My idea

For this project, I want to create an interface that helps healthcare professionals keep track of the health and wellbeing of endangered animals. It would track their location and keep live information about their health. I thought it would be beneficial to carry out a competitor analysis to inspire ideas and find things I should avoid.

Competitor analysis

FitBark

FitBark has a mobile app that can be connected to a tracker on your dog’s collar. It tracks their location and a wide range of things about their health and wellbeing 24/7. The tracker on the collar itself is light and comfortable for the pet. It is also very durable and even waterproof. If I was to make something like this, these are all things to consider.

Strengths

• Location tracker: It connects to different Wi-Fi routers as your dog travels, providing you with notifications of their location. This updates every minute which can be helpful in an emergency or to let you know if your dog has arrived somewhere safely.
• Sleep and activity monitor: I think that tracking sleep can be very beneficial. If you notice that your dog isn’t sleeping well, this could be an early sign of an illness. Being able to track their activity level and set goals can be motivating for users and improve their pet’s health.
• Stress and anxiety monitor: This is useful to have during the times when you aren’t with your dog for example when they are home alone. If you see that their anxiety peaks during these times, you can then seek advice for this.
• Easy to use interface: This app looks very user-friendly, easy to navigate, and has many useful features.
• Available on apple watch: Being able to access the same health statistics and location from your watch makes it even easier for users.

Weaknesses

• The GPS tracker is only available in the US: This limits their target audience.
• Users require a subscription: This can be expensive over time and many people would prefer a one-off payment.
• If there is a weak Wi-Fi signal, the battery will be used up quicker: If this runs out, the app will no longer be useful.
• Advanced feature difficulty: This app can help you track issues such as osteoarthritis, skin conditions, etc. If the user doesn’t know much about these or what they should be looking for, it can be difficult to navigate through these features.

Opportunities

• Expanding to other animals: Now, the device is only aimed at tracking the health of your dog. However, they could grow massively by including other pets or even larger animals like horses or wild animals. With my app, something like this could be used on pandas, for example.
• Microchips: They could eventually use microchips instead of collars. These are invisible so they wont cause any discomfort to the animal. They also wont need to be charged.
• Expand their community section: Now, they have a leader board in which the dog that has had the most activity recorded places 1^st. They could expand this by allowing people to talk to each other and share advice and experiences.
• Collaborate with vets: They could have a chat box so users can contact vets, receive advice, and even book consultations.

 

All these features are things I would consider including in my app. I think they would work just as well to track the health of endangered animals in an easy way. I may consider also designing for an apple watch as this would be useful for health professionals on the go. I didn’t find many weaknesses to this app, so it inspires me to create something that works as well as this.

 

Pawfit

This app allows you to track the location of your pet, both dogs and cats.

Strengths

• Multiple devices: This app can be used on phones, tablets, and Apple watches. This makes it very convenient for users.
• Easily track your pet’s location: You get live updates on where they are, the battery level, and the signal.
• Track multiple pets: This is useful if you have more than one pet.
• Track activity: You can see how many calories they’ve burned, steps, activity, and rest levels. This can motivate owners to keep their pets active to improve their health and even spot abnormalities in their behavior.
• Simple interface: The app is laid out in an easy-to-use way with icons along the bottom creating good navigation. Users aren’t overwhelmed with unnecessary information.

 

Weaknesses

• Disconnecting: There is a chance the device will lose signal or run out of battery, making the app useless.
• Live tracking: There is live tracking, but it only lasts for 10 minutes. When out for walks, dogs can go missing unexpectedly so it would be beneficial for this time to be extended.
• Inaccuracy: Reviews have stated that occasionally, the tracker will point them in the wrong direction. This could add more anxiety to the user in an already stressful situation.
• Uses a lot of battery power

 

Opportunities

• Community feature: This could enable owners to communicate and share advice. It could also motivate them to be more active with their animal and further improve their health.
• More health-focused: As well as tracking their location, they could also help owners track their heart rate, sleeping patterns, etc.

 

PetPace

This app is connected to a smart collar that tracks your pet’s vitals and behaviours.

Strengths

• Vital signs updates: You can track their pulse, respiration, and temperature to make sure they don’t have a fever. This can be reassuring for owners and make them aware of illnesses early on.
• HRV: This is their heart rate variability which can help users indicate stress or pain. This is something new which I haven’t seen with any other apps, but I think is very useful.
• Reminders: You can set reminders for vet appointments or for medication. I think it is useful to have everything in the same place.
• Charts: It provides charts of how much activity they have been doing. This can encourage users to keep their pets active.
• Alerts: The app provides alerts if they have a high pulse, fever, etc. This is useful if you aren’t on the app much and wouldn’t notice otherwise.

Weaknesses

• Charts: The charts don’t have much of a description of what they are showing. This can make it difficult for users to understand.
• Information hierarchy: The headings and body copy are almost the same size. This makes everything blend into one and nothing really stands out.
• Colour: I think colour could have been used better to make important information stand out. A more considered colour pallet could also be beneficial.
• Bland: Although they use icons and some images, I think this app could benefit from some illustrations to break up the content more and make it more visually appealing.

Opportunities

• Goals: Giving users small goals to achieve could encourage them to improve their pet care.
• Location tracker: The animal already must wear a collar for this app so adding a tracker could be easy and beneficial.

 

Doing this competitor analysis has been very insightful. Listing the strengths has given me some great ideas of features to include in my app. Reading the reviews of these apps has been inspiring as I want to design something that has improved animal health like these have. Thinking about the weaknesses really opened my mind and put me into the perspective of the user. It has shown me things I should avoid in my app. Lastly, the opportunities encouraged me to think outside the box and again, gave me ideas for my own project.