TheraPet

Logo

Presentation

Inspiration

Our inspiration is the positive connection that exists between humans and animals. Humans, both mentally and physically, benefit from the companionship of a pet. It is known to reduce blood pressure, increase cardiovascular health, and release hormones that reduce stress and increase happiness. Similarly, humans benefit animals, particularly shelter animals, in that they become less lonely, stressed, anxious, and depressed.

What it does

TheraPet is a mobile application that allows users to have a dog or cat at their doorstep with the click of a button. At this time, TheraPet prioritizes animals in shelters. Shelter pets often face high levels of anxiety, depression, and PTSD, and having a consistent flow of human interaction can help them relieve such mental strain. Likewise, humans go through mental challenges, and animals are known to help ease the symptoms. App users can choose between dogs and cats, select an animal, then choose whether they want their new friend to come to them or if they will go visit the shelter. Our project was created to not only benefit human mental health, but also animal mental health.

How we built it

We used Figma to create a prototype of the app without the use of code. It allowed us to visualize what the app will look like, how it will run, and what sorts of features we expect to have.

Challenges we ran into

Given that our entire group is new to using Figma, we all struggled with becoming acquainted with it at first. Once we figured it out, the process went relatively smoothly. Another challenge was customer discovery. The challenge occurred when we realized that we had not accounted for people with no experience with pets in our survey. We wanted to conduct a survey as soon as possible. Being on a college campus in a time crunch, it was also difficult to talk to people who are not young adults. We hope to obtain a larger sample size in the future.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are incredibly proud to have a working prototype to present. It was completed in under 24 hours, even though none of us were familiar with Figma prior to this weekend. We are also proud to have contacted animal shelters to be aware of their guidelines, if they have any concerns, and whether they see benefit in this app. They agreed that it would not only assist with human mental health, but it would also benefit the animals in several ways. Not only will the dogs and cats have better mental health, but they will also have increased exposure, meaning that people will be more aware that they are up for adoption. This exposure will give them a better chance to leave the confines of the shelter and live a long, happy life in a forever home.

What we learned

We not only learned how to use Figma within the last 24 hours, but we also learned how to prioritize the customer in every aspect of our app. It is a simple, easy-to-use application that requires minimal knowledge of technology. In the event that an individual is going through a mental health crisis, the process of having a therapy animal at their doorstep will be quick and painless.

What's next for TheraPet

We are looking to convert our Figma prototype into code in an effort to create a working mobile application. We also plan to conduct more customer discovery and connect with more animal shelters to benefit both the people and the animals with this app.