Finding your perfect companion.

3.1 million dogs end up in a shelter, yet only about 2 million dogs are adopted every year - why? My task is to find the answer to this question. This design sprint is in partnership with the faux company CityPups, a pet finder website for city folk.

The goals of this project are to increase adoption rates and to help dogs find their forever home.

Day 1 - Mapping

Users need more information up-front prior to browsing pets to make easier decisions.

To start the project, CityPups interviewed 10 participants who described their considerations when looking for a dog to adopt. Among their answers, three main points stood out: the dog’s looks (i.e., breed, size, weight), the dog’s personality (i.e., how energetic or clingy the dog is), and the dog’s information and backstory (i.e., their temperament or their medical requirements).

CityPups also provided a user persona: Ellie, the 27 year old who lives in NYC. Ellie’s goal is to feel confident that the dog of her choice will be a good fit for her and vice versa. Ellie has browsed through dog adoption sites before and has always been disappointed or been plagued with indecision given the amount of options presented to her.

Finally, CityPups provided a transcribed user interview with Jennifer who showed how she would look for a dog to adopt. The key points from this interview was that Jennifer valued the dog’s looks, the dog’s personality, and the dog’s backstory. One other thing to note is that adoption websites often don’t give enough information for users to make informed decisions about adoption.

Day 2 - Sketching

Iconography is easier than words.

Using inspiration from adoption websites such as petfinder.com and animalleague.org, and e-commerce websites such as ASOS.com, I performed a Crazy-8 exercise. I determined the most critical screen is how the user will browse for a dog, which I broke into two categories: browsing by dog characteristics and browsing by the user’s lifestyle. Using the best Crazy-8 screen I developed a solution sketch which includes the screen immediately before the critical screen, the critical screen itself, and the screen immediately after.

Day 3 - Decide

Alleviating indecision through asking as many question as possible first.

I chose to continue working with my Solution Sketch because of how easily I believe it can be for users. Through user interviews, we know indecision and quality of life for the dog and owner are big factors when deciding on adopting a dog. If the adopter has the option to search via their ideal dog qualities, or via their own lifestyle, some of the user’s indecision will alleviate and the user will have a better chance to find the perfect dog.

Day 4 - Prototype

Giving the user an option to browse by their lifestyle could bring a new take on adoption.

The goal of my prototype is to have the user make as many decisions as possible prior to looking at dogs. Knowing that opinions may change, I also wanted to let the user widen their choices if need be, therefore including an option for “all of the above”. I firmly believe that if the user can narrow down their search prior to actually seeing photos of the animal that they’re more likely to find a dog they will adopt.

I developed the following prototype to test with 5 users during Day 5. These users will have the ability to search either by dog or by lifestyle, and will be asked to try to adopt Riley.

Day 5 - Test

Users need more information in order to make more informed decisions.

I interviewed and user tested 5 users with varying ages, experience with adoption, and living situations. My experience with the five participants was surprising, as all participants noted how easy the website is to navigate through and complemented the choice of typography and color. Each user noted there was more information than normal on CityPups, and many of their options, such as the way they were able to filter, was intuitive. Although all feedback is good feedback, the best feedback I received was from two users who actually assumed there’s be more information than I had. This feedback allowed me to iterate the design even further, adding additional information to Riley’s biography.

If I had more time I’d like to develop the prototype further. Since this prototype was a facade, it wasn’t fully functional. The first thing I’d do is develop the website to be fully functional, allowing the user to sort even further than they currently can. I’d also like to investigate the user interface and if the use of different colors, typography, and information hierarchy would influence the user’s decisions.