Aristotele had already worked with another professional before contacting me. What existed was a rough skeleton of the idea: a social app with profiles, posts, chat and map features. But the product violated many basic UI and UX principles: weak hierarchy, inconsistent spacing, unclear priorities, poor visual quality and flows that did not match the ambition of the business.
Showing the starting point is important because the real work was not just making screens prettier. The challenge was to rebuild the product logic around users, priorities, trust and a clear MVP strategy.
The product before the redesign
The client's vision was ambitious: users should publish pet content, interact with other owners, locate friends on a map, reach them, report dangers, hide their own position, start walks and buy products directly in the app.
A live map to locate friends, report dangers, start walks and decide when to stay invisible.
A commerce area where users can buy pet products directly inside the same mobile experience.
I explained to the client that I could give shape to his idea, but only if we moved through the UX process as much as possible. With so many features competing for attention, designing immediately would have meant guessing. We needed to understand users, define priorities and build a product around real needs.
"The question was not 'Can we build it?'. It was 'What should we build first?'"
Understanding who pet owners really are: their habits, frustrations and motivations when it comes to sharing content, ensuring safety and connecting with their local community.
Before starting to design, I defined the problem clearly using the 4W+H framework: who, what, why, goal and how. This prevented designing for assumptions.
4W + H
We are trying to create a connected mobile ecosystem for pet owners: a single product where social sharing, location safety, GPS tracking and pet commerce work together instead of existing in separate, unconnected apps.
We are solving this for pet owners with varied levels of digital confidence: social creators who want to share content, safety-focused owners who rely on GPS tracking, privacy-conscious families who need location control and local connectors who depend on community services.
Because the pet app market is fragmented. Social apps have no safety layer. GPS apps have no community. Commerce apps have no context. Pet owners switch between three or four unrelated tools just to manage their daily life with a pet.
To create a pet-first social experience that makes sharing, tracking and discovering feel natural, familiar and emotionally connected: a product users return to daily, not just in emergencies.
By putting the social feed first (familiar from day one), adding map-based safety as a second core layer, building walk tracking as a daily physical habit and offering commerce as a supporting ecosystem without turning the product into a shop first.
Empathize
Research shaped the MVP direction. Without it, designing a product with this many features would have meant guessing about what users actually needed and in what order.
For this project I focused on qualitative research: user interviews, a structured questionnaire and behavioral cluster analysis.
I mapped the competitive landscape to understand what already existed and where the clear gaps were. No single product occupied the space PetNoah was designed to fill.
The pet app market contains strong individual solutions, but every product covers only one layer: social, GPS or health. No product connects all three into a single trusted ecosystem.
Main competitors
| Product | What they do | Gap for this project |
|---|---|---|
| TractiveGPS Pet Tracker | Real-time GPS tracking with geofencing and activity monitoring for pets | No social features, no content sharing, no community layer: a closed hardware ecosystem |
| PawsomePet Social Network | Share pet photos, follow other pet profiles and engage with community content | No map, no GPS, no location safety layer: purely social with no physical-world integration |
| BarkHappyLocal Pet Community | Discover dog-friendly places, events and connect with nearby owners | Dogs only, no privacy controls, limited commerce: partial coverage of user needs |
| WoofzDog Training App | Structured training programs and behavioral guidance for dog owners | Single-purpose utility: no social feed, no map, no GPS and no commerce layer |
| PetDeskVet and Health Management | Manage vet appointments, pet health records and receive clinical reminders | B2B and clinical focus only: no consumer social, no GPS, no map and no daily engagement |
Positioning map
| Product | Social Feed | GPS Tracking | Map Safety | Privacy Controls | In-App Commerce | Pet Profiles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tractive | Low | High | Med | Low | Low | Low |
| Pawsome | High | Low | Low | Low | Low | High |
| BarkHappy | Med | Low | Med | Low | Low | Med |
| Woofz | Low | Low | Low | Low | Low | Med |
| PetDesk | Low | Low | Low | Low | Low | Low |
| PetNoah | High | Med | High | High | High | High |
With the research complete, I moved from observation to interpretation. Where could a well-designed product make the most meaningful difference? These are the five opportunities I decided to pursue.
