The product:
Pawesome App helps people find and adopt pets from shelters.
Project duration:
April - May 2021
My role:
UX designer & UX researcher.
Responsibilities:
Conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, visual design, interaction design.
The problem:
Each year thousands of homeless pets around the world are euthanized. Each pet deserves to have a home and a happy life.
The goal:
Increase public awareness of the availability of adoptable pets. Increase the number of adopted pets and eliminate the need for euthanasia.
Create a user-friendly app that people can use to find and adopt a pet. Promote other ways of helping homeless pets (donation, volunteering in the shelters, spreading the word)
Understanding the user
User research: summary
I conducted interviews and created empathy maps to understand users I’m designing for and their needs. A primary user group identified before the research was Millennials who love pets. After the research I came to a conclusion that Baby Boomers are also equally interested in adopting pets.
The research confirmed initial assumptions that a successful pet adoption app is supposed to rely heavily on good filter-based search. Identified user problems included: bad search functionality, accessibility, limited language support, outdated information about the pets, limited ways of helping homeless pets, lack of information about pet adoption procedures, scheduling visits/walks within app.
Research also revealed that not all pet lovers are capable of adopting an animal due to various personal reason but they nevertheless would like to contribute to wellbeing of homeless pets. These users would like to learn more about other ways of helping homeless pets.
User research: pain points
Search
All users (but especially users with health issues) would like to have reliable filter-based search to find a pet that they can take care of due to their health conditions and other requirements.
Bad accessibility
Many of the pet adoption apps are not equipped with assistive technologies.
Lack of multilingual support
Many users who live abroad don’t speak local languages. They would benefit if the app had multilingual support independently from their location.
Lack of scheduling walks/visits functionality
Many pet adoption apps don’t support scheduling visits or walks with pets within the app. They only provide contact details of the shelter (e.g. phone number) - it’s not very accessible for many people.
User research: personas
Problem statement:
Sarah is a retired person with osteoarthritis who needs to filter search results based on dogs’ size, breed, age character traits and location because she wants to get a specific dog that she would be able to take care of due to her health condition.
Problem statement:
George is a young professional, expat, who needs to select language independently from his location because he doesn’t speak the local language and nevertheless wants to find and adopt a pet.
User journey map
Goal
Map George’s user journey.
Conclusion
Mapping George’s user journey revealed how helpful it would be for users to have access to pet adoption app with multilingual support, reliable search and scheduling of visits (walks) within the app.
Ideation
Starting the design
Digital wireframes
For people who don’t speak local language calling a shelter and arranging a visit can be very stressful. Therefore, I included an easy to use scheduling tool within the app.
Low-fidelity prototype
The low-fidelity prototype connected the primary user flow of finding and adopting a pet.
View the low-fidelity prototype
Usability study: parameters
Study type:
Unmoderated usability study
Location:
Remote (online)
Participants:
5 participants
Length:
10-15 minutes
Usability study: findings
Filters
The user interface of the search can be improved by introducing chip input components.
Layout
The layout can be refined (by introducing more engaging ways of representing information: more icons, illustrations, different arrangement of the elements, etc.).
Scheduling
The scheduling can be improved by giving users a choice if they want to select time or date first.
Refining the design
I found some more user-friendly ways for selecting filter inputs - Chips.
I worked on improving the layout, made it more interesting for the viewer and less repetitive.
I gave users option to choose if they want to select time or date first and made both options equally easy to use.
Additional mockups
High-fidelity prototype
High fidelity prototype allows users to find a pet, schedule a visit or a walk and follow the adoption procedure.
View the high-fidelity prototype
Accessibility considerations
The forms were designed according to the Web Accessibility Standards
The colours and contrast are compliant with Accessibility Standards
The app is designed to support assistive technologies
The app has multilingual support and offers translation of the messages
Going forward
Impact:
The app makes it easy for users to find a pet for adoption, it guides user through the process giving clear instructions and showing the next steps. App makes interactions with the shelter easy. Users can contact shelters and schedule a walk or a visit even if they don’t know the local language or if they have speech impairment.
What I learned:
I learned that initial assumptions can be wrong and the actual user needs can surprise us. This is why it’s important to conduct the research studies and test prototypes thoroughly.
Next steps
Create a totally different user flow specifically for shelters as a targeted user group.
Conduct another round of usability study and validate if the user pains points were effectively addressed.
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