Whisker App Redesign
Enhancing clarity and usability in the Litter-Robot companion app
Why am I Interested?
As the owner of two older cats, I’ve relied on smart pet products to help monitor their health and daily habits. Litter-Robot is one of the most innovative product I have tried, and I have used it for over 3 years.
Despite the product’s innovative hardware, its companion Whisker app doesn’t meet the same standard of this multi-hundred dollar technology. It feels unintuitive and cluttered, making it difficult for cat owners to access meaningful insights or manage multiple pets effectively.
What other cat parents think
Through secondary research on Reddit, the App Store, and Google Play, I analyzed 28 user reviews and identified 4 key issues with the Whisker app experience, several of which overlap across multiple themes.
A total of 28 samples
Challenges they encounter
Key Insights
“Whisker app is so disorganized. It doesn’t seem to consistently show when clean cycles start or finish.”
“They literally remove features, and the amount of clicks I need to perform to figure it out is outrageous.”
“The important information are in tiny, light grey font. The words ‘Litter Dispensed’ never change, so they don’t need to be prominent.”
“I occasionally get alerts like ‘cat detected’ or ‘sensor dirty,’ but it doesn’t say which sensor, and most of the unexpected behavior goes unexplained.”
Understanding the Users
I found that many cat owners share similar frustrations with the Whisker app. Most complaints focus on unclear information display, inefficient task flow, and accessibility issues that makes it difficult to access important insights like weight trends or cleaning history.
To better understand these recurring frustrations and design with empathy, I created a persona representing a typical multi-cat owner to guide a clearer, more user-centered app experience.
Sarah Lin
Owner of three cats
About
Sarah is a 32-year-old marketing manager in Boston with three cats - Mochi, Luna, and Leo - all over five years old. Since she works full-time outside the home, she depends on the Whisker app to monitor their litter habits. While she values the convenience of smart devices, she finds the app’s data unclear and sometimes hard to trust.
Goals
Track each cat’s litter activity and health trends in one app.
Receive timely notifications when something unusual occurs and quickly identify which cat needs attention.
Customize dashboard widgets for cats with health conditions to get a quick overview.
Easily review and export a complete history for at least three months to gain insights into her cats’ health trends.
Habits
Checks the app multiple times a day for reassurance, especially when she’s working late.
Reviews notifications immediately to see if anything urgent (e.g., a blockage) needs her attention.
Downloads or reviews history weekly to monitor weight and litter patterns, and brings it to vet visits.
Remotely controls the device (e.g., manually starts a cycle) when needed.
Pain Points
Notifications are vague and don’t specify which cat used the litter box; to find out, Sarah must open the app and spend extra time searching for the information.
Important weight and litter histories are buried so deep it takes her 5-7 clicks to find them.
The app only stores a seven-day history of weight and litter data, making it difficult for her to track long-term health trends.
She is having a hard time reading important information in small gray fonts, while less relevant and repeated info are visually emphasized.
Redesigning Whisker
After identifying user goals and pain points, I defined the main focus of my redesign as follows:
Improve information hierarchy so key insights like weight, cleaning cycles, and alerts are easy to find and trust.
Enhance accessibility with clearer typography, higher contrast, and better visual organization.
Simplify navigation and task flow to reduce unnecessary clicks and clutter.
Add personalization options so notifications and data feel more relevant and adaptive for multi-cat households.
site map
To spot where the app could work better, I mapped out its current structure and quickly noticed that some key features, like “Weight Overview” and “Visit Overview,” appeared on multiple screens. While this might seem convenient, it may be the problematic area making navigation feel repetitive and cluttered, echoing what users said about buried information. I reworked the sitemap to bring key features forward, remove unnecessary layers, and add a new customization page in settings to give users more control.
Crazy 8’s sketching
I ran a quick Crazy 8 sketching session to explore several options of how the homepage could feel more helpful and personal. I focused on bringing the most important features up front, making information easier to read, and adding options for users to customize the dashboard to fit their needs.
Mid Fidelity Mockup
In the next stage, I created mid-fidelity wireframes, focusing on rearranging features to make the app feel more intuitive. I worked on improving the visual priority of key information like weight and visit history so users can see what matters right away. I also simplified the workflow to reduce extra steps and make sure important details are no longer hidden or buried deep in the app.
Since visual style isn’t the main focus of this redesign, I plan to address accessibility issues and UI consistency in the prototype stage.
I evaluated each potential homepage concept based on three factors:
1) how many clicks it takes for users to access key functions,
2) how much information can be understood at a glance, and
3) the level of customization that supports multi-cat families like Sarah’s while remaining simple for all users.
I decided that the new homepage should offer moderate to high customization and display essential information clearly, guiding users naturally toward more detailed health insights.
