Hill’s Pet Profile
Hill’s Pet Nutrition is a global leader in science-led pet food, offering veterinary-recommended diets for pets at every life stage. To support pet parents beyond nutrition, Hill’s developed the Pet Profile website, a platform to help users track their pets’ health, manage dietary info, and access care tools.
My role
Created the interview scripts and testing scenarios
Conducted 4 moderated usability tests and took notes on 6 usability tests.
Evaluated key features and synthesized findings using affinity mapping in FigJam
Presented key insights and actionable design recommendations
Team
Penny Kasinphila (Me), UX design intern
Teressa Clark, UX Design Manager
Shirley Chaysinh , Product Manager
Duration
Jan - March 2025
Tools
UserTesting.com, Figma, and Fig Jam
Objective
To evaluate the usability and value of Hill’s Pet Profile features,this usability study focused on three key features: Milestones, Question of the Week , add diets and Share Pet Profile. The goal was to evaluate how effectively the platform helps pet parents monitor, learn about, and share their pets’ care needs, and identify ways to improve the experience through real user feedback.
Home Page
Profile
Milestones
Why do people track their pets?
People track their pets to stay organized, manage health proactively, feel more in control, and reduce stress. It helps them care for their pets like family, catch issues early, and collaborate better with vets, especially when pets have special need.
“ My cats are like my kids, apart from main job. ”
“My dog is part of the family, tracking their health helps ensure they get the best care.”
What Information do people track?
Pet parents see pets as family and want tools to ensure proper care and early detection of health issues. They track:
Health & Medical
Medical history, Vet visits & vaccination
Nutrition & Daily Care
Diet & feeding patterns
Development
Behavior records
Methodology
10 moderated remote usability tests (45 minutes each)
Devices: Mobile
Participants: 5 first-time pet parents + 5 experienced (US, UK, France, Canada)
Tools: Live Hill’s website, UserTesting.com for Moderated Usability Testing, FigJam for analysis
Tasks and Scenarios
Scenario 1 – Home Page/Question of the Week
You just adopted a puppy, Kora, and want to track her health. You’ve already created an account.
Task: Where would you start on the homepage?
Scenario 2 – Record Dietary Info
Kora started eating new Hills Puppy Food.
Task: How would you update her dietary info?
Scenario 3 – Milestones
Task 1: Kora had her first vet visit. How would you record it?
Task 2: Kora starts eating kibble. How would you track the switch date?
Scenario 4 – Share Pet Profile
You’re going on vacation and leaving Kora with a neighbor.
Task: How would you share her profile?
My notes
Analysis
We analyzed interview notes using affinity mapping to synthesize insights. This process revealed key themes, most notably, users’ strong need for customization and personalization in how they track and manage pet milestones.
Overall Thoughts
Overall, users gave positive feedback and would be interested in using the website more if it offered better customization and integrated more seamlessly into their busy lives.
Most users liked the milestones and tracking concept, as it helped them monitor their pet’s development, health, and activities.
Home page & Question of the week (QOW)
Users had mixed reactions to the question of the week, with some feeling it lacked value and relevance.
Many users expected more personalized content tailored to their pet’s breed, health, and care needs.
Some preferred alternative learning formats, such as articles or videos, instead of quizzes.
Home page’s Recommendation
Existing design
Proposed design
Replace or complement quizzes with articles or videos under “Pet Care Tips & Guides.”
Add a search field to help users find the content they’re looking for.
Personalize content based on pet type, breed, and life stage.
Keep the Question of the Week, but move it to the bottom and add explanations after answers, including a retry option.
Milestones
They liked the concept of milestones and found them helpful for tracking pet health and activities, but execution fell short.
They wanted more customization, including the ability to add notes and create custom milestones tailored to their pet’s needs.
Additionally, many users felt overwhelmed by too many milestones at once and preferred medical-related milestones in a separate tab.
They also wanted integration with vets and calendar syncing for better tracking and reminders.
Milestones’ Recommendation 1
Existing design
Proposed design
Add separate tabs for Medical and General Milestones. Medical milestones can be recorded by a veterinarian.
Provide an “Add Custom Milestone” button to allow users to add their own milestones.
Create two categories: Essential Milestones and Optional Milestones.
Add status tags to clearly indicate what has been completed and what is still incomplete.
Milestones’ Recommendation 2
Existing design
Proposed design
Allow note fields per milestone
Add calendar sync and reminder settings
Adding Diet : Searching for food
Most users found the food search intuitive, but some struggled without using filters and search bar, expecting terms like "puppy" to be included in food names.
Most users(4/10) found that search bar is easy to use for finding food, but some (2/10) didn’t see search/filter.
We observed most (4/10) struggled to find food without using search or filter.
Searching For Food Recommendations
Existing design
Proposed design
Make the search and filter bar sticky so users can edit or change their search terms or filters at any time, without needing to scroll back to the top.
Adding Diet : Feeding Guide
The feeding guide was helpful, as it helped with portion sizes, but a few users found its spreadsheet format difficult to read on mobile.
And some users interested in more personalized food recommendations
Feeding Guide Recommendations
Existing design
Proposed design
Convert the guide into a more readable layout where users can input their pet’s current age and weight to receive a tailored feeding recommendation, without having to scan the entire table.
Make the “Take the food quiz” option more visually clear by displaying it as a button.
Add a “Food Recommendations” section to help users select the right food for their pet.
Share Pet
Users like the concept of sharing pet profiles with caretakers. All users successfully found the share option, but half felt it should be more clear rather than hidden.
Users expected shared information to contain essential care details, including feeding instructions, vet contact information, vaccination records, and medication details, especially for caretakers.
Share Pet Recommendations
Existing design
Proposed design
Move the “Share Pet Profile” option to a more visible area and use a horizontal three-dots icon styled as a secondary button.
Adjust the layout and alignment of the photo, pet’s name, and share button to visually group them as a unit.
Allow users to add custom instructions and detailed care notes.
Share Feeding Guide Recommendations
Existing design
Proposed design
Replaced the spreadsheet-style feeding guide with a simplified, tailored layout.
Displays only the relevant feeding portion based on the pet’s age and weight.
Added an “Additional Notes” section for custom care instructions (e.g., feeding times, walking routines, allergies).
Impact and effort matrix
To prioritize and plan next steps, we used the Impact–Effort Matrix to help identify and define high-impact, low-effort and high-impact, high-effort tasks.
Next Step
Short Term : Low Effort / High Impact
Add note fields to milestones and share profile
Improve mobile layout of feeding guide
Reorganize medical data into its own section
Long Term : High Effort / High Impact
Introduce article/video formats for QOTW
Allow milestone customization and tagging
Add calendar syncing and reminder features
Explore integration with vet systems for real-time updates
What I Learned
This project gave me hands-on experience, especially in UX research and usability testing. I learned how to write open-ended questions that encourage users to share more about why they act a certain way and what they’re thinking. The key findings and insights helped shape recommendations and design guidelines based on real user feedback. It was a valuable experience in UX evaluation, showing me how to identify areas for improvement in existing features.
This experience strengthened my skills in
Conducting interviews and writing effective scripts and questions
Analyzing and synthesizing key findings through affinity mapping
“Stop talking about the system, let’s talk about the people.”
Mentorship and UX Team
Once again, I want to thank Teressa Clark for being both my manager and mentor. I learned so much from her, UX research, analytical thinking, and how to conduct usability testing.
I’d also like to thank the amazing UX team for creating such a supportive environment, sharing insights, and always being generous with feedback. Working with this team made the experience even more rewarding.
