hines showmeyourkitties (PDF)

Krisha Hines
N285 Final


Problem

The current market is severely lacking in a way to quickly view photos and videos of cute
cats, real cats that is. On the App store you’ll find tons of apps dedicated to looking at cartoon
cats being cute and doing cute things. I’d like to show some love to cats that actually exist,
nothing against virtual cats.

In comes the app “Show Me Your Kittys.” The idea for this app is that it’s somewhere
you can escape from reality by way of cat. The format will be similar to that of Tinder, but users
will not be trying to hook up with cats, in that pictures will be uploaded and users will judge
whether or not they find the cat cute by swiping left or right on the cat. This method will allow
users to maximize the amount of cats they see in a short period of time. The app will also have
the ability for users to watch videos and live streams of cats.

The live streams that can be watched on the app will play big part in the other role of
the app which is to help shelter cats find forever homes. The streams would come from animal
shelters and feature cats that they currently have available. If users see a cat they would like to
adopt while watching the stream, the shelters information would be available to users so they
can easily contact them for more information.






User Research

For my user research I conducted an online survey. Before creating my survey I decided
that I wanted my app and its target market to be young adults.


Below is the online survey I conducted and the survey’s results.




This is the disclosure presented to survey participants before they answer any questions. It lets
them know that their identities will remain anonymous and that the information collected will
be used in research.




I used these questions to get a feel for my demographic and to help me create my persona. As
you can see in the data most of the survey respondents were males in the 21-29 age range.

 I used this set of information to get a better idea of the devices people owned and how much
they spend viewing videos on said devices. Most of the respondents indicated they owned both
a tablet and smartphone so I need to make sure my apps interface is easy to use on both
devices. This information will also be used in creating my persona.


I used this next batch of information to gauge interest in a cat related app. Most of the
respondents indicated they don’t often look up photos or videos of cats and interest in a cat

themed application was middle of the road. I will choose to stay positive after receiving this
information and continue with show me your kitties.



I used this information to see if people
would have any interest in adopting a
pet. 94.74% of respondents indicated
they would consider adopting a pet
from a shelter with 72.22% saying they
get most of their information about
potential adoptees from the internet.
The majority of respondents also stated
they would be more likely to adopt a
pet after viewing photos and videos of
it. These questions were used to gauge
interest in the main feature of “show
me your kitties,” which is getting cats
adopted.




Additional Research


Below are a couple articles I found about why people should adopt pets versus buying
them from breeders or pet stores. I looked up articles about this topic to help me come up with
some motivation for why my persona would be interested in using a pet adoption app.
1. Top 10 Reasons to Adopt from an Animal Shelter
http://www.hhhstopeka.org/adopt/top-10-reasons-to-adopt-from-an-animal-shelter/
In this article/list the topics of overpopulation and awful conditions in puppy and kitten mills
are briefly discussed. I wanted to focus on these points as being the why to my persona wanting
to adopt a pet.
2. Pet Statistics
http://www.aspca.org/animal-homelessness/shelter-intake-and-surrender/pet-statistics
This article lists some helpful statistics on the amount of pets that get either adopted or
euthanized through animal shelters. It also gives statistics of how many cats and dogs are
owned in the United States.






Problem Area
I’ve decided that the problem area for my topic is that people are interested in adopting pets,
cats in this case, but don’t take the time to look for cats they’re interested in, therefore never
finding a cat they’d like to adopt.

Persona

Low-Fidelity Prototype

This is the “show me your kitties” homepage. The
page is laid out in a simple format so users aren’t
bogged down by too many choices or imagery.
The circles represent clickable options for users,
and the logo and app name are displayed at the
top of the page.










This is the “find me a kitty page.” On this page
users can fill in the fields provided to be shown
images of cats close to the area they’ve
specified. After filling in all the fields users click
the checkmark in the bottom right corner, and
the app will search for cats that meet the
criteria. If users need to go back to the home
page they can click the logo button.




This page acts as a sample of what
users see once they search for a cat.
Users will be presented with a
selection of cats that they can either
swipe left on if they like the cat or
swipe right if they dislike the cat. Icons
will be present at the bottom corners
of the screen to remind users of this.
This is also the page users will be
brought to if they click for more
information about a cat on the
“photos” page.
This page acts as a profile page for the
cats on the app. Information about
the cat and the shelter it is located at
will be present for users to see.


This is the “saved kitties” page. After swiping
left on a cat or two, users can come here to
view the cats. Users have the ability to scroll
through the cats they’ve liked, and click a link
underneath the cat’s picture to view its profile
again.




This is the “photos” page. Here users can view
pictures of cats that have been posted, and can
narrow down the results to view cats by shelter.











This is the main page for users to watch live
streams on the app. The streams that are
currently live will be available for users to scroll
through and as they scroll down more streams
become available. To go to certain stream’s page
users just click on the stream.