

Planning and Research

Idea 1 - Social Media App
App specifically for sharing pics of your dog/cat/bird/lizard/fish. Can search by animal or breed, post your own pet only pictures. Maybe top 10 pet pictures of the week per pet category? Cannot download other people's pet pictures, but can save them within the app as favorites in folders you can create
Dogsly: Instagram-like dog pic app set up almost the same as instagram so it is easy to use and familiar. I would like to expand that to include all kinds of pets and including things like rankings for best pic in each animal type
PetPics: can edit and add illustrations and fun text to pet pics including presets. it doesn't appear to be for sharing pics within the app, but I should add options to share to outside of app as well
BarkCam: can take pictures and import/edit photos taken, as well as get the photos printed on stickers or bags. there is also a feature to have the app make a noise just before taking a pic so your dog might look towards the source of the noise.

Functions

Social media for just pet pictures/videos. You can follow your favorite accounts and see the newest pics when you open the app The pics are categorized by animal type (dog, cat, rodent, bird, lizard, amphibian, fish, bug) and you can search or browse specific or all animals and can exclude certain pets. They are categorized even further by breed/species like Boxer or Mutt for dogs or Betafish or Catfish for fish. Captions and comments can be added to each pic. You can love pictures of pets and there will be a top 10 of the week for all animals and a top 10 for each animal and breed. You cannot download others' pictures, but you can save them in the app as favorites and organize them into folders as you please. Your account can be connected to other social medias to share your own or other posted pictures.

Persona 1

The only person in their friend group with a cat and sends their friends pics of their cat. The cat is so cute and they take so many cute pics.
Scenario 1: They have too many cat pics and not enough storage. They upload them to the app so they are stored safely in their account and make room on the phone. They can now share their obscene amount of cat photos with their friends and others through the app or the sharing function in the app.
Scenario 2: Posting pics and videos of their cat opens them up to talk with others in the comments about their cats' mischief and habits

Persona 2

They have an ant farm and most people they know aren't that interested in bugs. They study the ants' habits sometimes and like learning about ants.
Scenario 1: They want to find other people interested in ant colonies, so they search for accounts that have a bog/ant category. They find a couple other accounts and see similar ant colonies to theirs and follow their accounts. They start commenting on some pictures and begin a discussion on colony habits.
Scenario 2: They want to document their ants' lives, so they post daily updates with multiple pictures and videos of what their ants are up to.

Persona 3

They love all kinds of furry friends, but can't have one of their own due to apartment rules. They visit friends with pets, but sometimes they just need to see something real really cute.
Scenario 1: They create an account and browse for dogs, cats, and rodents. They follow and love many accounts and posts, giving them a feed full of furry friends to see any time they want.
Scenario 2: They find that looking at pics of gerbils cheers them up a lot at the end of the day, so they find all of their favorite pics and add them to a folder in their favorited posts.

Persona 4

They raise lizards and have entered in a few contests before. They enjoy showing people that lizards aren't heartless and each pet has their own personality.
Scenario 1: They want to share some winners of contests they've entered in, so they get permission and post pics and videos of the winning lizards with information on their species.
Scenario 2: They share videos of their own pets with stories on where they were gotten or what their personalities are. They get a small following and even help people decide whether a snake or gecko is a goot pet choice for them.

Persona 5

A pet owner recently lost their dog and deeply misses her. They want to get another dog as soon as possible, but it's hard to move on from such a big loss. They don't know if they want a dog like the last one or something different.
Scenario 1: They browse the dog category for ifferent breeds of dogs. If they find dogs they think they could like, they ask about what the breed is like and other care information.
Scenario 2: They look up the specific breed their dog had been and mourn their loss with other dog owners like them.

Sitemap

Names

Post-a-pet
Animal Board
Pet Board
Pet Pic Party
Sharing Pets
Creature Corner
Critter Club
Share-amals
Pet Pic Club
Pets of the Day
Friends and Pets

Moodboards

Sketches

Script and User Feedback

Script

1. You want to change the description to your profile.
2. You like ants and would like to use the browse to find posts about ants.
3. It's about the end of the week, so the top ten pets will be updated! Check out the top ten cats of the week.
4. You can't have pets at your home, but you can see them online! Go to your favorite birds folder to look through.
5. You just opened the app and want to set up your profile's email and password.
6. You found a funny bird post that you really want to come back to, so you add it to your birds folder.
7. You just got a message back from a pet playdate friend. Check what they said and respond.
8. A dog post on your feed is asking for opinions on dog collars. Let the user know what you think!
9. So cute! Your cat just struck the best pose and you have to share it. Create a new post and share it!
10. You want to follow a user you've like for some time. Search for dogparent42 and follow them.

Feedback

There was frequent confusion regarding Browse vs Search in the final testing. The script that I intended to lead them to Browse lead them to Search. One user commented that when they are told in the script to find something, they tend to go to Search first. This makes sense and would be a change I would take into consideration moving forward with this design. Another suggestion for this issues was to remove browse or integrate it more into the Feed rather than being a separate option. Most users commented on the colors and appearance being cute (the intent of the design) and that it was easy to use (rarely had to think about where they were supposed to click.