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Adopting a pet is a lifelong commitment

How can we spark a connection between the adopter, pet & current pet parent?

Introduction

Pet adoption involves taking responsibility for a pet that a previous owner has abandoned or released to a shelter. Some organizations give adopters ownership of the pet, while others use a guardianship model.
Adoption is a fairly informal, community-driven activity, largely based on trust & goodwill.

This case study was a design challenge that I had to complete in 4–5 days. It was a wonderful experience to brainstorm ideas & develop them in such a short span.

The Problem

Animals are deeply impacted by abuse & pain. This can result in certain behavioral changes which may be misconstrued as being ferocious or badly behaved. Animals are very often judged by their appearance as well. This can lead to many animals that are not as ‘visually appealing to users’ being left in the shelter forever.

For future pet parents looking to adopt, the stages of adoption can be confusing & even painful. While it is certainly a joyous experience to meet the current owner & understand more about the pet, finding the right pet for one’s lifestyle & personality can be challenging.

As adopters, they have the right to know about the pet owner’s history, pet’s past experiences (if available) & health records before adopting.

The current pet parent maybe the pet owner looking for an adopter due to personal issues, an animal shelter volunteer, or even a community member looking to help the pet. This parent/temporary guardian may be apprehensive & would want to better understand the pet’s future parent, given the pet’s past trauma.

Enter: Adopteroo

Understanding the users

For the purpose of this case study, there were 3 main user groups that I identified:

• The Pet
• The Adopter
• The Current Pet Parent/Temporary Guardian

Process

Although I do care immensely for animals, I did not know what it was to be a pet parent. I acquire a lot of information on topics from podcast user stories.
To deepen my understanding, I listened to a podcast series on Spotify called: Petfinder Adoption Options.

Key takeaways

• Respect, equality & empathy: It is essential to build a rapport not only between the pet & adopter but also with the current parent.
  Biases about certain breeds: These creep in when there is a lack of awareness in the adopter’s mind.
• Reducing the barriers towards adoption: Keeping the adoption process straightforward & customizable can help reduce the barriers towards adoption.
• Trust plays a crucial role: If an adopter is happy, they will refer their circle & may even become a donor in the future.
• Social media: This is a huge vehicle for circulating adoption information.
• Post-adoption resources: After adoption, resources about the pet’s behavior or any other concerns need to be addressed

Gathering User Perspectives

I interviewed 2 pet owners to deepen my understanding of the current adoption process as well as to improve my grasp on being a pet parent & animal behavior. I decided not to ask any leading questions & made note of what they shared during the telephonic call, which I have collated below.

Competitive Analysis

Some apps I referred to were: Adopt Me, Pet Finder, Pets Adoption
I did this to validate my assumptions on what the problems could be.

Pain Points

• Card structure resembles e-commerce sites: Pets are companions, not products, it is unfair to present them like commodities.
  Lack of pet information: No details about the pet’s history, health, likes & dislikes.
• No information about current parents: For an adopter, it is important to have some background about the person who uploaded the pet profile. It is essential for a parent to feel like the source is verified.
• No location filter: Some apps displayed results from other countries.
  No information about the process: This leads to more ambiguity for an adopter.
• Lack of empathy: No information about the pet’s habits, likes & dislikes, anything that could create a bond between the adopter & pet.
• Lack of visual appeal: Adoption is a joyous experience & must seem enjoyable.
• No user journey for non-adopters: For those who cannot adopt, there is no way for them to contribute to the cause.

Process

App Requirements

• Provide more data points about the pet to help foster an initial connection between adopter & pet.
• Shed light on pet’s past trauma-if any.
• Create a repository of pre & post-adoption-related content.
• Have a feature to amplify a pet’s profile on social media.

Constraints

Due to time constraints, I have designed the user flows for the adopter only.
I have restricted my study to dog adoption. However, the app is scalable to other animals as well.

Assumptions

• The user’s goal is to adopt a dog & they are flexible on the dog breed.
• The user is unaware of the adoption process.
• User has not self-evaluated their pet worthiness

Creating the Information Architecture

After analyzing my learnings from the podcast & online sources, interviews, competitive analysis, I thought of what the broad user flows could be:

Wireframing

My design process involves a lot of preliminary sketching before digitizing the experience. I constantly reassess what the user groups may look for, especially as newcomers & how an interface must provide timely prompts.

