PAWSEEKR: Matching potential pet owners and their pets on personality

PawSeekr is an app that connects people to rescued furry companions. But, we do more than just connect them — we create an opportunity for everyone to find their best match. At the heart of our business, we are animal lovers. We believe in saving and enriching the lives of animals regardless of their breed, size, or background. And, most of all, we believe that there’s a superhero out there for every animal that walks through the doors of our local shelters.

Note: For this project, we decided to focus on dogs due to 75% of our users specifying that dogs were their ideal pet.

RESEARCH

Every year in the US, approximately 7.6 million animals enter shelters nationwide. Of those almost 4 million are dogs. Although 35% are adopted out, unfortunately 31% are euthanized. — aspca.org

Image source | Figure 1: Total intake of dogs and cats to shelters by Canadian Federation of Humane Societies (CFHS)

In 2014, shelters in Canada took in over 38,000 dogs (See Figure 1). While 42% of the dogs were adopted, approximately 11% of all dogs were still being euthanized (See Figure 2).

Image source | Figure 2: Percentage of dogs and cats euthanized relative to total intake (2014 CFHS)

People were often reluctant to adopt because of misconceptions about shelter animals. Common myths were that the dogs end up in shelters because there was something wrong with them. A lot of families give up their dogs because they can’t afford them anymore, or they’re forced to move to a place where they can’t have dogs or, worse, can’t have a dog of a particular breed. Almost 30% of dogs and cats are surrendered to the shelters by their owners (See Figure 3).

Image source | Figure 3: Source of intake of dogs and cats (2014 CFHS)

6 months after adoption, 42% of the pets adopted were returned to the shelter. — American Humane Association

Although we weren’t able to find the equivalent Canadian statistics, it showed that the issue wasn’t just getting people to adopt, but in retention after adoption. There was a real opportunity to improve the whole pet adoption process.

INTERVIEWS & SURVEYS

Research and planning — user flow, affinity diagram and feature prioritization

We received 67 responses to our survey. For a more in-depth interview, we interviewed 6 users ranging from rescue centres volunteers to daycares and people who had adopted or bought from a breeder.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

Our primary mobile competitors: Bark Buddy, Woof Rescue and PetFinder.

We did a competitive analysis of the mobile apps currently available on the market and identified 4 main competitor pain points:

1. Lacking education:

   1. These apps were purely a search tool. The user had to go elsewhere to learn about pet ownership and care. PetFinder’s had breed guides but breed specific traits takes the individualization out of dog. Opportunity: Provide education on traits rather than breeds and recommended articles to read.

2. Lacking personalization:

   1. All the apps we looked at had a basic filtering system. The user would then have to scroll through pages of results and click into each profile to see if the pet was right for them. Opportunity: Create a system that matches you on a deeper level and perhaps match you with ones you may have otherwise dismissed.

3. Generic:

   1. The pet descriptions were uninspiring, impersonal and the structure varied from shelter to shelter. Opportunity: build empathy and an emotional connection by telling the story through the eyes of the animal.

4. Communications is not tailored to the individual:

   1. The experience was impersonal and restricted. Pet retention was much higher when the adoptee was better educated and supported. Opportunity: create greater shelter-adoptee interaction throughout the process.

PLANNING

PRIMARY PERSONA

Image source from lululemon | Illustration by mjdaluz

Lizzie, The potential adoptee using PawSeekr. Her goals are to find a dog for companionship that complements her lifestyle. Since this is her first time adopting, she wants to do her research prior to adopting. She’s frustrated to find that the information available is generalized and impersonal. Most the areas she’s doing her research in don’t even have mobile apps. The existing mobile apps aren’t applicable to her area.

SECONDARY PERSONA

Illustration by mjdaluz

Erin is the rescue centre volunteer that would be submitting pet profiles to PawSeekr. Her goals align with Lizzie’s, but from the perspective of the dog. She wants to connect the right dog to the right owner. Due to almost half of pets being returned to the shelters within the first 6 months, she wants to better educate adoptees to set realistic expectations. She’s really upset when a dog is returned to the shelter. She also wishes all the different shelters could work together to make adoption easier.

