PetLove is your one-stop pet adoption platform.
My Role
Duration
Deliverables
UX Design
User Research
Strategy
3 months
Persona
Userflow
Service Blueprint
Prototypes
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Problem Statement
Pet adopters need a streamlined platform that provides accurate, detailed pet information and simplifies the adoption process, eliminating the need to contact shelters directly, while offering post-adoption support for first-time pet owners.
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Inefficient and Repetitive Workflow
Current platforms integrate shelter information but require users to visit shelter websites to complete adoptions, making the process more time-consuming and complicated.
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Ineffective information
A lack of clear details on a pet’s appearance, temperament, and location, making it hard for adopters to assess suitability. Additionally, there's no reliable way to gauge a pet's personality, which complicates decision-making for potential adopters.
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Absence of post-adoption support
Users lack trust in the platform due to inadequate post-adoption support, leaving them without guidance on important aspects like pet care, behavior, and health.
Impact
4.89
user satisfaction out of 5
50%
reduction in time spent contacting shelters
26%
increase in adoption success rate
Mobile Prototypes
Challenge
​​How to make the platform not only user-friendly but also pet-friendly?
Research​​
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Participant Observation
A participant observation was done to observe what people do at a dog open day in DC. The event was cohosted by Lucky Dog Animal Rescue and Petco. It allows me to see the adoption process and how people interact with the staff and pets. Besides, it allows me to learn the whole ecosystem around animal shelters.
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New-born puppies that require extra care.
Foster Families would bring dogs for adoption.
The event was in collaboration with PetCo and it was right next to the street.
What I learnt?
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​Collaboration between animal shelters and pet accessory manufacturers has proven effective.
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Open day events boast a success rate of 50%, as attendees are often prepared for adoption.
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Foster families play a crucial role in the success of many animal shelters.
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Interview
To gather customer data and collect insights for the design of the platform, 8 in-depth interviews are conducted. All interviewees had adopted at least one pet. ​
Interview data are colour-coded and analysed in Excel.
Then categorized into different themes that speaks about different aspects of the platform design.
Key Findings
"I feel like the these kind of platforms are not well-developed in general, so I don't know what to expect."
"Sometimes pets live in their foster family, and they need to be transported to different places and see a lot of strangers, which is not great for them."
"Pets don't look like their photos...
​Different shelters have different procedures and policies, it's frustrating."
"I'm only allowed to see 2-3 pets at a time, which is not efficient. I know some people would just make a random decision among those choices."
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Some shelters have follow-ups after the adoption and have Facebook groups where pet owners can share their experiences and ask questions. This shows a shelter’s responsibility and the discussion group can be especially helpful for first-time pet owners.
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The pet adoption process is not pet-friendly.
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Platforms should not only be customer-centric but also pet-centric. Service after the adoption is important.​​​​​​
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Pet adoption platforms like Petfinder integrate pets’ information from different shelters, but when the customer wants to adopt a pet found on Petfinder, he or she still need to go to that pet’s shelter website to complete the whole process.
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Information about pets on the platform are not accurate and people want clear, accurate information such as appearance, temperament, location, etc. Videos are preferred.​
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The process can be complicated and time-consuming.
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Data Modeling
Several models were created to identify pain points and potential opportunities. The user work role model served as a starting point, illustrating various work roles and their corresponding sub-roles.
Who are the users?
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​Targeted User
What functionalities do the website need to have?
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Userflow
Click to view in Miro
Each user role is analyzed and broken down into specific actions and flows within the platform.
Pain points identified from previous research and potential opportunities uncovered throughout the flow.
Click to view in FigJam
Findings are distilled into key improvements and features for the platform.
​Solutions
A universal adoption process and contract
Accurate pet details with an improved search engine and video features.
​An online community with shelter ratings, feedback, and a forum for knowledge sharing
Although to guarantee these requires quite an amount of work, the efficiency of work and customer experience can be greatly improved. With searchable indices and detailed information provided, users can make an earlier decision on whether the pet is what they are looking for before the in-person meet-ups, thus decreasing the workload for the platform employees.
Ideation & Wireframes
The home page and its user flow
Website search page and the pets info page
Storyboard
Key information such as age, breed, and gender is thoughtfully selected for display in the search results.
Having a video feature would help users understand the personality of pets better and saves unnecessary time. This helps the platform stand out. Live cam can be a great additional feature.
Mobile app
Users can use the toggle switch to a more compact search result view.
The search page and its user flow
Visual Identity
Prototypes for the Web
How does PetLove improve user experience?
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A universal contract for all animal shelters. ​
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Personalised pet-adoption process.
An integrated website for all
Search with specific needs
Allow users to search according to their desired breed, distance, personality, age, animal type, etc. and allow sorting and filtering in a combined way.
Learn the pet more
Detailed and accurate description of pets. Additional information like information on the cat’s past experiences, whether they get along with other cats or dogs are provided.
Through showing a video clip, users get to know not only what the cat looks like, but also the temperament and envision what the cat will be like at their home.
Schedule to meet the pets
Providing online meet-up options. This, if executed well, can be beneficial for all parties. Customers will save more time, pets won’t leave the place they are familiar with, and platforms can save transportation fees.​​​
An online community will be built to provide resources and information for all pet lovers. Pet owners can ask questions on the platform and there will be ratings for animal shelters.
Check shelter info and reviews
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Negotiating a universal contract, having ratings for animal shelters, providing video descriptions, making efforts to do a return visit, all of these will increase the success rate of matching, decrease the times the pet needs to be transported, thus improve pets' experience accordingly.