CASE STUDY
Pawxy - Reimaging the pet adjustment phase
Role
Lead Product Designer
Duration
Aug 2022 - Dec 2022 (15 weeks)
Tools
Figma, Qualtrics, Miro
Team
Adviti Atluri, Prachi Chopde, Yuwei Li
INTRODUCTION
Pumpkin, a pet insurance company, is committed to providing top-quality care for dogs and cats. Their compassionate approach entails understanding and valuing each animal's unique traits and background. In the adjustment phase following pet adoption or rehoming, environmental changes may trigger anxiety, phobias, and destructive behaviors in pets.
This project aims to address the challenges faced by pets and their owners during this adjustment period. Offering an evidence-based solution will help owners accommodate their pet’s individual needs effectively.
PROBLEM
In the adjustment period following pet adoption or rehoming, pets may face challenges, leading to anxiety, phobias, and destructive behaviors triggered by environmental changes, leaving their owners feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.
How might we alleviate stress for pet owners and pets during the adjustment phase post-adoption?
SOLUTION
Introducing Pawxy, a mobile app that provides personalized care packages to pet owners based on their pet's unique needs. As a pet's needs evolve, recommendations adapt to address them. Pawxy is also a central resource for owners to discover new tools and tips to support their pets and seek expert guidance in addressing observed behavioral issues.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Exploring Solutions and Opportunities
While pet training resources is more relevant now than ever before, there are very few systems that are “pet-centric” or, in other words, cater to the pet's unique quirks and past story before they got adopted. We explored existing products that support pet adjustment and behavior management.
Good Pup
GoodPup, the leading online training app for puppies and dogs, provides personalized one-on-one training sessions via live video calls with certified trainers. These 30-minute virtual sessions mirror in-person training, with trainers guiding and observing as you perform exercises with your pet.
Learnings
Personalized Training
Offers one-on-one training sessions with certified trainers, providing tailored guidance and support
24/7 chat support
For first-time puppy/dog owners, this is a great application to get started with training and solving any unwanted dog behavior.
Flexibility
Weekly 30-minute sessions accommodate busy schedules and allow for consistent training.
Opportunities
Diversify into cat training resources
Support cat training services, reaching a broader audience beyond traditional dog/puppy training methods
Chewy
Chewy is the largest and most popular e-commerce platforms for pet owners. The company offers a vast selection of pet food, toys, medications, and accessories, catering to a wide range of pets, including dogs, cats, birds, fish, reptiles, and small animals.
Learnings
Extensive Product Range
Offers a wide variety of pet products, including food, toys, medications, and accessories, catering
Subscription Model
Allows customers to schedule regular deliveries of pet essentials, providing convenience and repeat purchases
Flexibility
Weekly 30-minute sessions accommodate busy schedules and allow for consistent training.
Opportunities
Cater to the unique needs of pets
Pair pet-centric products to pet's unique behavioral problems.
USER RESEARCH
Quantitative Surveys
The survey ensures that the problem exists while understanding user pain points. The survey was completed via Qualtrics. There were a total of 27 participants. Of the size, 25 were current/previous pet owners and 2 were prospective pet owners.
Survey takeaways
49%
of pet owners adopted their pet for companionship (mental/emotional support).
53%
of pet owners did not consider finances while adopting or budget exceeding their expectation.
63%
of pet owners consider happinness as an extremely important concern for their pets well-being.
91%
of pet owners discovered their pets unique quirks and needs from experience.
74%
of pet owners consider health/life expectancy as an important concern for their pet's well-being.
47%
of pet owners consider behavioral issues an extremely important concern for their pet's well-being
Qualitative Interviews
The survey revealed challenges encountered by both new and experienced pet owners. Through interviews, we aimed to grasp how these variances influence users' attitudes, beliefs, and emotions during the pet adjustment phase. We aimed to understand our users by addressing the pain points experienced during pet adoption and adjustment. We conducted 45-minute semi-structured interviews with 6 diverse pet owners, including students, a couple, a veterinarian, and a working professional.
Interview Takeaways
Nurturing a bond
While some surpassed their expectations regarding the reality and responsibility of pet care, all are dedicated to creating safe and loving environments for their pets.
Reliability
They seek reliable source that could guide them in addressing their pet's unique behavioral problems accurately instead of feeling overwhelmed by the abundance of online resources available.
PROJECT GOALS
What Did We Want to Accomplish With This Project?
We drew out these 3 points based on our user findings.
Cost savings
Create a product for diverse socio-economic backgrounds. Integrating a feature to educate users on practical pet financial expectations that will ease their financial burden.
Fostering Human-Pet Bonds
We found that the primary motivation for pet owners to adopt a pet was companionship. The rest were either influenced by friends/family or had other reasons for adoption, such as saving a life, preventing overpopulation at shelters.
Connection/Knowledge Sharing
By pairing new owners with experienced pet owners, we could facilitate understanding pet behaviors. This connection also offers resources and tips for addressing common behavioral issues others encounter, providing valuable support.
DESIGN
Design Requirements
Our design process began with brainstorming design concepts based on our research-backed functional and non-functional requirements.
