A fun way for users to keep track of and stick to their goals in the form of a pet simulator

Role:

UX, UI, Visual Design, Art

Project

Goals can be challenging to stick to and achieve. A gamified process can make it easier by being engaging and interactive.

My goal: Create a mobile game that would help people that create and track their goals while being a fun experience.

Concept and Visual Inspiration

My idea was a pet simulator in which the concepts and User Interface was largely based on the game Pokemon, where the user owns multiple creatures with different characteristics, including its “Type” such as Water, Ice, Ghost, Dragon, etc which are color-coded.

Pokemon game UI Inspiration

In my game, the user would have multiple virtual “Go-pets” (name derived from Goal + Pets), in which each Go-pet’s Type would represent a different category of self-improvement goals that they could set, such as Exercise, Nutrition, Education, and Work goals. The user would record their goals’ progress and be rewarded by their Go-pet gaining “Experience,” which when it gains enough, the Go-pet would gain a level. The user would also be able to care for each pet, activities such feeding, grooming, playing, and reading, which would improve its mood.

Visually, my game’s interface would show the user’s list of pets in a grid format, with bright, “fun” colors, like in Pokemon and virtual pet simulator games.

Virtual Pet Simulator UI Inspiration

Go-pet Character Designs

I designed each Go-pet based on the type of goal they represent, researching different animals that would be a loose foundation of their designs.

Res-pet

Goal type: Sleep

Design foundation: Rabbit – a quiet animal

Nutri-pet

Goal type: Nutrition

Design foundation: Panda bear – eats a huge amount of food daily

Luv-pet

Goal type: Relationships

Design foundation: Lovebird – forms loving, attentive and lifelong bond with its mate

Exer-pet

Goal type: Exercise

Design foundation: Horse -strong, e.g. capable of running hours after it is born

Edu-pet

Goal type: Education

Design foundation: Owl – widely believed to be intelligent due to its looks

Biz-pet

Goal type: Work

Design foundation: Bee – works hard, hence the expression “busy as a bee”

Mobile Game

Game Task Flow

Home screen

Shows all the user’s existing Go-pets
Color-coded by type of goal

Different ways of organizing information within the grid

User Flows

Add a new Go-pet

With these steps, the user adds a new goal to achieve. Each step is designed to engage the user.

The user enters his or her goal that their Go-pet would represent.

In a prototype, the hatching of the egg would be an animation to further engage the user.

Add new goal type

The user has a list of goal types to choose from when they add a new Go-pet, but they can manually add a new type of goal if it isn’t on the list.

Goals Screen

Here, the user can keep track of the goals they set, add new ones. Each time they record their progress, their Go-pet will gain “Experience.” When their Go-pet gains enough experience, it “levels up” as a reward.

Pamper a Pet

The user cares for their Go-pet with various activities such as playing, grooming, feeding, reading, and dressing up. The more the user cares for the Go-pet, the better its mood.