Passistant

** Honor & Recognition – Read the article that is published on Institute of Design’s Website

Pawssistant –

The pet caregivers’ co-pilot, facilitating informed and confident decision-making in critical health caring moments
for pets' well-being.

INTRODUCTION

Pawssistant is an AI-powered cross-device agent to support all pet caregivers, from dedicated owners to temporary caretakers. It offers real-time, personalized assistance in diverse situations, including emergencies, chronic disease management, life-long decision-making, and emotional support needs.

PROJECT ADVISORS

SALESFORCE AI
Nate Nichols – Head of Gen-AI @ Tableau
Joellen Kames – UX Director in AI Cloud
Adam Babin – Sr. UX Designer
Austin Guevara – Lead Product Designer
Kris Woolery – Inclusive Design Director

ROLE

Product / UX Designer

TIMELINE

Aug ’23 - Dec’23 (5 months)

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

UX / UI Design, Strategic Thinking
User Research, Storyboarding
Information Design

THE TEAM

Sunmin Ko,
Vanessa Chang,
Eunji Kim

PROBLEM

Finding a balance between financial considerations and prioritizing the well-being of pets requires thoughtful decision-making, often leading to stress.

As of 2023, 66% of U.S. households (86.9 million homes) own a pet. However, only about 3 percent of U.S. pet owners have pet insurance and one in four pet owners experience barriers to veterinary care, often due to financial constraints.

This barrier exacerbates the challenges pet caregivers face in accessing necessary care, and place them under considerable stress when forced to make critical health-related decisions for their pets.

GOAL

Boost user confidence and alleviate financial burdens in pet care by offering personalized, timely support and empowering users with the knowledge to make well-informed decisions for their beloved pets' health and happiness.

SOLUTION

Implementing intelligent AI-powered assistant within a personalized supportive system to offer quick and reliable guidances in confidently navigating complex and challenging moments, ensuring the pets’ well-being.

* PAWSSISTNAT's ECOSYSTEM

+ Multimodal Experiences : Various modes of communication and interaction help in quickly assessing pet conditions and abnormalities, making complex care tasks more manageable.

* USER JOURNEY WITH PAWSSISTANT

#1. Emergency Response I In-the-Moment Care

REAL-TIME CONSULTATION : When having pet accident

" Should I go to the vet or keep monitoring?,
I want to weight my decisions by cost and well-being quickly and accurately "

→

AI-powered emergency triage and consultation :

Analyze collected data from both user and monitoring device + Provide two data-driven recommendations based on similar user actions

Achievable Values : (1) Quick & confident decision in the moment (2) Wise management of emergency expenses

#2. Adaptive Care I Timely Management

LONG-TERM CARE : When having chronic disease pet

“ I’m concerned about missing important changes or the onset of symptoms
related to the disease, as I want my pets to lead healthier lives despite their conditions.”

→

Streamlined voice-assisted collaborative care :

Real-time alert and voice-assisted collaboration in managing symptoms of diseases (e.g., seizures) +
Efficient process from vet connection for in-depth assurance to post-check-in

Smart monitoring for chronic conditions :
Tracking disease insights on dashboard + sending critical insights to vet for upcoming vet visit - Auto-insight-analytics

Achievable Values : (1) Timely intervention to specific needs (2) Consistent symptom tracking (3) Efficient communication w/ Vet

#3. Proactive strategies I Care planning

LIFE-LONG PLAN : When making life-long decisions

“ I want to discover strategies for securing my pet's long-term health and
making informed decisions by evaluating the broader impacts to avoid future regrets "

Proactive care plans and future- ready financial wellness :
Care Planning / Budget Planning Estimator - Planning for a pet's long-term health needs and anticipating and budgeting for potential clinical costs

Achievable Values : (1) Taking proactive steps of future implications (2) Long-term Health Security w/ financial efficiency

#4. Advice Sharing I Shared Experiences Repository

COMMUNITY SUPPORT : When needing comprehensive support

“ Navigating my pet's illness / symptoms felt like walking through a maze.
I want to have some talks and know how other people do it ”

Community-driven support and advice network :
Explore localized caregivers facing similar pet health situations and connect with them for support and shared experiences.

Achievable Values : (1) Stress reduction through shared experience (2) Emotional support and validation

IMPACT

* PRODUCT MARKET FIT, “WHY PAWSSISTANT NEEDED"

It brings streamlined caregiving journey :

- Offers LLM-based, informed recommendations, boosting confidence in complex decisions.
- Empowers users to better understand their pets, saving time and reducing emotional/ financial burdens.
- Facilitates lifelong care management with disease-focused ‘Health and Care-plan Boards.’

CONTEXTUALIZE OPPORTUNITY SPACE

PET CARE RESEARCH FINDINGS (Beyond financial constraints)

Complex Decisions of Pet Care

Diagnostic Ambiguity

Diagnostic confusion in symptom interpretation

When researching pet symptoms online, it’s challenging to relate varied information to the pet’s specific case.
‍

Indeterminate Medical Intervention

Evaluating when to seek professional medical care

Determining the need for professional care is challenging when symptoms aren’t clearly severe or urgent.
‍

Intricate Cost-Quality Trade-Off

Deciding between high-quality & budget-friendly options

Believing costly services ensure high quality and pet wellness, pet owners often feel conflicted due to financial constraints.

6 Pet Parents Interviews

3 SME Interviews

Site Observation

Understanding constraints and challenges
by clustering sticky notes to distill the key insights.

Gaining in-depth knowledge of caregiving pain points from experts such as client service coordinators and vet.

Conducting direct observations of a daycare center for more valuable interactions to validate user needs.