The research showed clearly that users do not want to learn new interaction patterns. They want a product that behaves like Instagram or TikTok but is built around pets. Familiarity is not a compromise: it is the strategy.
Design the social feed and posting flow so closely to established patterns that a first-time user needs no tutorial to publish their first post.
Location sharing was the most polarising topic in interviews. Users who wanted it were enthusiastic; users who feared it were ready to abandon the product entirely. The difference was always control: who can see me, when and how do I turn it off.
Privacy controls must be surface-level and explicit. Ghost mode (invisible) should be one tap away from any screen that shows the map.
GPS tracking was seen as emergency-only by most users. The opportunity is to turn it into a daily routine: a walk session that starts naturally, tracks automatically and delivers a satisfying summary at the end.
Walk sessions should start in one tap and end with stats and a shareable route summary. The GPS layer must be reliable and low-friction.
The danger report feature resonated strongly with pet owners who had experienced scares: a loose dog, a toxic plant, a traffic alert. The map becomes a community safety layer when the whole neighbourhood contributes to it.
Danger reports should be easy to create (long-press on map), categorised and broadcast only to nearby users to avoid noise.
Users did not reject in-app commerce. They rejected the idea of the app feeling like a shop. The opportunity is to integrate products and local services naturally into the pet context: accessories that appear after a walk, local services discoverable on the map.
The shop entry point should live in navigation, not in the hero. Products should be contextually suggested, never aggressively promoted.
After gathering and analysing all the data, I synthesised everything into one clear conclusion: the north star that guided every decision in the phases that followed.
The pet app market is fragmented by design. There are social apps without safety, GPS trackers without community and commerce apps without context. Pet owners cobble together three or four unrelated tools to manage a single daily routine. PetNoah closes this gap: a familiar social experience extended by a safety map, walk tracking and commerce, all within the same trusted ecosystem.
Five primary personas representing the distinct behavioral clusters found in research: social creators, safety-focused trackers, privacy-conscious connectors, pet professionals and community volunteers.
Each persona covers a distinct behavioral cluster from research. Together they validate the MVP scope: social feed, safety map and privacy controls are non-negotiable; commerce and GPS are supporting layers that serve specific but important segments.
UX/Product Designer who loves sharing Luna's daily moments, attending pet events and discovering new pet-friendly places.
I want Luna to have her own stage and to discover other owners near me.
Goals
Pain Points
Key Needs
Passionate runner who uses fitness apps and GPS devices daily. Deeply focused on Bolt's safety and real-time tracking accuracy.
If Bolt escapes, I want to know exactly where he is and reach him immediately.
Goals
Pain Points
Key Needs
Retired. Mainly uses WhatsApp and wants an app that reassures her and helps find local services for Micio without confusion.
I want a simple app that reassures me and helps me find the right neighbour when I need it.
Goals
Pain Points
Key Needs
Dog daycare owner who wants to be found easily by nearby owners and manage booking requests without constant phone calls.
I want to be found easily by nearby owners and manage requests without constant phone calls.
Goals
Pain Points
Key Needs
Project manager and shelter volunteer who coordinates rescues, adoptions and local events. Needs fast tools to mobilize the community.
I need fast tools to mobilize the community when an animal is in trouble.
Goals
Pain Points
Key Needs
Six empathy maps built from interview data, one per primary persona plus the Gen-Z creator segment. They reveal the emotional motivations, frustrations and desired gains behind each behavioral cluster.
