Animal Crossing Critter Tracker

Role:
Web Developer
UI/UX Designer

Goal:
Designing, Developing, and Deploying a web application to aid in critter catching when playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Challenges:
- Creating a simple design that communicates only relevant info
- Learning to use the Angular Framework
- Learning to deploy a web application

I wonder what I can catch right now...

I remember spending hours of youth chatting with my animal buddies in Animal Crossing: Wild World. I would search the internet for guides on how to catch rarest fish and bugs. Since this was a realtime game, sometimes I would find that my opportunities for catching my prized critters had passed and I would have to wait for the next day.

With the release of Animal Crossing New Horizons on the switch, my childhood nostalgia came flooding back. Again I began my search for the rarest bugs and fish. As the familiar parade of browser tabs opened, each with tips on how to catch the rare Stringfish, I came to a realization. I was spending more time in an internet browser searching for information, than I was actually playing the game! The web guides are filled with hyperlinked content that would bring you to the next interesting article. While it was good for the site's SEO ranking, it was super distracting from my goal as a user. It was time to make my own website that would fulfill my needs and get me back into the game as soon as possible.

Think like a critter hunter...

In order to properly define the problem I was trying to solve, I needed to prime my problem solving skills. I put myself in the shoes of an efficient critter hunter and walked through the process.

I identified some main questions my solution would need to answer in order to be useful to a critter hunter:

Is it spawning?
- Depends on time and weather conditions

Have I already caught this bug before?
- Is it in my museum?

Is it valuable?

Will I not have a chance to catch it soon?

Designing the website

With my problems properly defined I began brainstorming the best ways to display the information. The goal here was to reduce the amount of time spent browsing the internet when playing the game, so I needed to make the information super easy to scan and read.

From the above notes, I structured the website to satisify user needs effectively and conveniently.