Fostering a one-stop resource
platform for pet owners 🐈 🐶
Every year, 6.3 million companion animals are abandoned in the U.S.. The root cause of the increasing rate of pet abandonment is the lack of pet-related knowledge. Prior to bringing a pet home, owners may not know how to integrate a pet into their life. When pets display certain behaviors or require special care, unprepared owners may struggle to fulfill their pets' needs.
pets abandoned annually
are human factors
are lack of preparation
before getting pets
Pet owners often face challenges in adapting their lifestyles to accommodate their pets. However, the existing pet market is fragmented, necessitating owners to browse multiple sources for information. Pet owners want a more convenient way to access comprehensive resources that help them care for their pets and understand their pets' behaviors.
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To help users find an easier way to seek help, PetPal provides a platform where members can share their experiences, seek advice, and offer support. Whether it's discussing behavioral issues, health concerns, training tips, or simply sharing heartwarming stories, being part of a community allows individuals to connect with others who understand their challenges and can offer valuable insights.
PetPal provides a streamlined booking process that makes it convenient for pet owners to schedule services for their pets. It helps busy pet owners who may have limited time to make phone calls or visit service providers in person.
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PetPal understands how pet owners worry about if the service providers are trustworthy to take care of their pets. Through detailed information about the service provider's background, specialties, and past customer reviews, PetPal wants make the selection process smoother by building trust.
- mainly lives in large cities want to understand their pets’ behaviors
- have many questions about owning pets
- need inspiration for pet-related events
- soon to be a pet owner
- wants to learn more about certain breed before making decisions
From the user group, I’ve reached out to 4 interviewees through the help of Best Friends Animal Society
Based on stakeholder interviews, my takeaway was that many pet owners faced challenges in understanding their pets' behaviors at some point. These challenges were particularly prevalent when their pets first arrived, and they tried to find answers/help on various platforms.
In order to further analyze user pain points and design opportunities, I synthesize the interview findings into one persona, and map out the user journey.
provide more accessible resources for owners to take care of their pets?
By mapping out the flow chart, I visualize the user’s journey in two of the main tasks “Service Booking” and “Vet Schedule”. It helps me find potential logic errors, and opportunities to simplify and optimize the user journey.
Some key screens for user testing
I invited two of the interviewees back for a user testing session to try the low-fidelity prototype, and my main goal is to find if there’s any logical errors. For this section, I used the semi-constructed interview with an assigned task. I requested the user to look for “Drop-in” visit and order a session. I observed the users’ behavior, and asked a few questions afterwards.
Here are some of the major feedbacks:
Only date is available to select, but user needs a more specific option to drop off the pet. For example, 9:30 am in the morning or 8:00 pm at night on a same date is completely different. To reduce error, the user wants to a have a more precise choice of the service.
One user was unsure if he enter the correct date, but there’s no way to check after placing the order. There needs to be a confirmation page where users make sure the information is correct before placing the order.
There are four steps and multiple pages to book a service, and the user pointed out she was unsure when it ends. If there can be a process status bar to indicate which step one’s on and how many steps left, the user could feel a sense of control while booking the service.
In the self-initiated project like this, I want myself to constantly thinking about users in the inquiry, ideation, iteration, and implementation process. Without business and tech constraints, I wanted to place people at the center of the product development process. Through two rounds of interviews with potential users, I got to know their pain points and later reiterate the design based on the feedbacks from usability testing. If I could have more time, I want to gather more user feedback and start another round of user testing with the high fidelity design.
I used to be shy to show other people my work because it’s not good enough. However, knowing that no design is 100% perfect and the major way to improve is to learn more critique. I urged myself to explain the research process and design rationale to friends and mentors, and they all provided awesome feedbacks that I could never think of by myself. Later on, when I got the chance I would present my work to solicit feedback.