Says
DIRECT EXPRESSIONS
Thinks
INTERNAL BELIEFS
Does
VISIBLE ACTIONS
Feels
EMOTIONAL STATES
Pains
FRUSTRATIONS
Gains
DESIRED OUTCOMES
Says
DIRECT EXPRESSIONS
Thinks
INTERNAL BELIEFS
Does
VISIBLE ACTIONS
Feels
EMOTIONAL STATES
Pains
FRUSTRATIONS
Gains
DESIRED OUTCOMES
Says
DIRECT EXPRESSIONS
Thinks
INTERNAL BELIEFS
Does
VISIBLE ACTIONS
Feels
EMOTIONAL STATES
Pains
FRUSTRATIONS
Gains
DESIRED OUTCOMES
Says
DIRECT EXPRESSIONS
Thinks
INTERNAL BELIEFS
Does
VISIBLE ACTIONS
Feels
EMOTIONAL STATES
Pains
FRUSTRATIONS
Gains
DESIRED OUTCOMES
Says
DIRECT EXPRESSIONS
Thinks
INTERNAL BELIEFS
Does
VISIBLE ACTIONS
Feels
EMOTIONAL STATES
Pains
FRUSTRATIONS
Gains
DESIRED OUTCOMES
Says
DIRECT EXPRESSIONS
Thinks
INTERNAL BELIEFS
Does
VISIBLE ACTIONS
Feels
EMOTIONAL STATES
Pains
FRUSTRATIONS
Gains
DESIRED OUTCOMES
I mapped the complete experience each key persona goes through today, without PetNoah. From a simple daily action to frustration and resignation, step by step and emotion by emotion. Understanding the current pain at each stage was essential before designing a better path.
Laura Rossi
The social creator's daily routine before PetNoah exists.
| Excited | Curious | Unsatisfied | Hopeful | Frustrated | Neutral |
| ActionOpens Instagram to share a photo of Luna at the park. | ActionLooks for pet groups on Facebook and finds scattered unmoderated communities. | ActionPosts to her Instagram story and gets minimal reaction from non-pet followers. | ActionSpots a pet meetup link in a WhatsApp group, three days after it was posted. | ActionTakes Luna to the park but has no way to record the route or share the walk. | ActionOpens Google Maps to find a pet-friendly cafe and gets generic unsorted results. |
| Thinks"This is going to look great on my story." | Thinks"There must be a local group somewhere." | Thinks"Only my existing followers see this, not local owners." | Thinks"I wish I had found this earlier." | Thinks"I want to show where we went but I do not have a single tool for this." | Thinks"Why can't I see what other owners actually recommend nearby?" |
| PainNo platform built around pets: general social feels wrong for pet-specific content. | PainPet groups are fragmented, hard to find and without real local relevance. | PainNo pet-specific feed for local discovery or niche pet audiences. | PainEvents are buried in messaging apps with no RSVP and no integrated calendar. | PainWalk tracking and social sharing are in completely separate products. | PainNo pet-aware local map with owner recommendations or community verification. |
| OpportunityPet-specific feed with per-pet profiles and local discovery. | OpportunityDedicated local pet feed with community tabs and nearby-owner discovery. | OpportunityLocal-first feed filtered by location and pet type. | OpportunityEvent section inside the feed with RSVP and a map pin. | OpportunityWalk session with automatic route recording and a quick social post from the summary. | OpportunityMap layer showing nearby owners, events and pet-friendly places. |
Marco Bianchi
The safety-focused tracker's walk turns into a stressful search.
