CritterCare

CritterCare helps pet owners track medications, appointments, and pet details in one place. Stay organized and never miss a vet visit or dose with our easy-to-use, all-in-one pet care app.

Comment

Inspiration

CritterCare was inspired by my sister’s lovable, derpy, and squishy corgi, Pippin. Since being diagnosed with kidney disease, Pip has had numerous vet appointments and requires medication twice a day. Her condition is closely monitored with blood tests every 2–3 months, making it essential to stay organized with her care. - Mika

I've always had a fondness for apps that made my life simpler, anyone who's had health concerns or pets knows that it's a lot to keep track of. We're creating a solution to a problem that many people face and getting the opportunity to grow as developers while doing so. That's all the inspiration I need! - Liam

What it does

CritterCare helps pet owners manage their pets' health by tracking vet appointments, medications, and essential care details in one convenient app. Users can log medical history, store appointment details, and keep track of medications to ensure their pets receive proper care.

How we built it

We built this app using the .NET cross-platform mobile framework MAUI. We chose MAUI because, though we're both familiar with C# and .NET, neither of us have built a mobile application before, and it seemed like an exciting new project and skill we could add to our developer tool belt.

The front-end of the application (user interface) is managed using XAML, a markup language similar to HTML that integrates with the .NET environment. All of the programmatic logic, including user interactions and data management, is handled in separate C# files.

Challenges we ran into

I'm not as familiar with Visual Studio as I was with Visual Studio Code prior to this project. Visual Studio had a tendency of showing errors when none really existed. In Visual Studio Code an error without error handling stops the program from working but Visual Studio is able to compile and run while allegedly having dozens of active errors. This often required either exiting the IDE or rebuilding the project, which I wasn't used to. - Liam

One of the biggest challenges I faced while building CritterCare was getting the buttons aligned correctly in the layout. Specifically, I had trouble making sure the delete button stayed in the right spot without messing up the positioning of the other buttons. I also had to make sure all the buttons were visible and properly spaced, which was tricky in the grid layout. - Mika

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Neither of us had any mobile app development experience prior to this, absolutely zero. To go from zero to compiling builds for Android in two weeks is something we're massively proud of.

What we learned

We realized that the skills we've learned over time build on each other. When we first started web development, it was a huge challenge that took months, and becoming a software developer took years. However, this project felt much quicker, likely because we were able to apply many skills we’d already developed. Separating the project into front-end and back-end logic was similar to web development, which made the learning curve much easier. Skills like reusable code, refactoring, and debugging from past projects were also incredibly useful.

What's next for CritterCare

We’d like to add additional features to improve the user experience and provide deeper insights into pet health. Future updates include adding a monthly calendar view alongside the weekly view and implementing long-term pet health analytics like weight tracking over time. And that’s just the beginning—CritterCare has plenty of room for growth!

Share this project:

Updates