Yue Si
HappyPaws
Description
HappyPaws is an in-home pet sitting app that provides reliable and professional service to your furry friends when you are on a trip. Users can use this app to find their most suitable pet sitters and directly make a reservation for their pets.
Duration
1.5 month
My role
UX Designer
Tools
Figma | Photoshop
Background
As a pet person who travels a lot, I always feel struggling to find a service to take care of my pet when I need to be away for several days. While most of the options are somewhat too expensive for me, I wonder if there is a more economic way to choose when people are looking for a good pet care service. At that point, I learned about a service called pet sitting, which is a cheaper and more flexible way compared to other traditional pet care services. Therefore, I decided to design an app that is specifically for matching the needs between a pet sitter and people like me.
About Pet Sitting
Pet Sitting is a service provided to pet owners where someone cares for their pets for a predetermined period in their absence to make sure all the furry friends are on their normal routines. In order to reduce all possibilities for pets to develop a stress reaction to new environments, our pet sitting service in this project only refers to the service provided in the owner's home.
Research
Exisitng Solution - Competitor Analysis
Right now there are some existing solutions to solve this problem, so I did around of competitor analysis to explore the advantages and disadvantages of these pet care services in the market.
Summary
01
Pet Sitting's Advantages
Comparing to other traditional pet services, pet sitting has the following advantages including:
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Affordable Price
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Customization
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1-on-1 Service
02
Features Missing in Pet Sitting
However, there are still something missing in this service including:
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Live Monitor Devices
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Standardized Steps to Make Reservations
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Pet Sitter’s Qualification Proof
User Survey
In order to know more about users’ experiences, and opinions with pet sitting service, and get a deeper understanding of this topic, I designed an online questionnaire with 21 questions, and collected 54 valid responses in total.
01 Why do you choose pet sitting?
People choose pet sitting service mostly because of its 1-on-1 service, affordability, and the comfortable environment pets are in during the service.
02 What concerns do you have for pet sitting?
Most people have worries about pet sitter’s quality and safety concerns.
of participants worry most about pet sitter's quality.
of participants have safety concerns.
03 How do you feel when using pet sitting product?
Most people are feeling confused and troublesome when using pet sitting product.
Participants feel lost when using pet sitting product.
Participants think there are too many steps.
User Interview
After getting some general observations, I held 9 interviews with users who had tried pet sitting services before in order to understand their scenarios and experiences.
Findings
In conclusion, I decided to focus on these 4 aspects and integrate them into the designing of this pet sitting app.
Persona
A persona can help us visualize users’ scenarios, and understand their pain points, needs, and goals.
Design Goal
I want to design a product for users who need a short-term pet care service to find a more RELIABLE and PROFESSIONAL pet sitting service while solving problems including TRUST ISSUES, SAFETY CONCERNS, AND INEFFICIENCY.
User Journey Map
I also did a user journey map to visualize all the touchpoints where users will come into contact with the product both directly and indirectly. It includes users’ experiences and feelings at every stage, which helps to dig deeper into their pain points and how they can be improved.
Ideation
Priority Diagram
I brainstormed different solutions in order to meet users’ different needs, and then organized them into a priority matrix.
Key Takeaways
I decided to mainly focus on the solutions which are in the “Important but with low efforts” section and integrate them into the design since they are of higher values.
User Flow
To show a complete path users take when they are using HappyPaws, I also did a user flow to display the whole process.
Low-Fidelity Wireframe
Iterations
Before moving to the final stage, i did some testings to make sure the user interfaces and interaction patterns work well for users.
Before
Users find the flow of finding a pet sitter is not clear and efficient enough, and some sections are not helpful.
It is not easy for me to navigate on the home page and find a pet sitter efficiently. And I don’t know what these picture are used for.
Before
Before
When I want to change the information I filled before, I have to go back to the previous page, which is troublesome.
Users find the flow of changing the service information is time-wasting.
Before
When I want to change the information I filled before, I have to go back to the previous page, which is troublesome.
Users think the services listed are not clear and needs more information about them.
After
I replaced the background into an slidable section containing introduction of pet sitting and other promotions.
I combined the two buttons of searching for pet sitters to increase efficiency.
I replaced the photo gallery section into ‘Recommended pet sitter’ to improve the flow efficiency and the product’s professionalism.
After
I added a tab on the top the page so that users can change the service information efficiently.
After
I stretched each service frame to make it more visible, and added some words under each service explaining what it is in order to give user a better understanding of the services provided.
Design Flow
I showed 2 flows including searching for a pet sitter and placing an order to showcase the step-by-step process of creating a user experience.
Search for a pet sitter
Step 1
When users find their most suitable pet sitters, they can click ‘Reserve Now’ to go to the next confirmation page.
Step 1
After filling the blanks including service date, location, and the pet information, users can click the ‘Search for Pet Sitter Nearby’ and go to the page of pet sitters nearby, or they can browse the pet sitters recommended by HappyPaws below.
Step 2
Users can change the information they filled in the previous step and also filter the pet sitters based on price, distance, and rating. Then they can go to any pet sitter’s main page to look for more information.
Step 4
Users on this page are able to chat with pet sitters in order to know more about them before they make the final decisions.
Step 3
Users can check detailed information about pet sitters’ on this page and they can click ‘Message’ button to chat with them.
Place an order
Step 2
On the Reservation Confirmation page, users can add extra services and service details. After that, they can click ‘Reserve Now’ and place the order.
Step 3
On ‘My Order’ page, users can check the status and track the progress of all of their orders.
High-Fidelity Wireframe
Detail Design
I designed Bio Section, detailed service explanation, and pet information page to increase pet sitters’ professionalism.
Detailed Service List Display
HappyPaws gives a detailed explanation of what are included in basic services as well as what extra services pet sitters provide to give users a better understanding of pet sitters’ professionalism.
Service Guarantee
Service guarantee covers how users’ rights and privacy will be protected though the rigorous background check and professional training for all pet sitters, as well as the full video recording of the entire process.
Pet Information Page
The pet information form helps pet sitters better understand users’ pets and therefore making more professional, and targeted preparations, increasing pet sitters’ professionalism.
Recommendation Page
This section showcases some of the best pet sitters selected by HappyPaws, bringing users a more professional experience.
I designed photo gallery, and customer review section to increase pet sitters’ reliability.
Pet Sitting Introduction
The pet sitting introduction includes an overall description of pet sitting and therefore giving users a better understanding of this service, which makes the product more reliable.
Bio
The bio section on each pet sitter’s main page introduces their experiences with pets, which adds to reliability.
Customer Reviews
Review system shows the past users’ real experiences and feelings about the pet sitters in order to make them more reliable.
I designed official reminder, key deliver & return selection, and recording section to increase safety.
Official Reminder
Official reminder will pop up when users are on the message page with a pet sitter. It is used to remind users of the possible dangerous behavior that could happen during chatting, reducing the safety concerns users may have.
Service Detail Section
It includes key deliver and return selection method, and the home recording option to reduce users’ concerns regarding home property, as well as the pre on-site meeting in order to improves the safety of pets. The argument and policies below will also explain how Happy Paws will protect users’ and pets’ proper rights and safety.
I designed filtering pet sitters function and order status page section to increase time efficiency.
Filters
Filter function can help users find the most related pet sitters based on their need, and also help them find the location more efficiently.
Search for Pet Sitters
The searching page will show up on the home page for users to input the information and search for their best match directly.
Service information Tab
The searching tab on the top of the page enables users to make changes to the information they put before more quickly, adding to the efficiency.
My Order
The status of all orders can be found on order page, helping users to quickly locate the information they want to know.