Despite financial limitations and time restrictions,
caregivers seek to protect their pet's well-being and provide the best care possible.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

How might we leverage Gen-AI capabilities to create
a real-time, personalized backing system for pet care-givers
that make informed, confident decisions assuring pet’s well-being?

* Value Proposition

HUMAN + AI COLLABORATION

* HUMAN – AI TEAM

DESIGN PRINCIPLES

ML Personalization
‍
Tailor responses and recommendations to the unique needs and preferences of each user.

User Autonomy
‍
Empower users to make decisions and maintain control over AI-assisted processes, ensuring transparency.

Collaboration
‍
Foster collaboration between users and AI, clarifying when AI is assisting and human expertise is required.

Natural Interaction
‍
Enable conversational interactions between users and AI, making more natural and engaging experience.

IDEATION: SOLUTION SPACE

BRAINSTORMING – HOVER USER BENEFIT

What advantages do users gain
compared to online searching (Googling)?

24/7 availability to expert-level advice
‍‍
Enable to access expert-level advice at any time drawing from a vast data base of knowledge.

Convenience
(Time efficiency)
‍
Quickly obtain accurate information without the need to examine through search results.

Personalized recommendations
‍
Provide user focused solutions based on previous preferences and interactions of user.

Emotional support
(Reduced Anxiety)
‍
Chat-based interactions help users feel less anxious when facing pet incidents or challenges.

Exploring factors contributing to confident and informed decisions by segmenting key challenging moments.

IDEATION AND EVALUATION

Brainstorming

Decision Matrix

5 Use Case Scenario

Sketches : 20+ and 4 main ideas.

Prioritized most valuable solutions.

User stories and JTBD in 5 cases.

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

IPO MODEL (Input-Process-Output)

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

USER FLOW

WIREFRAMES

USABILITY TESTING

To enhance the development of our health dashboard features and life-long care plans, we conducted 4 usability tests to gather feedback on its functionality and intuitiveness.

Key Insights :

Users prioritize quick, understandable explanations of data presented. They want Answers over the Statistics: They want to know the significance of these statistics, their implications, and the recommended next steps.
Users are interested in evaluating the trade-offs between cost and possible impact : "I want to compare the actions I take and their impact on my pet's health with the associated costs."
Users value the ability to share their pet's data ahead of time with vet but encounter difficulties in locating it : Need to make pet's data sharing process more accessible and user-friendly. Enhance visibility and ease of use.

VALIDATION & ITERATION

STRATEGIC PHASE 1 of 3

Prioritize analyzed information to quickly pinpoint the REAL issues in pets, aligning actions taken by users with the goals of each pages.

* Goal – Immediate discoverability and clarity of problematic health issues.

Less digestible and intuitive – struggling to efficiently identify and understand the key issues affecting their pets.
Interface lacked a structured approach to navigate through the extensive information, resulting in a time-consuming process to locate specific insights

Introducing categorically organized tabs that enables to focus on each chronic diseases.
Implemented 'Expandable list format' for simpler and more organized display
Available to decide the amount of data presented at any time (flexibility)
Provide clear and actionable insight derived from the presented data (graphs).

* Goal - Intuitive, dynamic customization for optimal care plans.

Repeated entries for similar items, leading to unnecessary clutter and confusion.
Displayed different types of information on a single page, leaving users puzzled about what to interact.

Clear division of information using delineated boxes by grouping similar items coherently.
Intuitive layout adjustments - prioritization of actions, or improved visual cues that direct user attention to key actions

STRATEGIC PHASE 2 of 3

Integrate vet collaboration options and disclaimer to ensure users understand supportive role of Pawssistant; It is not an expert substitute.

Disclaimer Notice :

Inform new users about the specific risks, limitations, or exclusions that are integral to understanding our platform's role and scope.

Active collaboration w/ Vet :

Shortcut Button for sharing :
Simplify the shared process, with minimal effort.
Centralized Record Management:
Easy to keep tracking what information has been shared and when in one place.
Reducing risk of mis-communication : This direct method reduces errors from manual transcription or memory reliance.

Streamlined Vet communication pathway :

Enables instant contact with veterinarians through a voice-assisted system, complemented by an emailing feature for detailed issue reporting.

STRATEGIC PHASE 3 of 3

Elevate URGENT caregiving experiences with a real-time, interactive voice-assist feature.

[ Text-based Interaction ]

[ Voice-activated Interaction ]

Flexible interaction modes between voice and text to accommodate diverse user preferences and guarantee accessibility for all.
Voice-activated consultations make it easy to receive hands-free advice during emergencies, providing immediate support
when it's most needed.

FUTURE STEPS

Progressing personalized health insights and recommendations with feedback loop to elevate user engagement and product credibility.

* Incorporating User Feedback into Recommendations

Implement a feedback loop where users can rate the usefulness and relevance of the recommendations they receive.

* Refining the Scoring Algorithm Based on User Preferences

1) Develop a dynamic scoring system that adjusts the weight of certain health insights based on user interactions and preferences.
2) Allow users to manually set preferences or areas of interest that they want the platform to focus on, leading to better health outcomes.

Post-Recommendation Check-in

Pet Care Preferences Survey

User Review

Personal Preference Weighting

Go to Final Design 👆Go to Research Process 👆

REFLECTION

Make sure the design 'Clarity'
Ensure that users are not required to perform calculations and provide straightforward guidelines for prioritization and sequencing. It's important to avoid presenting conflicting information at the same time and not to expect users to compare multiple options to identify the best one.
Prioritize actionable insight in a straightforward way
It's critical to highlight the interpreted consequences clearly, making sure users understand the data's purpose and the actions they can undertake based on it. This approach guarantees that users are never left questioning the relevance of the information or their potential next steps.