Functional requirements
01
The design should support pet owners in understanding their pet's unique needs
02
The design should provide resources about managing/correcting behavior issues among pets.
03
The design should allow pet owners to manage and monitor their pet's happiness and general well-being
04
The design should link pet owners with a supportive community, facilitating knowledge exchange and learning from fellow pet enthusiasts.
Non functional requirements
01
The system should be engaging and intuitive for the end-user
02
The system should not subject the end-user to excessive financial strain
03
The eventual design should allow customization ability for the end-user.
04
The system should address security/privacy.
Ideation
After analyzing our research findings, we held a 20-minute session to brainstorm design ideas on a Miro board. Ideas varied from practical solutions to innovative ones. As a team, we elaborated on these ideas and combined or expanded them to generate creative solutions that meet user needs. Following a discussion on the problem areas and feasibility, we narrowed it down to 10 design concepts.
VRPet
TrainMe
PetMatch
RoboPet
Top 2 Design Ideas Storyboards
Idea # 1: Meet My Pet
Meet My Pet is an app connecting pet parents with experienced mentors nearby. Users create profiles for their pets detailing their unique traits and behaviors, seeking guidance in areas like training and behavior management. Unlike generic online resources, Meet My Pet offers personalized assistance, streamlining the search for help and enabling learning from similar pet experiences.
Solution Strengths
1.
Saves time by linking you with a seasoned mentor who has encountered comparable challenges, eliminating the need to sift through numerous internet resources.
2.
Considers each pet's individual behavior and quirks by pairing owners with similar pets, facilitating a smoother transition into new environments for both the pet and owner.
Solution Weaknesses
1.
Mentor advice may not always succeed, leading users to experiment with various methods to address behaviors.
2.
Finding pets with similar personalities nearby isn't always guaranteed
3.
Pet owners may require incentives to invest time in mentoring new, struggling parents.
Idea #2: Pawxy
Pawxy offers a subscription service catering to new pet owners, providing expert advice and personalized pet products. Users provide detailed pet information before consulting with experts, including vets, to address concerns and learn best practices. Subscribers receive a monthly care kit tailored to manage their pet's behavioral, dietary, and health needs within their budget. As pets' behaviors evolve and owners become more acquainted, they can update information on Pawxy for new recommendations, ensuring ongoing support.
Solution Strengths
1.
Equips first-time pet owners with essential resources, products, and support for optimal pet care.
2.
Through personalized product recommendations, Pawxy helps users comprehend their pet's specific requirements and maintain their well-being.
Solution Weaknesses
1.
Existing resources offer recommendations for pet care essentials but often lack personalization and expert input.
2.
It lacks support for users to connect with like-minded pet owners and form a community.
After reviewing the storyboards and assessing strengths and weaknesses, we concluded that Pawxy offered a more pet-focused solution, providing comprehensive support for pet owners. As a result, we decided to proceed with Pawxy.
Visual Design
We adopted Pumpkin's established design system to achieve a visually harmonized and uniform design for Pawxy. Given Pawxy's association with Pumpkin, maintaining uniform UI design principles was crucial to ensure consistency in the design language.
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High Fidelity Prototype
Detailed Onboarding
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Ordering Pawxy
New pets are welcomed with a personalized care package to help them adjust to their new home. Based on the information provided by their Pet parents, each Pawxy is curated with essential tools and toys that best match the pet’s quirks, unique needs, and areas they need help improving.
Discover Resources
While waiting for their Pawxy box, pet parents can discover resources such as research-based articles about pet care essentials and find new toys and yummy treats to add to their pet’s next Pawxy order.
Pet Journal Entry
A pet journal is a space to write about your pet, record special memories, track and monitor the pet’s habits and happiness level, and keep important dates. This a great way to encourage pet parents to spend more time with their pets and get to know them better.
Consultation Page
New pet parents want to ensure they are meeting their new pet's needs. Talking to a pet behavior expert about a pet’s problem behaviors and training goals can get pet parents and their pet on track to a better life together.
Usability Testing
We tested our design idea with 4 college students to improve user-friendly features. The session lasted for 1/hr. We checked the system's ease of use and engagement, focusing on the onboarding survey, pet diary, and expert consultation. Users gave feedback through think-aloud and benchmark tasks.
Task 1: Onboarding survey
✅ Everyone responded positively to the onboarding survey. They appreciated the option to share their pet's personality details and liked taking a quiz if the personality was unclear.
💡 Users recommended to add a percentage label or step count to the progress bar in the onboarding survey to keep users informed about the number of remaining questions.
Task 2: Journal entry
✅ Users appreciate the opportunity to track their pet's progress using the journal prompts provided by the app.
💡 Users emphasized the need for clarity on how journal entries affect box recommendations. They proposed adding a tutorial or brief explanation during onboarding or on the journal page to highlight its significance. Additionally, offering incentives was suggested to boost user engagement with the journal feature.
Task 3: Schedule a consultation
✅ Valued the inclusion of various expert consultations to offer better support for their pet's needs, seeing it as a distinguishing feature of the application
💡Suggestions were made to include a section providing background information about each expert.
Reflection