ROLES:
UX RESEARCHER
UX DESIGNER
ILLUSTRATOR
INFO. ARCHITECT
USER TESTER
01
FINDING A PERFECT MATCH FOR SENIOR AND DISABLED PETS
#AGILE
#USER TESTING
Because of this, I wanted to create a solution that would match humans with overlooked animals. This system helps create pairs that are best suited to meet the needs of both human and pet.
A personal passion of mine is caring for "unadoptable" animals. I love senior, disabled, and special needs animals that are often overlooked in shelters. These animals are extremely lovable, grateful and in need of forever homes.
#SOLO
WHAT
WHO
WHY
GOAL
With this project, I wanted to get to the bottom of how and why animals get adopted. I wanted to know more about how pet owners choose their pets and how they got their pets. Clowder aims to match up "purrrrfect" and "tail-waggin'" pairs. Its algorithm works similar to dating apps, matching users to pets who meet their requirements. Based on research, this system also utilizes detailed backstories to create the emotional connection that sparked many pet owners' interest.
My target audience for this project were persons with specific needs and aspects they require of a potential pet. This included personas such as: a stay at home mom with small children and a recent college graduate. These personas represented persons who had particular requirements for potential pets. These requirements included specifics in energy level, level of care, and time.
Senior animals aren't adopted at the same rate as their young, spry counterparts. Senior dogs are adopted at a rate of 25%, whereas puppies are adopted at a rate of 60%. There is a huge need for this as many animals deemed "unadoptable" spend their lives in shelters. This project aims to promote connection between animals in need and the people who are best suited to care for them.This project had a long lasting impact on me because of my personal experiences with senior animals.
PRELIMINARY RESEARCH
PROCESS
Don't judge. My research started on TikTok. My FYP is a lot of animals, and I thought this could be a great place to start. I wanted to compare the videos which featured shelter animals that would later go on to be successfully adopted. The themes of these short videos emphasized at least one of the following points:
TIKTOK TAKEAWAYS
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Sad/tragic backstory
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Extended amount of time spent in shelter
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Reason(s) for previous surrender to shelter (such as special needs)
Next, I analyzed the top 10 most followed animal accounts on TikTok to see what drew viewers in. Most of these accounts are not senior or disabled animals, but I still felt there was a learning opportunity here. Each of these accounts had a VERY unique selling point. For example, I am Bunny (7.3 million followers) is a dog that utilizes speech buttons to form near complete sentences to communicate with her humans. This inspired me to find unique selling points for each animal to assist their adoptability.
I also conducted some general research about animal adoption. Here's some key statistics!
ADOPTION STATISTICS
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Only 25% of senior dogs in shelters will be adopted. 60% of puppies will be adopted.
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Less than 10% of shelter animals suffer from issues that are impossible to cure.
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After tragedies, natural disasters, and other highly covered events, Americans rush to adopt disabled pets that were impacted.
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Older animals adjust better to new environments, have less training and behavioral issues, and experience less change in their personality.
Finally, I conducted a survey amongst my peers that own pets. I wanted to know about an individual's adoption process. Here's a few things I found out from this survey:
SURVEY TAKEAWAYS
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Most pet owners (77%) knew nothing about their pet before they adopted them.
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The top aspects that attracted owners to their pets were behavior and situational influence ( ex. the need to rescue them from their current situation).
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The most important quality of a pet was personality.
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Most respondents' favorite thing that their pet does is cuddle/spend time with them.
IDEATION
At this time, I began to ideate about what a potential solution would look like. I created an Information Architecture to give my screens some guidance. I then made some wireframes and was sure to illustrate the various task-based user flows. For my particular personas, utilizing an algorithm that would match users to pets that align with their unique needs would be best. I am taking inspiration from both the TikTok algorithm that brought me to this particular issue and dating apps such as Tinder.
USER TESTING
I conducted 2 rounds of user testing with 5 users as I moved from low to mid to high fidelity. I won't bore you with all the script and all the questions I asked. Here's what I learned and how it guided the changes I made!
KEY TAKEAWAYS
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Testers were confused about some of the terminology including the difference between “Browse” “Match Me” and “Your Matches”.
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Testers commented about how personal finances may affect their ability to adopt a pet.
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The Quick Links section was very noticeable to testers and posed somewhat as a distraction.
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Some testers assumed that adjusting your MatchMe preferences would be in the MatchMe portion, others in the profile settings
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Users weren't sure of the function of this app until they were prompted to choose Match Me or Browse portion.
CHANGES
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Terminology was modified to be more clear about the function of each section. "Your Matches" became "Saved Matches".
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A question about finances was added to the Match Me quiz.
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Quick Links were moved to the profile settings section of the app.
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Quick Links were moved to the profile settings section of the app.
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A tagline was added to the loading screen to clarify function.
STYLE GUIDE
For the style of my high fidelity screens, I wanted to go for a fun and clean feel. I chose a color palette that would use various shades of periwinkle with a pop of orange to draw attention to various aspects. When utilized in interactive elements, I was also sure to only use the orange on top of a periwinkle with a different value. This is so users are not only using hue to determine interactivity —which could be difficult for colorblind users. I also wanted to incorporate imagery of animals in a homey environment. This imagery is intended to invoke a cozy feeling and inspire users to visualize pets in their homes.
SOLUTION
