PAWPAGES

Your pets’ needs, all in one place.

OVERVIEW

PawPages is a web-based search platform dedicated to facilitating the discovery of pet-related businesses.

PawPages offers features like customized move checklist, aiming to ensure a smooth transition for potential movers and their pets.

ROLE
User research, UI design, Testing

TOOLS
Figma, Miro, Optimal Worshop

DURATION
March 2023 - June 2023

Challenge

Moving is a significant and thrilling life event, but it requires a lot of coordination. Unfortunately, some crucial factors may be overlooked, such as your pets.

Forgetting to prepare for your pets can lead to unexpected and undesirable results.

Solution

Design a tool that allows pet owners to search for all pet-related businesses in their area and complete tasks to fulfill their pets’ needs all in one place.

FYI

Something to note

My initial research started with the goal of understanding the challenges individuals encounter after relocating, intending to compile valuable insights for prospective movers. Upon concluding my user interviews, I came across an unexpected discovery about pet-owners which you'll find in my research process. This prompted a pivot in my focus to find solutions for easing the moving journey for pet owners by offering support tailored to their pets' needs.

Reason for the switch

  • A unique solution for a specific group of users.

  • Through research, I discovered a significant rise in the number of pet owners over the past three decades.

  • COVID-19 changed living situations where people started working remote and buying/adopting pets during the pandemic.

RESEARCH

Interview

To grasp the experiences of my interviewees during and after their move, I asked questions about:

  • their reason for the move

  • behaviors right after the move

  • unexpected challenges they faced after they moved

  • if they were affected socially, culturally, financially, and environmentally

  • what they wish they new before moving

Findings

  • Insufficient knowledge of policies in new state causing problems with registration.

  • Confusion on public transportation for those moving to metropolitan areas.

Unexpected finding

  • Pet-owners moving to another state forgetting to fulfill their pets’ needs.

Pain Points

  • Need to find a quality veterinarian in their new area.

  • Make sure that their pet’s medications are being provided everyday and not run out by the time they see a new vet.

“If you have pets, get a first appointment with a vet lined up at least a month before the move - they book up quickly and you do not want any surprises for them in a new place.”

— Rza, Participant

“Making appointments was a little difficult, ... many places were booked up 4-6 weeks out, even after sharing that our cat was sick. ERs here [Seattle] are all first come first serve - everyone shows up in the vet parking lot at 8am, forms a line, and waits their turn; very little digital experience.”

— Rza, Participant

Competitor Analysis

I chose Yelp for my competitive analysis due to its effective and user-friendly search system, along with its crowd-sourced reviews, which I wish to integrate into PawPages.

Yelp is a widely-used platform and app where users can rate and discover businesses like restaurants, shops, and services. It aids users in making informed decisions about where to go and what services to use based on reviews and ratings.

Services

Provides a one-stop local platform for consumers to discover, connect and transact with local businesses of all sizes.

Web Features

Trusted local business information, photos and review content. Request a quote, join a waitlist or make a reservation, and make an appointment or purchase.

Strength

Everything the user needs to know about the business is provided and businesses can engage with their customers through the Yelp.

Weakness

63.6% of consumers will likely check Google reviews before visiting a location. 45.18% will first turn to Yelp. - Techjury.net

IDEATION

The panicking pet-owner

Focusing on moving pet-owners, I created a persona to represent my participant who faced unexpected challenges moving with his pets.

Eric Reed is a systems engineer who moved from Chicago to Seattle with his partner, Katherine. They own 2 cats who require medication every single day. While planning for their move, they forgot to create vet appointments for their cats in Seattle which resulted in booking for an appointment 4-6 weeks out and not knowing when the medication will run out.

Project Goals

A venn diagram was created to delineate distinct project objectives: business goals, shared goals, and user-centric goals. While prioritizing user goals is important, it’s equally important to establish and align with well-defined business objectives to guarantee the longevity and success of the tool.

TASK FLOWS

Create an account

Creating an account will give users access to helpful features that’ll help accomplishing pet-related tasks much smoother.

Search for a vet

Searching for a pet-related business without other businesses showing up in the results will simplify the search process.

WIREFRAMES

Mid Fidelity Wireframe

My wireframe focuses on the sign-up process. I wanted a familiar journey for the user and flexibility to make their save or finish the onboarding process easy.

After signing up, the user is prompted to a dashboard with local information and features they can utilize.

Some iterations were made, including the tool's name, which was initially a placeholder at this stage.

High Fidelity Wireframes

I developed high-fidelity wireframes for eventual utilization in my usability testing. I’ve created the necessary screens to illustrate the workflow of my tasks, which are: onboarding + move process and searching for a business.

BRANDING

Friendly - Playful - Organized - Reliable

PawPages is a balance of playful and reliable. Orange was used to express the playful nature of our pets and a teal was used to express reliability and organization that PawPages aims to provide.

TESTING

Overview

5 participants were gathered to part take in my usability testing. They were given 3 flows to complete. The details are shown below:

Results

Test 1: Sign Up

Feedback:

  • the fill in form is at top and the one click buttons are under it.

  • the 1-click buttons would stand out more if the apple, google, facebook icons were there to stand out.

Test 2: Move Onboarding

Feedback:

  • priority markers on the checklist.

  • enlarge the checkboxes for minimal errors.

  • move edit icon to somewhere more visible

Test 3: Search for a vet

Feedback:

  • more map real estate by making location icon smaller

  • would like to see a list view option when searching

ITERATIONS

Rearrange the dashboard screen

The top 4 buttons on the dashboard were switched around in order of what may be used most frequently. Initially, pets was the first button but my participants expressed that it they’d more useful buttons at the top, like Favorites and Appointments.

Checklist glow up

There were a couple of changes made in this checklist.

  • Being a mobile tool, a larger checkbox would offer more surface area for the finger to tap it and not miss it so the size of them increased. I also changed it to a radio checkbox, giving it an updated look.

  • Users questioned if the list was ordered by priority or at random. Adding ‘recommended’ tags would guide users to the next steps in their moving journey for their pets.

  • The edit button was moved to the upper right hand corner. Users naturally looked there and it took some time for them to notice the icon.

More map real estate

To give the map more real estate, I removed the pop up bubble which displayed business information. Since the information was already shown at the bottom, it was redundant to have it again on the map, serving the same purpose.

FINAL PROTOTYPE

Interactive prototype

After review and reiterations, my prototype was finalized.

CONCLUSION

During this project, I gained insights into valuable research methodologies and the process of how user research transforms into an idea which then becomes a product. I’ve learned many valuable skills mainly, sorting qualitative and quantitative data, creating flows, and designing interactive prototypes. Doubting myself a couple of times, the biggest challenge was standing ground on my findings and following through with it until the very end.

In the future, I’d focus on business goals, aiming to expand the platform beyond just serving as a comprehensive resource hub for pet owners. I’d like to incorporate a business account feature, enabling business owners to access packages for enhanced exposure through sponsored ads, promotional offers, and providing users with features like appointment scheduling or reservation capabilities on their pages.

Home