Traveling Pet
Owners
UX Research & UX Design
Role
UX Researcher &
UX Designer
Team
UX Designers &
UX Researchers:
Boran Chen
Chenyu Ye
Joshita Manohar
Ricca Lan
Timeline
Aug. 2024 - Dec. 2024
Designed For
User Experience Design course at New York University.
Research Methods
Interviews,
and Qualtrics Survey
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.
🧠 Problem Brainstorming
Our entire group has pets or experience with pets, so we began by reflecting on what we already know about pet owners, what we still need to learn, and what insights would help us build interview questions to uncover the challenges pet owners face. We wanted to ensure our approach was inclusive, considering a diverse range of pet owners and their unique needs. This included owners with service dogs, as well as those with emotional support animals. We also aimed for diversity in our participants, selecting individuals from a range of boroughs and states. Finally, we wanted to include pet owners with a variety of animals, such as cats, dogs, and others.
🤨 Research Question:
How can pet care services better address the unmet needs of pet owners?
💭 Contextual Interviews
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.
Interview Demographics:
🙎🏻♀️ 2 Females
🙎🏻♂️ 3 Males
Affinity Diagram:
We organized our insights into the following categories: basic needs, cleaning, services, concerns, companionship, health, and advice.
🔑 Key Findings
-
Traveling: Worries about feeding their pet and arranging care while they’re away.
-
Pet Care: Finding someone who will properly care for their pet, respect home boundaries and rules, and be attentive to their pet's needs.
-
Behavior: The pet breaks things around the house, sneaks out, and can be overly needy at times.
💭 Qualtrics Study
After synthesizing our initial findings, we decided to gather more data on the challenges pet owners face. To do this, 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
Affinity Diagram:
We organized our insights into the following categories: challenges, behavior issues, travel, time, services, nutrition, and health.
🔑 Key Findings
-
The biggest concern pet owners have when traveling is finding reliable pet care for their animals.
-
Vets and pet professionals are the primary resources pet owners turn to when they need assistance with pet-related issues.
-
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."
- Participant A
🎤 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...
-
How might we ensure pet owners feel fully informed about potential caretakers' experience and trustworthiness?
-
How might we arrange for pet owners and caretakers to meet prior to travel?
-
How might we give just in time updates to pet owners as they’re away?
💼 Jobs To Be Done..
-
Check-in on pet anytime while traveling
-
Connect reliable pet caretakers to pet owners
-
Providing flexible pet care options
-
Providing attentive care for pet
👥 Personas
Empathizing with the target users is key to this process, so we’ve created fictitious personas to help us step into their shoes and truly grasp their needs, wants, thoughts, and priorities. By understanding these personas' needs—such as affordability, convenience, reliability, and flexibility—we’re designing a solution that appeals to a wide range of users, ensuring pet care that is both accessible and dependable. This approach allows us to design a solution that aligns with their specific challenges and preferences.
🥊 Competitive Analysis
We reviewed several existing pet care solutions, including TrustedHousesitters, Pet Sitters International, and Bark, and selected the Rover app for its versatility in addressing a wide range of pet care needs. While creating a new app is an option, we believe that improving an existing platform like Rover, by expanding its pet offerings and features, can better serve users without reinventing the wheel.
💡 Project Ideation
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 Eights
Wheel Randomizer
User Needs
Final Idea
🂨 Crazy Eights
-
40 different ideas
-
13 design features
-
5 team members
🎡 Wheel Randomizer
-
13 design features
-
3 rounds of discussions:
![[Milestone 6] Final Presentation (2).png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/5d6f8d_5a99ad241786461287082fdd4416ea63~mv2.png/v1/crop/x_0,y_68,w_960,h_378/fill/w_653,h_257,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/%5BMilestone%206%5D%20Final%20Presentation%20(2).png)
⭐️ Final Idea
Based on the user needs statement, our team asked, "Which feature(s) best address the users' needs?" This led us to focus on...
-
Vetting Pet Caretakers
-
Expanding to other animals
📌 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.
Match Maker Questionnaire
📌 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 the pre-screening process or after they've completed the initial setup.
Pre-Screening
After Screening
✍🏼UX Writing
Call To Action: Fetch the Purrfect Sitter Today!
This button starts the Match Maker Questionnaire—simple, fun, and playful, just like our pets. It ensures a 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"
Goal: Test the app's usability and identify pain points
Tasks:
-
Find your pet sitter match.
-
Find other recommended sitters.
-
Chat with a recommended sitter.
👂🏼Feedback & Iteration
Will increase in severity...
-
Users want to see recommended pet sitters without having to first complete the Match Maker questionnaire. (⭑)
Before:
After:
-
Users want to pick the animal they want care for prior to starting the questionnaire. (⭑⭑)
Before:
After:
-
Users interpreted the 100% Match Screen as an indication that the questionnaire was fully complete, rather than as a pet sitter who matched their needs perfectly. After finishing the survey, they expected the option to begin booking care, not just initiate a conversation, and wanted to view their top matches.(⭑⭑⭑)
Before:
After:
🎥 Video 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 isn’t always the answer—sometimes, improving an existing solution is 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.
-
We had FUN!
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.
