UX Research/UX Design

Traveling Pet Owners

Overview

This project explores the challenges pet owners face when traveling and aims to address them with practical solutions. Through research methods such as interviews and a Qualtrics survey, we gathered valuable insights and used them to enhance the existing app, Rover, which connects pet owners with pet sitters. New features include a Match Maker questionnaire and an expansion to accommodate other types of animals.

For more details, feel free to check out my medium article or reach out to me at yp2859@nyu.edu

Research Question

How can pet care services better address the unmet needs of pet owners?

Methods

We conducted 5 contextual interviews with pet owners to gain insight into their current challenges. These interviews explored key topics such as cleaning, veterinary services, companionship, and pet health.
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Demographics:
2 Females
3 Males

Interview Guide

To gather more data on the challenges pet owners face, we designed a survey and distributed it via Qualtrics. With 28 responses, we were able to identify the most pressing issues. We then quantified the results and updated our affinity map with these new insights.

Demographics:
28 Responses
7 dogs
19 cats
1 hamster
1 fish

Survey Questions Qualtrics Survey

Findings

Key Findings:

1. Traveling: Worries about feeding their pet and arranging care while they're away.
2. Pet Care: Finding someone who will properly care for their pet, respect home boundaries and rules, and be attentive to their pet's needs.
3. Behavior: The pet breaks things around the house, sneaks out, and can be overly needy at times.

Key Findings:

1. The biggest concern pet owners have when traveling is finding reliable pet care for their animals.
2. Vet and pet professionals are the primary resources pet owners turn to when they need assistance with pet-related issues.
3. Pet products are the most commonly used external service by pet owners, compared to apps, professional training, veterinary care, and pet daycare.

"I worry so much about my cats when I'm not home because they can't take care of themselves."

- User Research Participant

User Needs Statement

Pet owners who travel out of town need to be confident in their pet's caretakers because they must vet caretakers in advance of their trip to ensure peace of mind while traveling.

How Might We...

ensure pet owners feel fully informed about potential caretakers' experience and trustworthiness?
arrange for pet owners and caretakers to meet prior to travel?
give just in time updates to pet owners as they're away?

Jobs To Be Done

Connect reliable pet caretakers to pet owners.
Check-in on pet anytime while traveling.
Providing flexible pet care options.
Providing attentive care for pet.

Personas

Empathizing with the target users is key to this process, so we created fictitious personas to help us step into their shoes and better understand their needs, wants, thoughts, and priorities. By understanding these personas’ needs, such as affordability, convenience, reliability, and flexibility, we are designing a solution that appeals to a wide range of users and ensures pet care is both accessible and dependable. This approach allows us to create a solution that aligns closely with users’ specific challenges and preferences.

Brainstorming

As a team, we conducted a brainstorming session, using techniques like the Crazy 8s exercise and the Wheel Randomizer to generate ideas. We then reviewed the user needs statements and revisited the unresolved frustrations shared by our research participants to ensure that our final concept addressed the core concerns of pet owners. Below is a summary of our brainstorming session.

Crazy 8s

All five team members participated in a brainstorming session using the Crazy 8s method, a rapid ideation technique where each person generates eight ideas in a short amount of time. Through this process, we produced 40 ideas that included 13 distinct design features.

Wheel Randomizer

Next, we continued brainstorming using a Wheel Randomizer featuring the 13 design features. This activity involved three rounds of discussion, allowing us to explore different combinations of features and build on one another’s ideas in a structured yet creative way.

Final Idea

We reviewed several existing pet care solutions, including TrustedHousesitters, Pet Sitters International, and Bark, and ultimately selected the Rover app for its versatility and ability to support a wide range of pet care needs. Rather than creating a new platform from scratch, we chose to enhance an existing, trusted service. Expanding Rover’s offerings allows us to better meet user needs while building on a familiar and widely used system.

Guided by our user needs statement, we asked, “Which features best address users’ needs for trust, flexibility, and inclusivity?” This question led us to focus on the following feature directions for our final prototype:

Vetting Pet Caretakers

Pet owners can find caretakers by completing a Match Maker Questionnaire, which asks about their pet and preferences to understand their care needs and match them with a suitable pet sitter.

Expanding To Other Animals

Pet owners will now be able to access care for animals beyond just dogs. They can add multiple pets, including different types of animals, either during thepre-screening processorafter they've completed the initial setup.

UX Writing

Call To Action: Fetch the Purrfect Sitter Today!

This button starts the Match Maker Questionnaire and is simple, fun, and playful, just like our pets. It ensures universal understanding without any confusion.

Usability Testing

Scenario: You are a pet owner and are in need to find a reliable pet sitter for your pet.

Goals: Test the app's usability and identify pain points.

Task:

Find your pet sitter match.
Find other recommended sitters.
Chat with a recommended sitter.

Feedback & Iteration

Based on usability testing, we identified the challenges users faced and ranked them by severity using star ratings.

Before: Pet owners need to complete the Match Maker questionare to see pet sitters.

After: Pet owners can select a service and see available pet sitters.
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Before: The app did not accommodate pet owners with multiple pets.
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After: Pet owners can choose which pet they want to find care for and/or add a new pet.

Before: Pet owners saw a match percentage based on the questionnaire, with 100% indicating all needs were met. They could chat with the sitter but not immediately book.

After: Pet owners no longer see match percentages. They can chat or book immediately after being matched.

Final Prototype

We created a video highlighting the new features in a potential Rover update, such as Match Maker questionnaire and an expansion to accommodate other types of animals.

Reflection

What went well:

We researched existing solutions and identified their shortcomings, realizing that a new app is not always the answer and that improving an existing solution can often be more effective.
Strong team communication and clear role distribution contributed to smooth workflow and collaboration.
We maintained flexibility and adaptability, allowing us to pivot when new insights emerged during the project.

If I were to do this project again, I would have:

Expanded the app's inclusivity to cover a broader range of pet types, as we only included the most common ones based on our research.
Continued refining the high-fidelity prototype with real content.
Conducted another round of user testing with diverse participants to uncover new areas for improvement.

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