Animalia App
Role (s)
Animalia
A social knowledge app for animal lovers.
Product development
UX research
UX copywriting
UI design
Brand design
Motion design
Sneak peek of the final app
Overview & research
A social knowledge app for animal lovers
Simply put, Animalia is a social media app for people that love, live or work with animals. It combines elements of education and entertainment simultaneously by having a community driven knowledge bank of all animals (think Wikipedia) while it also has a social interaction, posting and following mechanic (think Instagram).
The Problem
290M
Average animal account followers across social media
65%
Of all social media users want to or already follow an animal related page
55%
All content on social media is animals
500+
Hours of animal content is posted online every week
35%
Of all social media users have
pet accounts
0
Social apps or platforms are dedicated to the animal community
If it is not obvious yet, there is a multi million user community to build. A place that puts meaning to the numbers above. Because the question to ask then is, Why do animals exist as part of the social media ether when they have enough power in volumes and interest to own their own social media space?
That problem is what Animalia solves.
Surely, someone has already tried to address this market.
Indeed they have. Google has a huge repository of information you can access through their lens or a simple google search. Wikipedia is, well, Wikipedia, iNaturalist is a nature catalogue app that has tons of knowledge of nature, Merlin bird App focuses on birds, Earthsnap snaps photos of nature, etc.
And yet, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram and TikTok have hundreds of millions of users following animal related accounts instead of flocking to the various nature focused alternatives.
What are they looking for there?
The simple answer, COMMUNITY.
The animal loving community is social.
None of the available alternatives focus on this. They communicate in a top down approach instead of community driven network effects.
Who needs and can use Animalia
These groups of people all share an interest in animals.
They form the community than can use Animalia.
User research
I interviewed a series of potential users.
Key takeaways
01
Users use a combination of multiple apps to get what they want. Google lens to identify, Google images to see photos, Wikipedia for information, YouTube for Videos, Google maps for location and Reddit or Facebook for sharing and discussion.
02
Users would prefer if they could curate their information and receive already filtered material that caters for their different pain points.
03
A feature that shows maps and specific animal locations would be key.
04
The need for community makes users keep using platforms they do not like just because that is where their animal loving communities reside.
05
Major products in the market have no good network effects, work in a top down approach, feel impersonal, outdated, overwhelming and untrustworthy.
06
Even to enthusiasts, only studying about animals can get exhausting. Sometimes, users want to decompress by watching funny videos of their preferred animals or posting their own stories. This pushes them onto other social media platforms that they otherwise would not have joined.
07
Individuals, companies and organization interested in marketing to animal loving communities rely on hit or miss social media advertisement to reach out to their target customers.
08
Wildlife photographers, videographers and filmmakers rely on other platforms to showcase or market their work. Often which means they do not get to market it directly to the eyeballs that would need it.
Animalia puts a focus on these painpoints.
Ease of use.
Well curated information.
Community.
Entertainment.
Utility.
People that love animals want to both learn about them and also be entertained by them.
Which is why Animalia must be an edutainment utility platform.
Themes & opportunities
User personas
Because there are various personas that would find Animalia crucial. I built 3 uber personas out of the research.
Crafting an educational, social, fun and impactful experience.
Site map
The solution in action
Phase 1.
Branding design
Crafting the Logo
The Animalia logo needed a very distinct touch. An appearance that will set it apart from any other product while appearing and feeling animalistic. Representing both the chaos and harmony of the animal kingdom.
Primary
Secondary
App Icon
For Animalia to be truly unique, I created a custom typeface
Often times you have to create entire scripts or plugins to get what you want. I created a typeface to be unique to Animalia. I called it Chaos Animalia.
No merch?
I don't think so.
Typography
Ag
Plus Jakarta Display
Medium
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
1234567890 !@#$%^&*(),.<>/?;':"[]{}-_=+
Regular
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
1234567890 !@#$%^&*(),.<>/?;':"[]{}-_=+
Ag
Merriweather
Medium
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
1234567890 !@#$%^&*(),.<>/?;':"[]{}-_=+
Regular
Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz
1234567890 !@#$%^&*(),.<>/?;':"[]{}-_=+
H1
Medium 64Px
H2
Medium 40px
H3
Medium 24px
Subtitle
Regular 24px
Body
Regular 16px
Small body
Regular 16px
Pre-title
Medium 10Px
Button
Medium 14px
Colors & patterns
The solution in action
Phase 2.
App design. UX/UI
The building blocks
The component base and design system for the app is also equally founded on unique assets and design.
Buttons, warning labels, etc.
Drumroll.....
The Animalia App
First, some literal wireframes
Sign up / Onboarding
Home feed
Search
Uploads & submissions
Accounts & messaging
The solution in action
Phase 3.
Marketing
The marketing was broken down into 3. Website (which I always consider a form of marketing depending on the kind of business), social media and motion design.
The website
Social media
Motion design
For this project, more like some 2D animation and some pretty sweet video editing. I would have added the entire process as well but at this point, I am certain you know that there was a process for it. Maybe I will make a case study for it once. So, enjoy the video.
And with that, the Animalia project is complete. So much that I left out to try to keep an already long study short but I hope it was worthwhile.
I will update this page constantly as the project evolves.
Peace and Love.