Perro is a UK-based wellness app for dogs, aimed at improving the overall health, fitness, and happiness of pets through activity tracking, mindfulness, and gamified rewards. I led the design solo from discovery and concept development to prototypes and final UI creating a product that successfully secured funding and went live with 5-star reviews.
Project Results
28% higher daily engagement via gamified features
£150 UK Innovation Grant secured post redesign
4.9 ⭐️ average rating on the App Store
5000+ users within 3 months of launch
My Role:
Product Designer
Duration:
Phase 1: 4 Months
Phase 2: 3 Months
Project Scope:
Design, prototyping, User research, Design systems, Technical specs, Cross team collaboration
The Problem
Dog owners often lack structured ways to track their pet’s health and activity. Most existing tools are fragmented or clinical. Pet wellness apps were either too clinical or too gimmicky. We wanted something that balanced empathy with engagement, a product that felt both useful and joyful.
Solution
To solve these challenges, I focused on creating a wellness ecosystem that blends data-driven insights with emotional connection. The idea was to build one unified space where dog parents could track, learn, and bond with their pets while feeling rewarded for consistency.
Setting our course
🎯 Design Objective: The idea was to create an experience that motivates daily pet wellness routines through delight, empathy, and smart design.
Weather influences dog's behaviour far more than expected.
Discovery
Before we started sketching, we needed to understand what joy means in pet care.
Approach
Results
Experience Strategy
The goal was to blend health tracking with emotional design. The design had to be friendly and shouldn't give a clinical vibe.
Structure
Four primary journeys: Onboarding, Daily Tracking, Mindfulness, Rewards
Interaction Focus
Light motion feedback, streak animations, progress arcs
Tone & Visuals
Friendly, uplifting, and reward-centric
The Perro experience is built around four core pillars:
Daily Action
Easy logging and tracking for all wellness activities.
Emotional Bonding
Training and mindfulness content to deepen the dog–owner relationship.
Gamification
XP, badges, streaks, and levels to build long-term habits.
Community & Discovery
Dog-friendly maps, social interactions, and shared recommendations.
Wireframing the flows
The objective was to prioritise clarity and joy. Each screen was designed to reassure, not overwhelm. The wireframes defined the backbone of the experience.
💡 Design decision: Move from a dashboard view → story-based cards for each activity. → Result: Users intuitively followed a gamified “daily walk” journey.
Visual Language
Brand Essence: “Playfully Premium.” Perro’s visual identity was inspired by warmth, joy, and soft playfulness, elements that make dog parents feel comforted and motivated.
Visual principles
Friendly rounded elements
🤔 Why it matters?
Emotional design builds loyalty. Every color and micro-interaction was tuned to make owners feel seen and celebrated.
Designing the Home Experience
The Home screen is the center of the Perro experience. Adaptive, personal, and full of context.
Weather-Adaptive Backgrounds
The background reacts to live weather conditions: sunny, cloudy, rainy. This subtly nudges walking behaviour and increases daily engagement.
Content Carousel
Rotating cards showing tips, Twitter updates, weather alerts, and app news keeping the home screen constantly fresh.
Routines
Daily to-dos like walks, feeding, water, playtime, and training. All tappable, trackable, and satisfying to complete.
Multi-Dog Switching
Perro Family
Activity Tracking Ecosystem
Perro’s most powerful module is the activity tracker. Beautifully visual, flexible, and data rich.
Multiple ways to track
Perro wearable device integration
Google Fit / Apple Health sync
Manual logging
Persistent Bottom Sheet
Available anywhere in the app. Swipe up to start, pause, or resume activities, launch mindfulness sessions, or track ongoing progress.
Four swipeable categories
Overview: Holistic daily/weekly activity
Time: Active minutes, trends
Distance: Steps, routes, walks
Playtime: Joyous moments captured
The interface uses progress rings, gradients, cards, and smooth transitions to make data instantly readable and encouraging.
Perro&You
Perro isn’t just about physical activity. It’s also about emotional connection.
Mindfulness & Training Content
Guided videos
Interactive audio sessions
Step-by-step practice activities
Bite-sized training tips
Curated 'For You' Feed (Premium)
AI-based recommendations tailored to your dog’s behaviour, age, progress, and needs. This section adds heart and meaning to the overall experience.
Rewards & Perro Health
Perro helps users connect with their local dog community:
XP System
Every interaction earns XP. Adding Routines, Activities, Mindfulness sessions, Social posting, everything is rewarding.
Badges & Levels
Milestones unlock badges and level-ups, creating satisfying long-term progression.
Woof Rewards
Redeem real discounts from brands like ASDA, Pooch & Mutt, Perfect Pet Insurance, and more.
Perro Health (Premium Plan)
Exclusive partner discounts
Curated “For You” mindfulness feed
Advanced analytics
Vet chat & on-demand guidance and many more benefits
Designing the Delight (Final UI)
Turning pet wellness into an experience worth returning to.
💬 Design Highlight: Introduced a “bond meter”, a visual indicator showing pet-owner engagement. → Increased average session time by 24%.
Project Constraints
This project had several real-world constraints that shaped the design process and pushed me to make pragmatic decisions.
No Wearable
Skip Signup
The client wanted users to experience the core features without registration, so I designed a complete “skip signup” flow that still allowed onboarding, habits, and core interactions without user accounts.
Delays
Consistency
The app needed to maintain a simple, friendly tone while still supporting complex tracking logic, so I had to balance clarity, fun, and functional depth carefully.
Limited Bandwidth
Perro&You Content
This set of constraints reinforced the need for clear prioritization, modular components, and progressive enhancement across the product.
Key Decisions
These were the critical decisions that shaped the final experience of Perro.
Essentials
Reduced onboarding friction by cutting the first-time experience down to essentials, and designing a flow where the user could skip signup entirely but still be guided into the app.
Gamification
Created the 3-tier rewards system (S,M,L) to simplify the gamification model and ensure users instantly understood “one activity = one reward.”
App Engagement
Prioritized habit loops like daily streaks, badges, and check-ins to encourage repeat engagement.
Scalable Designs
Designed screens to scale from manual-only tracking to wearable + manual hybrid without redesigning the foundation later.
Fun Microcopy
Cards UI
These decisions helped keep the app simple on the surface while supporting the client’s long-term roadmap underneath.
Collaboration & Handoff
Even though I owned the design end-to-end, a big part of the work involved cross-functional collaboration and continuous alignment.
Reviews
Conducted weekly reviews with founders and dev teams to ensure the experience reflected the brand’s voice and goals.
Devs in Loop
Coordinated closely with developers to define what could realistically ship in Version 1 vs later phases.
Design Tokens
Delivered complete Figma specs, including responsive states, interaction notes, tokens, and component rules, making the build more predictable.
Prototypes
Shared quick prototype walkthroughs to align on animations, transitions, and the overall feel of the product.
Handoff
Design Service
This ensured the final product stayed consistent with the design intent and shipped without major blockers.
The design didn't just work visually, it created measurable impact and engagement.
Active users within 3 months
1K+
Average rating on App Store
4.9⭐
UK Innovation Grant secured
£150K
Increase in daily engagement
Product Design, Web Design
Next Project
Social & Community
Perro helps users connect with their local dog community:
Explore dog-friendly locations on a map
View user reviews, ratings, and photos
Share experiences directly in the app
Help other dog parents discover trusted places
This turns Perro into a connective, community-driven app, not just a personal tracker.