Catty - A Voice Assistant

A communication tool for you and your purrfect friend

Inspiration

Cats are undeniably one of the most popular pet choices. In fact, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association, about 25% of American households welcome these cute, furry companions as part of their family. However, bringing a cat home can be both exciting and nerve-wracking, as many owners seek guidance online to ensure they provide the best care for their feline friend. That’s why Catty, a voice assistant, was designed—to offer helpful information and support. This is an individual project created just for fun! 😊

Goals

Enhance experience in taking care of cats and reduce the difficulties.

Duration

1.5 Months

My Role

Conversational Designer

 
 

First, let’s find out what people want to learn about cat.

 

Three participants were recruited from friend connections. Each interview was around 30 mins. Interviews were conducted remotely due to the covid 19 pandemic.

 
Catty User.png
 
 

What about interaction?

How does it affect the relationship between owner and their cat?

 

Well, I Conducted an observation study.

Analyzed five videos of negative human-cat interactions to identify circumstances that lead to difficulties or bad experiences in cat care. Then, studied five videos of positive interactions to understand the factors that bring joy to both humans and cats. Observed the emotions and behaviors of both humans and cats in all videos to gain deeper insights.

 

What did I find out from the observation study?

 
Catty Observation.png
 
 

It’s time to meet Catty!

Voice Assistant Persona

 
Catty Persona.png
 
 

After creating the persona of Catty, few sample scripts were written to display Catty’s characteristics.

 
 
Catty Sample Script.png
 

An interaction model was created to display users’ intentions. Based on the user research, intentions are mainly focused on:

  • Cat behavior

  • Cat health

  • Cat feeding

  • Cat grooming

  • Cat handling

  • Litter box

  • Spaying and neutering

  • Breed and Type

  • Cat Play

 
 
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Which intent users will go for?

What is the consequence if Catty gets the information wrong?

 

The next step is to design flow diagrams that illustrate all the potential conversational paths in the VUI system.

 
 
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How do we know if Catty is gonna work?

Let’s do some user testings to find out!

 

The goal of this user testing was to understand how users experience interactions with Catty. The study focused on three key areas: users' expectations of Catty’s tone and characteristics, the ease of use, and the effectiveness of prompts.

Task 1 - Click to open the prototype

Imagine you have a healthy 1 years old domestic cat. Since you are still a beginner,  you just purchase Catty to learn more about cats. Now you need to set up your cat profile. 

  • To understand users' perceptions of Catty’s tone and characteristics.

  • 4 out of 5 participants completed the task.  



Task 2 - Click to open the prototype

You think there is something wrong with your cat. She/he has been eating less than usual and vomited some hairballs. You are very worried so you decide to ask Catty about it.

  • To evaluate whether Catty can provide a sense of comfort, as health-related questions can often be stressful.

  • All participants completed the tasks.  

Botmock was a tool to create Catty prototype for user testing.

 

Users prefer medium to high levels of personalization:

  1. Users want Catty to recognize a wider range of utterances.

  2. Technical issues with Botmock were a major pain point. Using a low-fidelity prototype next time might improve usability.

  3. The intro prompt needs revision to ensure users respond with the intended "yes" intent.

  4. Step-by-step instructions can be difficult to follow and should be more concise.

  5. Overall, users found Catty’s responses natural and concise, and they liked the experience.

 
 
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What did I learn and how can I do it better?

 

  • Designing an AI chatbot is very fun.

  • It requires designers to be thoughtful and detail-oriented.

  • It's a long-term project, as capturing all possible user intents at once is impossible.

  • User data is a valuable source of inspiration, revealing how people speak and react.

  • Exploring different user testing methods before starting research ensures richer insights.

  • Collaborating with other designers can spark new ideas for crafting effective utterances.