Designers

Danielle Stowe, Quinn Goodman, Mary Langley, and Kat Hernandez

For this project, our team was tasked with researching and designing the user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) for a new autonomous robot service that addresses a real-world business challenge. From concept to execution, we developed a fully branded and interactive prototype that allows users to seamlessly engage with the service.

The final design enables users to:

Learn about the service and its offerings
Place an order and complete payment
Receive real-time progress updates while awaiting the autonomous vehicle
Retrieve their item or service upon arrival
Send the vehicle off to its next destination

The Task

Autonomous robot services present both exciting opportunities and significant challenges. While these services aim to streamline operations, reduce costs, and enhance customer experiences, they also introduce potential issues that must be carefully addressed in the design process.

Some key challenges include:

User Trust & Adoption: Customers may be hesitant to rely on autonomous systems for essential services, especially if they have concerns about reliability and security.
Navigation & Accessibility: The robot must navigate diverse environments, avoiding obstacles, adapting to changing conditions, and ensuring accessibility for all users.
Communication & Clarity: Users need clear, real-time updates on their order status, estimated arrival time, and instructions on how to interact with the robot.
Technical Failures & Downtime: Unexpected technical malfunctions, connectivity issues, or software bugs could disrupt service and frustrate customers.
Ethical & Safety Concerns: Autonomous systems must be designed with safety in mind, ensuring they do not pose risks to pedestrians, other vehicles, or the environment.

By addressing these potential challenges in the UX/UI design, we worked to create an intuitive and reliable service that fosters user confidence and ensures a seamless experience.

The Problem

A Problem: The Need for Adequate Pet Sitters

Although cats are very self-sufficient, leaving them alone for extended periods of time can cause problems, not just for the cat but also for pet parents.

Unable to Check-In:

Pet parents don’t want to be away from their feline friends. When they must leave for extended periods of time, they worry if their cat is okay, if it is eating/drinking, and if it is bored. Purchasing an indoor camera allows pet parents to check in on their furbabies, but the camera does not provide any interaction or entertainment for the cat.

No Entertainment:

While current automatic pet-feeders allow for timed feedings, they don’t provide any entertainment for our furry friends. While pet-parents are able to leave their cat alone for a few days using automatic feeders, without entertainment cats can become bored, anxious, and depressed.

The Solution

purrpal is an AV robot that will watch over, entertain, and feed your cat while you’re away. It’s the PURR-FECT pet sitter.

purrpal consists of 3 entities: the Hub, the AV, and the APP.

The Hub

Includes the automatic feeding station, water reservoir, the docking station for the AV, 360° camera, automatic laser pointer, treat dispenser, and an interactive entertainment screen.

The PAL (AV)

The PAL is an autonomous robot that is able to traverse the indoor environment, in order to check-in and entertain your cat.

The APP

Pet-Parents are able to connect to the purrpal app, customize preferences, receive notifications, control HUB functions such as the 360° camera and treat dispenser, remotely control the PAL (AV), and set entertainment - all remotely from the app.