Petfinder
Features redesign to include appointment booking and chat
Date: Spring 2020
The Project + Context
This case study reviews an HCI grad assignment for my Design and Evaluation of HCI course at Iowa State University. I was responsible for conducting UX research and a features redesign as a part of a 3 person UX team. I thought of the idea of adding an appointment booking feature to the Petfinder app after a system review. The team also decided to include a chat feature. We decided a booking and chat feature would be beneficial as the app contained no method for users to directly contact the shelters after finding a pet. During this time, COVID- 19 restrictions prohibited walk-in visits to the shelters.
Is this little cutie still available? Who knows.
No easily accessible contact method.
Scroll almost to the bottom to find the shelter's email address or phone number. Not ideal.
Wait a few days for the shelter to return your message.
Why is this a problem?
The user must reach out to each perspective shelter (in the shelter's preferred contact method) to ask questions, check availability or book an appointment to visit the animal. It may take a day or several days for the shelter to return the message, which leaves the customer waiting. After waiting, a customer may be informed that the animal is no longer available. If this happens multiple times, a user may become frustrated. This also impacts the shelters' limited resources. The longer an animal remains at the shelter the more money is spent on care and upkeep. The wait may also limit the capacity for new animals to be submitted to the shelter. Faster response turnaround positively impacts both the customer and business.
Challenge
How would we go about adding a chat or booking functionality to the application? How will potential adopters receive these new features?
Domain Research
Though members of the team had some experience with pet adoption, I still didn't know much about the industry as a whole. I performed domain research to help me understand the general pain points, themes, and general practices of users and shelters during the adoption process.
How many animal shelters/ rescues are in the US? What is the difference between a shelter and a rescue?
What is the average annual operating cost of an animal shelter?
How many volunteers/ staff on average per shelter?
How many animals do shelters take in each year? What is the average length of stay (LOS)?
How long can an animal stay at a shelter until they are euthanized?
Competitive Analysis
Our team also conducted some competitor research to gain insight into the areas where Petfinder's top competition succeeded and failed. Listed below are the Miwuki Pet Shelter application, which scores a 4.4 user rating, Petharbor coming in at 3.9 out of 5 stars, and WeResue with a 4.8 user rating. The first competitor reviewed, as it has the most downloads, is a Spain-based adoption application. Though some may argue that this application is not a direct competitor as the apps are servicing different markets, it was important for our team to glean information and insight from top competitors regardless of location.
Miwuki Pet Shelter
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Unclear verbiage - Does "in adoption" mean "located in an adoption center" or "still available?"
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Lets users know the animals' adoption status immediately.
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Has a filtering system and provides clear close-ups of each animal displayed in a grid style, allowing the user to view many options at once. An interesting future research question could be, "Do users prefer to see so many animals available or do they feel overwhelmed with so many options to choose from?"
PetHarbor
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Displays clear close-up photos of the animals and allows users to adopt pets, search for lost pets, and report found pets. Unfortunately, the process contains many steps.
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Displays only a few pets at a time and utilizes an outdated filtering system.
WeRescue
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Both basic and advanced filtering options
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The availability to use the application without logging in/setting up an account or profile.
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Blurry pictures of the animals
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Unusually large, floating close-ups of the animals and information hidden below the fold.
"This app needs work." - Don. E
"Sometimes it works just fine. other times, it randomly freezes on the homepage." - Amber
"Sign In Options are only Facebook or Google. I have an account on their website but can't use it. Uninstalled."- Jacob B.
"Absolutely useless for finding local pets." - Lester B.
"Great pictures and the full description really helps." - Lynn B.
"I can’t stand apps with condescending or manipulative content." - getthisbabyouttame
"The information is updated frequently which is very useful." - Valeria P.
"Repeated list of search results." - Dana
"Brilliant app & incredible customer service." - Vince Howard
"Excelente servicio y muy amables y responsables." - Lila B.
"This app is perfect!! I am currently living in The Netherlands, this should arrive also there. There is a huge culture for adopting instead of buying!!" - Belen G.
"Amazing app! When is it coming to the UK?" - Mariano M.
"Lots of detailed info about pets and easy navigation in the app."- User
Personas
I created three user personas to help me keep in mind the people we are designing for and to keep their pain points and core needs top of mind.
Storyboard
Similar to the user personas, a storyboard helps me keep in mind the users' goals and emotional state when utilizing the application.
User Testing
The team compiled the following interview guide to test the redesign and receive valuable user feedback.
Results
By utilizing survey instruments to measure dependent variables, we collected perceptual data of performance and usability. Surprisingly, the results showed that participants overwhelmingly preferred a feature built into the original app, with almost no utilization of either the added Chat button or the Schedule an Appointment button. A majority of participants (n = 10) preferred using the “Ask About." While we expected users to prefer the chat feature, only 10% of users preferred the chat in both trials. Therefore, the chat feature did not meet our expectations as being a desirable feature. Participants also overwhelmingly responded with no interest in using the chat feature, and it was rated as “not helpful” in further tests. The study also suggested that when it comes to usability, the appointment booking feature would more likely be utilized and was viewed positively. Therefore, it might be a worthwhile addition to explore, as participants were receptive to it under the right conditions.
Reflections
In the future, I would love to see if the redesign reduced the amount of manual outreach on the part of the user and the number of calls/emails to the shelters. I'd also be interested to see if the number of pets adopted within a similar time-framed increased due to quicker response and communication via chat and appointment booking. The last piece I'd like to review would be the app ratings. Would users find more enjoyment using the app, increasing the overall score?