SCENARIO

Storyboard drawn in Sketches II on iPad Mini with a Bamboo Solo stylus

Lizzie and her boyfriend have just bought their own condo that is dog friendly. She’s about to host a housewarming party and her friends are stoked that they can now bring their dogs over as they have no landlord to answer to anymore. Lizzie and her friend’s dog, Poodles, are playing together in the living room. She begins to realize that this is the perfect time to introduce the dog she has always wanted into her life. She now has a stable job and has her boyfriend as support. She embarks on her search for a rescue dog, but is frustrated with the overwhelming amount of disparate resources and different application processes. While browsing on Instagram, she sees an ad for an adoption app called PawSeekr.

KEY FINDINGS

Through our domain research, interviews and during the customer journey map, we identified key areas where we could improve the user experience. The majority of the pet adoption process was a relatively positive and exciting. The pain points came from the application process. Every shelter had its own application process in place. Sometimes there would be multiple applications at different steps within the journey. If someone wanted to adopt from three different shelters, they would have to submit three separate application forms.

BRANDING

Our tone of voice is unique. We believe that to build empathy our users need to feel an emotional connection to each animal they come across. There are so many stories to tell, and whenever ever possible, who better to tell it than themselves. We’re open, honest, and personable. Let’s start a conversation and show these animals what it’s like to have a loving home.

• FRIENDLY: We’re approachable. We’re caring. We’re non-institutional. Frankly, we don’t see ourselves as a company, but more like your friend introducing you to another friend at a party. So, being sincere, human, and sensitive comes natural to us.

• DEDICATED: We’re not your online dating app. You know the one that pairs up with Joe Schmoe, who’s totally not your type? We’ve got dog ownership down to a science, and we are committed to finding the best fit.

• ENCOURAGING: We know bringing another life into your life is a big deal. We will support and educate, but we’re not overbearing. You will never hear us tell you you can’t do it.

DESIGN

TYPOGRAPHY AND FONT CHOICE

Headlines Font: NORWESTER Norwester is a condensed geometric sans serif uppercase font that is excellent for demanding attention. Its condensed format makes it ideal for longer headlines. The slightly rounded corners help bring a more friendly appearance.

Body Font: MONTSERRAT Montserrat is a geometric sans-serif font often used as a closest free alternative to Gotham and Proxima Nova. It provides bold structure that is easy to read but is still distinct.

We first explored pairing a sans-serif font with a fancy script font for the pet names but it felt a bit pretentious and didn’t fit right with the brand. We chose a contemporary pairing two geometric sans-serif fonts to better align with our brand voice.

COLOURS AND IMAGERY

Colour choice: We wanted modern colours that were vibrant and exciting to reflect the excitement of bringing a pet into your life. We looked at colours to reflect the entire adoption process:

• Coral: is a mix between orange (happiness) and red (passion)

• Teal: is a mix between blue (trust and security) and green (growth and harmony)

• Yellow: excitement

While we loved vibrant colours, we didn’t want them to overtake the overall design. We chose to use pops of colour with a lot of cool neutrals to ground them.

Imagery: We focused on images that reflected a West-Coast-Dogs-in-the-Wild feel. We wanted to aspire our adoptees that take their dogs on adventures.

TESTING

Testing was conducted at multiple times throughout the process. It was crucial to not only test our product with our ideal user but also users who weren’t familiar with the pet adoption process.

GALLERY

NOTE

I do not own any of the images used in the prototype, here are the amazing photographers: Jack Russell & Pug mix: dogbreedinfo Jack Russell Terrier & Chihuhua mix: PhotoNesta Splash page dog in boat: Sarah Michelle Lawrence with Aspen the Mountain Pup Login page with dog waving: Sammy Davis Adventurous dogs on on a log: Isaac Lane Koval