Pet Health Care Powered by AI
On Screen Sports — Redesigning Sports Simulation Website
My Role
Product Designer
Led end to end design project 0-1
Team
2 Designers
Timeline
4 months
Overview
On a project sponsored by the Salesforce AI team, designed the Pawssistant pet care experience, a generative AI-powered platform that supports caregivers with real-time guidance. The system transforms complex health data into actionable insights and partners with veterinary professionals to ensure trusted care. Led end-to-end design alongside two designers, focusing on delivering a seamless and reliable user experience.
Overview
Design Process
In our process, deeply understanding the problem helped us connect the right product with the right audience. After creating wireframes, we continuously ran usability tests and refined the design based on what we learned. It became an ongoing cycle of listening, testing, and improving.
When is the right time to see a vet?
Starting from my own experience, I realized just how uncertain and stressful pet care decisions can be. My dog suddenly started limping after staying at a dog sitter’s, and without pet insurance, I wasn’t sure if I should rush him to emergency care or just monitor him at home. Knowing when it’s the right time to visit the vet can be one of the toughest parts of being a pet parent. We all want to do what’s best for our pets, but vet bills add up quickly, and sometimes even a single visit doesn’t give you clear answers.
So, how do you know when it’s truly necessary to make that call? This uncertainty isn’t just a personal struggle, but a widespread challenge that many pet caregivers face, especially when financial barriers are involved.
Problem Discovery
Finnancial barriers to vetreinary care is big burden in U.S.
While about 66% of U.S. households have a pet, only 3% are covered by pet insurance. As a result, 1 in 4 families face financial challenges when it comes to accessing veterinary care.
Many families struggle to afford the care their pets need, especially when it matters the most.
Access to Pet Care in the U.S.
The hidden factors driving up pet care costs
While cost is a big barrier to getting the care our pets need, we wanted to dig deeper into the hidden challenges that make things even tougher for caregivers. To do this, we spoke with experts and followed a caregiver’s full journey to the vet. We also chatted with veterinarians, dog sitters, groomers, and pet parents to hear their stories and struggles firsthand.
Expert Interviews
Shadowing
User Interviews
Hidden challenges include unreliable information, unclear urgency, and chronic care need
Unreliable Information: Unreliable sources lead to confusion in diagnosing pet symptoms.
Unclear Urgency: Caregivers struggle to determine when professional care is necessary, especially for non-urgent symptoms.
Chronic Care Needs: Chronic conditions require ongoing monitoring and consistent care, adding to the burden.
Hidden Challenges
Insights to Solution
Addressing what pet caregivers really need
To tackle the key challenges, we started by creating 30 rapid "Frankenstein" sketches, which we categorized into four distinct feature groups. We then analyzed how each feature would benefit the users, making sure it aligned with their needs and expectations. Finally, we prioritized the features using a decision matrix, focusing on those that would deliver the most meaningful impact.
Value Proposition
Sketches
Decision Matrix
A pet care platform that supports every moment, from in-the-moment care to long-term planning
Pawssistant guides caregivers through important moments by helping them decide if a vet visit is urgent, providing voice support during emergencies, managing chronic conditions, assisting with lifelong care planning, and connecting to local resources with thoughtful support for both immediate needs and ongoing pet care.
Prototype
Wireframe
Iteration
Usability Testing
We conducted two rounds of usability testing with pet caregivers.
The first round was a quick paper prototype test to get initial feedback and understand whether we were heading in the right direction. The second round involved testing the first version of our dashboards to gain more precise insights into usability and user behavior.
Key insights included:
Users seek immediate actionable insights and next steps.
Excess data becomes overwhelming and tiresome.
Users want to compare consequences before making decisions.
Making information easier to digest
Users felt overwhelmed by the amount of content presented in a single view. To improve clarity and interaction, I implemented several key UI changes:
Layout adjustment: Changed the vertical box-style layout to a horizontal scrollable format, making it easier for users to scan and explore information at their own pace.
Content separation: Split statistics and insights into separate sections to reduce cognitive load and enhance readability.
AI insight prioritization: Moved AI-generated insights to the top of the page as a summary, helping users grasp key takeaways immediately and increasing engagement.
Final Design
A flexible, multimodal experience that supports pet caregivers through visual, conversational, and interactive touchpoints
When Luna suddenly starts limping, the caregiver can upload a photo or video, and the AI quickly analyzes the situation to provide clear, reliable advice.
Handling unexpected accidents
AI Consultation
For ongoing health issues, a wearable alerts the caregiver when action is needed, while a dashboard offers easy-to-understand insights and tracks the pet’s progress over time.
Managing emergencies in chronic care
Long-Term Care Plan
Caregivers can connect with local pet owners facing similar challenges to share tips and offer emotional support.
Connecting with nearby caregivers
Community Support
For budgeting and long-term care, AI continuously provides personalized guidance and comparisons, helping pets get the care they need throughout their lives.
Planning for long-term pet health
Life-Long Care Plan
Design Strategy
Covering a whole pet caregiving experience
Reflection
Building a stronger design system
As we built out the screens, our design system grew alongside us, but frequent tweaks made things a bit messy. It reminded me how much a thoughtful, organized system can help a team stay in sync.
Next time, I’ll start with a stronger foundation: something consistent yet flexible, with clear guidelines that support everyone’s flow. I’m excited to bring more clarity and care into future projects because good design systems don’t just support products, they support people too.