2023 • UX research • UX design • UI design • status: to be developed
How a figth discussion with my partner turned in to a project to save lives
I’ve always been a person that imagined myself getting 16 cats (minimum).
A beautiful summer day cerca 6 years into my relationship, my partner said to me:
“We are NOT getting a cat”
Long story short: i lost 😭
Although I couldn’t manage to convince my boyfriend to get a cat. Or a dog. He wasn’t toootally against smaller animals, like bunnies, hamsters and mice.
And thus, my obsession with hamsters began.
Research phaseI quickly discovered that there were some common themes (and alarming) questions and subjects when it came to hamster care.
Most of the questions were regarding hamsters dying, or what could (should) be considered basic hamster care knowledge.
And now I’m thinking; why is it so common to be misinformed about good hamster care?
So I conducted some interviews, surveys, litterature reviews, and competitor research.
Spanning participants and research from all over the world. But mostly from the US and Norway. I recruited from multiple social media platforms.
Through my research I discovered that a big percentage of hamster ownership-journeys look like this… 😳
…Due to the incredible amounts of unsafe information about hamster care being spread.
A lot of hamster owners reported that - due to misinformation - they had bought harmful products, and conducted hamster care in a way that was harmful to the hamster. Maybe even leading to their death.
Some quotes from my interview participants:
Which left me with this problem statement:
New and potential hamster owners are finding it hard to find good, reliable and trustworthy information regarding hamster care. If we can solve this problem, it would impact both hamster owners and hamsters positively by making owners feel empowered in their role, and hamsters getting better care.
Ideating and defining
One lightning desicion jam later, a two-piece concept was born. “The Hammy Project”.
I chose to focus on part 2 at this time.
Part 1 - The Hammy SiteA website containing safe, reliable info (verified by competent people/sources)
Part 2 - The Hammy AppA mobile app containing safe, reliable info (verified by competent people/sources)
Derives from the Hammy Site
Flows.
Low fidelity.
Usability testing.
5 moderated • 8 unmoderated using maze
This is kinda awkward, but… My most important flow failed spectacularly during usability testing 😅😭
More specifically the task was to find out if broccoli is safe to eat. The users thought they were going to find it by using the search bar or by tapping the “food” chip [on the front page]. Whereas I wanted them to tap the fork-icon in the navigation bar.
Learnings:
Always, always use labels with navigation icons. In addition, add a shortcut to the safe/unsafe food list on the homepage.
Some quotes from the participants:
“I recommend using the word “diet” instead of food [as a filter name] because food is more like human food versus diet is what the hamster needs on a more high level”
“An extra big plus for me, as I have my own countdown app to see how old my animals are - is that this app says how old they are!! That I liked very well”
“That is very handy to have! like that note that says he doesn’t like strawberries - because that’s stuff I write in my notes!”
High fidelity.
Visuals.
Prototype.
Wanna save some hammy lives with me? 🐹
I’m looking for more volunteers (developers, designers, hammy enthusiasts) to join me in the process of bringing this project to life.
Feeling inspired? Don’t be scared to reach out! ✨☀️