| Confident | Worried | Frustrated | Angry | Relieved but tired | Deflated |
| ActionOpens the app and starts a walk session. | ActionBolt escapes through a gap in the fence and runs into the open park. | ActionLaunches the GPS app and waits 18 seconds for a position update. | ActionPartner calls to ask where Bolt is and Marco cannot share the live map. | ActionEventually locates Bolt by following the GPS position on foot for 20 minutes. | ActionReviews a basic route on the GPS app with no stats, no context and no social layer. |
| Thinks"I want to track this route and share it later." | Thinks"Where did he go? I need his position now." | Thinks"This lag is unacceptable when every second matters." | Thinks"I am in the middle of a search and I have to explain verbally where I am." | Thinks"I found him, but I was completely alone in this." | Thinks"I do not even know how far we walked or how to share this with the community." |
| PainHis GPS device has no social integration and no shared map with his partner. | PainNo instant geofence alert: had to visually scan the area first. | PainHigh GPS latency on older hardware, no breadcrumb trail visible. | PainNo position sharing feature: all GPS data is siloed on a single device. | PainNo community alert system to coordinate a local search with nearby owners. | PainWalking data is siloed in a separate tool with no social value. |
| OpportunityWalk tracking with a live shared map visible to trusted contacts. | OpportunitySub-10-second geofence alert with Bolt's live position on the map. | OpportunityReal-time position with 5-second refresh and full breadcrumb trail. | OpportunityOne-tap live position share link, valid for a set time window. | OpportunityNearby-owner alert: local owners receive a notification and can help. | OpportunityWalk summary with stats, social share option and community route replay. |
Giovanna Conti
Finding a trustworthy local vet turns into an exhausting process.
| Worried | Neutral | Overwhelmed | Frustrated | Relieved | Nervous |
| ActionNotices Micio is not eating well and needs a trustworthy local vet. | ActionSends a message in the neighborhood WhatsApp group asking for a vet recommendation. | ActionOpens Google Maps and searches for vets: too many results, no pet-type filter. | ActionCalls three vet offices: two do not answer, one has no availability for two weeks. | ActionA neighbor gives her a personal recommendation and direct phone number. | ActionA neighbor mentions the app shows your exact location on a public map. |
| Thinks"I need a good vet for cats, nearby, that I can actually trust." | Thinks"Someone must know a reliable one." | Thinks"I cannot tell which one is for cats and which one is for dogs." | Thinks"Why is booking this so complicated?" | Thinks"This worked but only because I asked exactly the right person at the right moment." | Thinks"I absolutely do not want strangers to know where I live." |
| PainNo local pet service directory with ratings or community trust signals. | PainGets five different answers with no way to compare or verify any of them. | PainGeneral maps lack pet-type filters and ratings from non-pet users are irrelevant. | PainNo real-time availability visible, all booking requires phone calls. | PainThe whole process required leaving every app and making multiple phone calls. | PainNo prior communication about privacy defaults or location visibility levels. |
| OpportunityMap-based discovery of verified vets and groomers with owner ratings. | OpportunityVerified pet professional profiles with reviews from nearby owners. | OpportunityFiltered local search by pet type, specialty and verified owner reviews. | OpportunityReal-time availability and one-tap in-app booking from the profile. | OpportunitySingle-tap booking from the pet professional profile with booking confirmation. | OpportunityPrivacy-first defaults with a clear and friendly visible/invisible toggle. |
Transforming research findings into clear decisions: user needs, pain points, product goals and the direction that guided every design choice in the phases that followed.
After 12 interviews and the structured questionnaire, the core challenge revealed itself: PetNoah was not one product. It was three unrelated products in one interface. Social, GPS and commerce each pulled in different directions without a shared hierarchy.
The main challenge was not simply helping users 'track their pets' or 'share pet content'. The deeper problem was that the product had no clear emotional centre. Users needed to feel the app was for them, not just a feature aggregator.
Key design direction
PetNoah must earn trust through familiarity first. The social feed sets the foundation. Map-based safety builds trust. GPS tracking extends the product into the physical world. Commerce supports the ecosystem without claiming the main stage.
These three pain points emerged consistently across all five personas. They are structural problems that go beyond user habits: they require deliberate design decisions to resolve.
Social feed, GPS tracking, map, danger reports, walks and shop features were all competing for attention without a clear hierarchy.
Without a clear MVP definition, every feature looked equally important and the product had no direction.
Location sharing created value only when users understood who could see them, when they were visible and how to go invisible on demand.
Privacy had to be a first-class design decision, not an afterthought added at the end of the process.
The initial concept had potential, but the existing screens did not follow solid UI/UX principles and lacked a clear product direction.