9:41
Devices
Litter-Robot 4
Ready
View Device Activity
85%
Waste:
Optimal
Litter:
none
Alerts:
Pet detected
11/11 at 6:05 PM
Mochi’s Weight recorded - 6.4 lbs
11/11 at 6:05 PM
Cycle Started
11/11 at 6:06 PM
Cycle completed
11/11 at 6:08 PM
Pets
Mochi
11/11 at 6:08 PM
6.4 lbs
View history
11/11 at 3:18 PM
Luna
11.2 lbs
View history
Leo
11/11 at 9:27 AM
14.5 lbs
View history
Add a Widget
Home
Devices
Pets
Shop
Dashboard Before
Dashboard After
It took two extra screens to view device activity.
Removed extra white space and redesigned the section into expandable cards, allowing users to view recent history with a single click.
Secondary functions are taking high visual priority.
Replaced with a new “Add a widget” CTA allowing users to customize dashboard widgets.
Fonts have low color contrast, poor use of white space.
Clearer layout, accessible fonts & clear navigation to pet histories.
Removed Insights as current tab does not offer any additional information that users cant find under “Pets”.
Increase touch target sizes, font sizes.
Device Activity Before
Device Activity After
Activity logs are disorganized with no visual hierarchy.
Since each cycle starts with “pet detected” and ends with “cycle completed”, I regrouped each cycle in that way so it clearly shows which cat has visited and when.
Within each group, I arranged the logs are chronologically. Users should be able to tell quickly when did each cycle start and finish.
I reused this element from original UI providing a nice overview of the cycle histories.
9:41
Litter-Robot 4
Cycle Overview
Device Activity
Pet detected
11/11 at 6:05 PM
Mochi’s Weight recorded - 6.4 lbs
11/11 at 6:05 PM
Cycle started
11/11 at 6:06 PM
Cycle completed
11/11 at 6:08 PM
Pet detected
11/11 at 3:15 PM
Luna’s Weight recorded - 11.2 lbs
11/11 at 3:18 PM
Cycle started
11/11 at 6:06 PM
Cycle completed
11/11 at 6:08 PM
Pet detected
11/11 at 9:24 AM
Leo’s Weight recorded - 14.5 lbs
11/11 at 9:24 AM
Cycle started
11/11 at 9:27 AM
Cycle completed
11/11 at 9:29 AM
Status
History
Control
Weight History Before
Weight History After
Displays only the current week’s overview, even though the app can store more than one week of history.
Allows users to view the weekly review and the last recorded weight.
Low color contrast: the static ‘Weight recorded’ label is visually dominant, while the more important date and time appear small and grey.
Emphasizes the date and time of each visit while highlighting the recorded weight using stronger color contrast.
Adding navigation to easily switch between weight and visits histories.
Select Week
Weight Insights
14.5 lbs
Last Weighted
Weight Overview
Nov 5-11
Weight History
Show More
11/11 at 9:27 AM - 14.5 lbs
Pet Weight recorded
11/11 at 12:24 AM - 14.7 lbs
Pet Weight recorded
11/10 at 5 :15 PM- 14.2 lbs
Pet Weight recorded
11/10 at 11:29 AM - 14.2 lbs
Pet Weight recorded
11/10 at 11:28 AM - 14.3 lbs
Pet Weight recorded
11/10 at 2:10 AM - 14.7 lbs
Pet Weight recorded
Download History
9:41
Leo’s Weight
Visits
Weights
Users complained that notifications are too general, lack clear actions, and don’t adapt to their specific needs.
These new settings allow users to customize the types of notifications they receive based on their needs.
Notifications now include more detail, offering clearer updates for multi-cat families.
Clean cycle Interrupted
Leo disrupted the cycle. Don’t worry, it will automatically resume shortly. 🐾
Curtain Sensor is dirty
Please clean the curtain sensor located at the top of the litterbox to ensure accurate detection.
Cycle complete
Leo just visited, and his weight was recorded at 12.3 lbs. 🐾
9:41
Device Settings
Status
History
Control
Notification Settings
Notify me when
When a cycle starts
When a cycle is interrupted
When waste litter drawer is full
Repeat this notification
When filter needs replacement
Repeat this notification
When sensor is dirty
Repeat this notification
Personalization Settings
Notifications show pet name
Notifications show visit duration
Notifications show pet’s recorded weight
New Personalization Features
Examples of new notifications:
Push Notification
Insights
Pet Insights Summary
Weight Insights
Accessory
Weight Overview
Visit Overview
Weight History
Visit History
Cycle Overview
Pet Profile
Device Activity Log
Visit Insights
Status
History
Controls
Devices
Pets
Shop (External Link)
Device Settings
Visit Overview
Weight History