INTRODUCTION
Autopet’s Litter-Robot is the highest rated, WiFi-enabled, automatic, self-cleaning litter box for cats. You never have to scoop cat litter again, all while giving your kitty a clean bed of litter for each use.
MY ROLE
As lead designer I was responsible for making high fidelity mock ups and prototypes. I played the pivotal role in earning the client’s trust in order for necessary improvements to be made.
THE CHALLENGE
Create a way that gives people freedom from their litter box duties by allowing them to view waste drawer levels, get notifications, troubleshoot, and see recent usage history for insights into their cat's health - all from their phone.
THE PROBLEM
Initially the client mainly wanted our developers to finish where their previous developer left off. Problem was, there wasn’t a designer involved when they first started and the original developer didn’t have any design experience. The client needed convincing to re-evaluate adding more design into their forecast.
Cat owners rejoiced when an automated litter box was released, but they still were unable to track usage, know when to empty the waste bin, or receive notifications if an error occurred unless they were home to check. They needed a way to keep up to date no matter where they are.
THE SOLUTION
THE DESIGN
I started out by altering only the most dire design needs that would result in the least amount of additional work for the developers. After presenting the changes and explaining the impact they would have, the client liked the improvements so much that they decided to increase allocations for design by an additional 2 months.
The design is clean, light and playful, as well as maintaining a minimalistic flow. The color scheme and font selection were changed to reflect their brand, where as previously there was no continuity.
My absolute favorite part about working on this project was getting to create the custom illustrations and animations. The client liked the cat so much that they centered their marketing videos around them and broadcasted them at CES.
CES 2017
One of the greatest opportunities I’ve had to date was getting to join the Autopets team at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. While there I got to help pitch their latest Litter Robot model by presenting the new accompanying app I designed to people all over the world. It allowed me to test my abilities to present to an audience, even when there is a language barrier present.