Before designing screens, we had to understand which features mattered most to users and which should enter the first release.
Four core needs extracted from research synthesis. These shaped every priority decision about what to build in the MVP and what to defer to later iterations.
| User need | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Share pet moments with ease | Users want a familiar, low-friction experience they already know from Instagram or TikTok: not a new social grammar to learn. |
| Feel genuinely safe using the map | Location sharing only creates trust when users have clear, explicit control over their visibility states at all times. |
| Understand the app quickly on first use | A product with this many features needs strong, focused onboarding to avoid drop-off before users discover the core value. |
| Access pet products and local services | Commerce and local services are welcome additions, but only if they support the ecosystem and do not distract from the primary social experience. |
One clear How Might We question to focus the entire design effort. This became the anchor for every decision in the Ideate and Design phases.
How might we create a pet-first social experience that feels familiar and emotionally engaging, while giving users enough control to feel safe with location, privacy and real-world pet care features?
The Define phase crystallised into six product goals: the outcomes PetNoah must achieve to be genuinely useful and worth building.
The feed must feel immediately recognizable to anyone who has used Instagram, TikTok or Facebook. Zero new interaction grammar to learn on day one.
Visibility controls, privacy-first defaults and danger alerts must make location sharing feel safe by explicit design, never by assumption.
Walk tracking and geofence alerts should start in one tap, deliver notifications in under 10 seconds and display route stats clearly at the end of every session.
The shop should feel like a natural extension of the pet ecosystem: useful for accessories and local services, never intrusive or primary.
Every location feature must default to invisible. Sharing should be an active opt-in, never a passive default that surprises new users.
New users should reach their first value (posting a pet moment) in under 2 minutes. Advanced features should reveal themselves through use, not through a features tour.
Mapping user needs directly to product responses and business value, ensuring every design decision serves both the user and the product strategy at the same time.
| User need | Product response | Business value |
|---|---|---|
| Share pet moments with ease | Familiar social feed with fast posting and per-pet profiles | Higher engagement, retention and daily active usage |
| Feel safe using the map | Clear visibility states, danger reports and safe map defaults | Build trust and reduce churn from privacy-conscious users |
| Understand the app quickly | Focused MVP with progressive feature discovery | Reduce onboarding drop-off and improve activation rate |
| Access products and local services | Lightweight in-app shop integrated as ecosystem support | Sustainable commerce layer and B2B revenue from pet businesses |
The design challenge
PetNoah should feel like a trusted social experience first. Commerce, GPS and safety features should support that ecosystem, not compete with it.
Exploring possible solutions: from brainstorming to feature prioritisation, user flows and information architecture, before converging on a clear product direction.
Coming out of the Define phase, everything crystallised into one question: the challenge that became the north star for the entire ideation process.
How might we design a pet-first social experience that feels familiar from day one, while giving users the control and safety they need to share location, trust the community and return every day?
I translated each pain point into a 'How Might We' question to frame ideation around real user problems rather than assumed solutions.
| Pain point | How Might We… |
|---|---|
| Social apps feel generic to pet owners | create a social experience that feels built for pet owners, not repurposed from a general-purpose platform? |
| Location sharing creates privacy anxiety | give users enough control over their visibility that sharing location feels like an active choice, not a default risk? |
| GPS and social are fragmented tools | connect GPS safety features to the social layer so they reinforce each other instead of competing for attention? |
| Onboarding drops users before they reach the core value | design a first-run experience so focused and familiar that users reach their first valuable moment in under 2 minutes? |
| Commerce feels like an interruption | integrate the shop so naturally into the pet ecosystem that users discover it through context, not through a push notification? |
| Danger alerts are passive or nonexistent | create a community-driven safety layer that alerts nearby owners in real time without generating noise for unaffected users? |
| Multiple features compete for attention with no clear priority | design a navigation system that surfaces the social feed first and reveals advanced features progressively as users grow into the product? |
I explored multiple directions before deciding on anything. The goal was not to find the right answer immediately: it was to generate enough options to identify the strongest ones.
