Responsive Web Design | UX Research

Match each adopter with her perfect pet: no more rejections or broken hearts

PROBLEM SPACE

How can we redesign the adoption process to improve the matching between customers and animals?

Working with animals is the best job ever in Pittsburgh Human Rescue Center, but working with customers is another story, especially when they are rejected for adopting animals. The customers can get angry or downright heartbroken. According to our research, such adoption mismatch forms the lowest experience for both customers and staff.

Client: Humane Animal Rescue shelter
Duration: 1 month | Nov. 2018 - Dec. 2018
Role: UX Research, UX Design

Solution Overview

SOLUTION

Pet Harmony, a dating website for adopters and animals as equals

Pet Harmony is not a shopping website for animals. It is a matching website that makes sure not only customers get the right animals, but animals are also given to safe hands.

Users specify their own backgrounds, not just preferences

To begin with, customers create a profile that specifies their preference for animals, as well as their own background info such as work hours.

Get great and good matches

Based on the customer preferences and backgrounds, fit animals are shown and categorized into great and good matches.

Request an appointment as pre-screening

If interested in certain animals, customers can then request to meet one-on-one with them. Based on the suitability between customers and the requested animals, the shelter staff can approve or disapprove the appointment, to save time for both sides beforehand.

Generative Research

FIELD RESEARCH

Adoption mismatch forms the lowest experience for both customers and staff

To understand the adoption journeys of customers and staff, and identify improvement opportunities, we interviewed key stakeholders: 4 adoption counselors, 3 adopters and 1 senior director at the rescue center.

01

Customer Journey

02

Staff Journey

Ideation

PROBLEM REFRAMED

01 Why mismatch: Customers do not know what animals suit, or seldom consider suitability from the start

What animals suit?

Many customers did not know what kind of animals suit them before talking to counselors in the center.

Chemistry over suitability

Based on interviews, most customers choose pets based on “chemistry” but not a comprehensive consideration of suitability.

02 Sunk effect: The affection and effort paid to the animals make mismatches bitter to swallow

Affections for animals

Through online search and one-on-one meeting, customers already developed affections for the intended animals.

Effort invested along the way

To find a favorite pet, customers have searched online, driving all the way to the center, and spent time meeting with animals.

SPEED DATING

INSIGHT 01

Match customers with the right animals before they invest emotion and effort

One idea we had is to educate how animals may suffer from unsuitable owners, when customers get rejected for adoption. We try to help customers empathize with the importance of suitability. However, such intervention doesn’t solve the real needs of customers, which is to adopt a pet. It would be ideal if customers can pick the right ones from the start.

My time is wasted. And I still can’t have a pet.

I might not argue any more, but I am still upset.

INSIGHT 02

Educational materials about suitability should be embedded

We came up with another idea to provide brief educational materials on the browsing page, before customers selected any animals, to inform them about the importance of suitability, as well as helping them understand what animals fit their lifestyles. However, users expressed low interested in reading these materials.

I want to see animals, not tutorials.

INSIGHT 03

Online matching should provide deep details about animals, not just surface info

We decided to help customers effortlessly find their matches without referring to tutorials, so we borrowed the Tinder model. Customers swipe right to interested animals. If counselors think the animal fits them, the animal would “swipe” right, too. If not, the animal dismisses the like.

I hate being rejected, even just in this app.

Adoption is serious. I need to see more than just the face.

CONCEPT CONSOLIDATION

Unlike traditional pet websites that show animals by customers’ preference, we ideated a “dating website” to match animals and customers as equals

Why a dating website?

Embedded education about suitability: Through matching, not selecting, and learning about the needs of each animal, customers are seamlessly educated to value suitability and understand life-long commitment

Low effort for customers: A website is a low-effort solution for customers to match with the right aniamls, before too much time or emotion is invested by visiting the animals

Animals to safe hands: By collecting customer profiles and match those with animal profiles, the shelter can be more certain that animals are given to the right hands

How does it work?

The outcome

Design Decisions

PROTOTYPING

01 Parallel Design: We did parallel design by having each team member do their own wireframe. Then we came back together to incorporate the strength of each design and move on to an integrated prototype.

02 User Testing: We then improve through rounds of user testing. The critical design decision are detailed in the next section.