One of my main goals was to focus on creating equality between dog breeds. Indie dogs are widely discriminated against & considered ‘unworthy’. I also wanted to ensure that the app was designed around creating lifelong companionship between the pet & pet parent.

Designing the Brand Identity

I wanted to highlight the diversity of animals through my logo & the beauty they represent. The dog’s eye contains a blotch on top, subtly showcasing that within diversity lies beauty.

Colour scheme & typeface

The color scheme needed to be lively & inviting to make the experience more joyful. The typeface needed to have a youthful, modern touch.

Onboarding

Why did I not ask the user to fill in pet requirements?

• Longer onboarding: I felt like these requirements could be looked into on the home page.
• Users may have preconceived notions: This would prevent a user from being open to exploring all pet options from the first step.

For this user flow, I have only designed for the adopter & have assumed that the adopter is not looking for a specific pet.

Home Page

The primary intent here was to deviate from displaying multiple pet profiles on a single page. This prompts a user to draw a comparison between pets. Users need to be sensitized towards pet adoption.

The screen was designed by drawing inspiration from Bumble & Hinge, prompting a user to discover the story behind the pet.

I have designed 2 types of cards:

• Abandoned or abused pet, found and treated by a shelter volunteer
• Stray animal found by a community member

Getting in Touch

The adopter can contact the current pet parent/guardian or community member to discover more about the pet & set up an interactive session with the pet.

Cues to Educate the Adopter

The intent is to equip an adopter with the necessary resources & take them on an exploratory journey to better understand their future pet.

Meet & Greet Session

A real connection between the adopter, current owner & pet can be fostered only by meeting in person & gauging each other’s personalities.
The app is merely a platform for all to connect & take the process forward.

Next Set of Adoption Steps

I have used timely modals after every user flow to educate a user on the way forward, so they don’t feel lost & perplexed. The adoption stages are updated upon approval by the owner only.

Home Page Action Items

I have designed some features that could potentially help a user in shortlisting pets, amplifying social media visibility & locating the pet.

Discovering Pets

This tab on the tab bar enables users to find more pets, based on their preferences & glance faster. This is not the primary page a user lands on because: my intent was to make users read through a pet’s story & not judge them purely on their visuals. Also, I decided not to have a search feature for this reason as well.

Preferences

If a user is very clear on their requirements while adopting, they can update their preferences.

As mentioned earlier during the onboarding process, the main reasons I decided to skip asking for user preferences was because this would prevent adopters from having an open mind towards adopting pets, of different breeds and ages.

Resources

Educating the adopter was a goal that I wanted to accomplish, to increase awareness on a variety of topics. My approach was to merely collate data links & help a user self-assess & self-learn. I wanted the resources to be useful:

• Pre-adoption
• During adoption
• Post-adoption
• For non-adopters to donate/volunteer for short term boarding facilities

Many adoption apps tend to reject adopters based on certain quizzes & criteria which can be hurtful. My approach was to provide the data & let the adopter ponder further.

Learnings

I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project &strived to create a platform that could create compassion & build trust amongst the different users.

• Working within a defined time constraint of 4–5 days and making trade-offs in the design process.
• Being a dog-lover myself, I learned about how social media is instrumental in amplifying adoption since it is a community-driven activity.
• The deep-rooted biases towards certain breeds & age groups of dogs.
• The commitment & crucial role an adopter plays when they take on such a responsibility.

Improvements & Additions

• I would have loved to improve the visuals for the resources section & dive deeper into the donation, volunteer & other community-centric user flows, for non-adopters like myself.
• Designing for multiple pet groups.
• Creating a user flow for the current pet parents.
• A user flow for community members who are not pet parents but want to actively help a pet find a better home.
• Improving the discovery of pets in a non-traditional way.

I hope you found this interesting. Do message me on Twitter or Linkedin if you want to discuss further. :)

I have also written a few other case studies :p Do give them a read!

Thank you for your time!