| User need | Possible solution |
|---|---|
| Share pet moments | Social feed with per-pet profiles and a familiar posting flow borrowed from Instagram |
| Feel safe on the map | Explicit visibility toggle with ghost mode (invisible by default) and privacy-first safe zones |
| Track my pet in real time | GPS live map with breadcrumb trail, geofence alerts and sub-10-second position refresh |
| Report local dangers | Long-press map reporting with danger categories and nearby-owner broadcast alert |
| Start and record a walk | Walk sessions with start/stop, live route recording, stats summary and a social share option |
| Find pet products and services | In-app shop integrated as a supporting layer: accessories, food, local services and booking |
| Discover the local pet community | Map-based social discovery of nearby owners, events and pet-friendly places |
The strongest ideas clustered around three dimensions: social familiarity, location safety and physical-world integration through GPS. Commerce consistently appeared as a supporting layer, never as a primary destination.
Not everything could go into v1. I used a Must / Should / Could / Later framework to decide what was essential for the MVP and what should evolve with the product.
| Priority | Feature | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Must have | Social feed and posting | Core social value: the primary reason users open the app daily |
| Pet profile (per pet) | Identity layer required by the feed, map, walk and shop layers | |
| Map with visibility toggle | Location sharing requires explicit privacy controls from day one | |
| User onboarding and privacy setup | A multi-feature app needs a focused first-run to reach first value fast | |
| Should have | Walk tracking with GPS | Drives daily retention through walk sessions and activity stats |
| Danger report system | Community safety feature that increases trust and map engagement | |
| Could have | In-app shop | High revenue potential but must not distract from the social and safety core in v1 |
| Chat and messaging | Increases social engagement: can follow core feed launch without blocking it | |
| Later | Business profiles and bookings | Strong B2B layer: high value but requires a separate onboarding flow |
I prioritised features based on three criteria: user value, feasibility for an MVP and alignment with PetNoah's core mission. The first version needed to focus on the social feed, map safety and pet profiles. GPS and commerce follow as the community grows.
Six core flows reconstructed to clarify the most important user actions before any interface decisions. The interface needed to support real user actions, not disconnected screens.
These six flows cover the full MVP: social posting, map safety, danger reporting, GPS walk tracking and commerce. Together they define the navigation logic and the sequence of every key task.
I organised the app's structure around the main user goals: sharing content, staying safe, tracking walks and accessing services. The IA was designed for daily action, not passive data storage.
The information architecture was organised around five primary destinations. Feed and Map are the daily anchors. Walks extends the product into physical space. Shop and Profile provide supporting utility without competing for primary attention.
The ideation phase closed with a clear product concept built around four pillars. These became the framework for every design decision in the Design phase.
A familiar feed-first experience where pet owners share content, follow other pets and discover nearby owners.
A map layer that turns location sharing into a trust feature: privacy controls, danger alerts and live visibility.
Walk sessions that extend the product into physical space, with live GPS tracking and shareable route summaries.
An integrated shop that supports the pet ecosystem without competing with the social and safety core.
PetNoah is Social first, Safety second, Tracking as a daily extension, Commerce as the ecosystem layer. In that order.
From rough wireframes to a smoother, familiar social experience. The goal was to make the app feel smooth without distancing it too much from the mental models users already know from major social platforms.
The app should feel immediately understandable to users who already know Instagram, Facebook or TikTok patterns. No new grammar to learn.
The map is not a hidden utility. It is the second major pillar of the product after the social experience.
Location sharing requires control, visibility states and safe defaults, especially for younger or family-linked users.
The shop should support the ecosystem without turning the app into an e-commerce product first.
Final screens will be uploaded once the NDA period ends and the app is released on the stores.
My work helped transform a broad product vision into a clearer mobile ecosystem: a familiar pet-first social experience, supported by map-based safety features, privacy controls, walk tracking and a commerce layer that does not distract from the core experience.