Authors: Noel McCarthy & Osborn Osayande
Developed in 2024 as part of a Mobile Software Development module.
PetCareApp is an Android application designed for pet owners to easily store, monitor, and track their pets daily activities such as walking and feeding.
The focus during development was on reducing cognitive load and maintaining accessibility across all age groups.
Every interaction was designed to feel immediate and intuitive, ensuring that even first-time users can navigate the app without tutorials or cluttered menus.
The project was developed in Kotlin, using MVVM architecture, with persistent local data storage through Room (SQLite) and real-time route tracking via the Google Maps SDK.
Consistency in UI and UX was achieved through Material Design principles, including soft colour palettes, iconography, and gesture-based actions like swiping to delete logs.
PetCareApp ultimately serves as a lightweight but complete example of thoughtful Android application design, balancing practical functionality with a focus on simplicity, polish, and user experience.
Main Features:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| 🐕 Pet Profiles | Add, edit, or delete pet details such as name, breed, age, and weight. Can store many pets. |
| 🚶 Walk Tracker | Track walks in real time using Google Maps, with route visualization and stats. |
| 🍽️ Feeding Log | Simple 1 click to log feeding sessions with date and time; swipe to delete old entries. |
| 🏠 Home Dashboard | View your most recent walk and feeding entries at a glance. |
| 🎨 Design | Minimalist loading screen and consistent Material Design look throughout app. Simple swipe gesture to delete activities. |
The app opens with a minimalist splash screen to the home page. I wanted the homepage to feature simple navigation to each feature, and then show the most recent walk and feeding activity. The reasoning was to keep the app simple to use, so there is a low cognitive demand. This helped keep the app accessible and each feature follows this logic.
- A short splash screen introduces the app before opening the Home Screen.
- The home dashboard shows the most recent walk and feeding activity at the top for quick access and recall.
- Navigation buttons give access to the apps core sections: Track a Walk, Feeding Logger, and Pet Profiles including Settings.
The application will request location permissions before first use, after this the track a walk feature is as simple to use as possible, simply select 'Go for a walk', select one of your pets from a prompt, and then the app will plot live your route, distance, time, and an estimated steps. Walks are saved and can be viewed, with a small preview of the route took.
- View all previous walks and start new ones.
- Select a pet before tracking; live GPS updates display the route on Google Maps as you walk.
- Track distance, duration, and steps.
- Swipe left to delete a walk entry.
Here you can add your pet or pets! You edit and delete them too, including varied information about your pet, including notes which I had intended to be for medical information initially but later changed to be a general note field.
- Add, edit, and delete pet profiles.
- Includes breed, age, weight, and notes fields.
- Designed to be intentional, confirmation required before deleting.
I didn't want feed logging to be tedious, as physically feeding your pet is, so in the app you just select 'Log Feeding' and the pet, and it will log a feed at the time and date.
- Create timestamped feeding entries for each pet.
- Swipe left to delete entries.
- If no pets exist, users are prompted to add one first.
| Component | Technology |
|---|---|
| Language | Kotlin |
| Architecture | MVVM |
| Database | Room (SQLite) |
| Maps | Google Maps SDK for Android |
| Build Tool | Gradle (KTS) |