freeline

a case study

caring for cats can be as easy as loving them.

duration 1 month

my role product designer, researcher

Background and context

freeline is 1 month long project created for the Google Coursera UX/UI Design professional course.

I have decided to take on creating an app for feline lovers to make caring for their fluffy feline friends a fast, trouble-free, and enjoyable process.

Project timeline

01 the problems

In order to identify the problems that cat owners face, I interviewed 4 cat owners to find out what they struggle with most. Here are some of the problems summarized to start my brainstorming process for solutions:

1. cat owners want the best for their cats, where do they start?

The pet care market can be tricky sometimes. With the wide and overwhelming selection to choose from, how can cat owners make sure they're choosing what's right for them and their cats?

2. when cat owners need to be away from home, how can they make sure their cats are well-cared for?

it is inevitable that humans have places to be and tasks to tend to, who else can help care for them?

3. keeping a happy and healthy cat can be time-consuming and confusing.

a healthy cat needs proper vet care and checkups regularly, if only there could be a one-stop solution to save time.

pain points

I’ve gathered some general pain points from the problems stated above to further analyze and understand how to approach them through freeline. Being able to clearly identify user pain points will allow me to find the right solutions through the UX design process.

solutions

creating freeline as a hub for vet appointments, cat sitting appointments, cat supplies shopping, and content sharing for cat owners. The app aims to reduce the time and trouble so cat owners can spend their free time with their feline friends. freeline can store all the important information about users' cats. Users can efficiently look up all things related to caring for their cats.

02 competitive audit

In order to better understand and empathize with cat owners who would benefit from freeline, I dove deeper into the market of pet service and pet-sitting apps. I performed a competitive analysis of some of the more popular pet lifestyle apps via research methods like surveys, interviews, and real-world use. Two of the most popular apps are Petdesk and Meowtel, with the former providing vet scheduling services and the latter offering cat-sitting services.

Here is my design process.

03 personas

my process started with creating personas that represent my target user groups. having 2 personas can provide insights for 2 distinct groups of cat owners that can benefit from using freeline in their daily lives.

04 features

based on the initial interviews with cat owners, competitive audits, and creating personas, I have decided to focus on 4 main functions that freeline will solve for users. The main functions are the pet supplies shop, vet and cat sitter appointments scheduling, and joining the freeline online community.

05 wireframing, ideation, and user-flow

i began my process by ideating a standard user experience flow of the actions they can perform within the app.

some things I kept note of during the ideation phase to build further:

  • appointment confirmation page

  • community posting button

06 low-fidelity prototype

in early stages of developing a prototype for freeline, I focused on establishing a standard user flow for the features previously mentioned as the basics of the app. Users can navigate these different features through the bar on the bottom, which serves as a hub for all the features of the app.

07 stylescape

these are the colors, fonts, and icons I’ve chosen for the prototype. Colors and fonts were meant to be simple and exude a sense of calmness and comfort within users, while still carrying the element of playfulness.

08 high fidelity prototype

try out my prototype!

design process

based on the wireframes, low fidelity design, and ideation, I designed the main user flow of freeline on figma, here are the main user flows I’ve focused on:

  • making vet and cat sitting appointments

  • onboarding questionnaire

scheduling function

to schedule a cat sitter, users can choose from the selection of available candidates listed within the app. Before users book their cat sitter of choice, they can learn a little about them before booking to make sure they’re the perfect choice.

onboarding questionnaire

to better access a specific cat’s needs, users are prompted to take an onboarding questionnaire upon registering for a new account on freeline. The questionnaire consists of questions that asks users about their cat’s health, habits, and details. Upon completion, users will be able to use the app.

reflection and takeaways

creating freeline has been the most rewarding experience. Being able to create an app for something I am passionate about has been beneficial to my journey as a UX/UI designer.

The biggest takeaway from this project was that a multi-functional product like freeline required not only a clear wireframe but also a thoughtful process for users to navigate. The design tools used in the project were Adobe Photoshop and Figma, both of which I learned a lot from during the process of creating this project and bringing it to life from just a rough hand-drawn sketch. From my research into the market of apps alike, I learned of the lack of services like freeline. So, hopefully, this project sparked some inspiration to you just as it did to me!

Thank you for taking the time to read about my case study!