Pelzana - A Website to find Pet Sitters
Website design - Solo project
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Role: UX Designer
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Year: February - March 2023
Problem
Pet care services are not new, and several applications already connect pet sitters with pet owners. While these online services offer a convenient solution for pet owners in need of caregiving, they also come with potential challenges. As a pet owner, I have sometimes struggled to find a reliable pet sitter through the platforms I frequently use.
Goals
My goal is to understand the pet services market and design a website that can be easily launched. It won't require fancy technology; rather, it will focus on a straightforward business concept aimed at helping people meet their needs.
Design process
I applied the standard Design Process with 5 main phases:
(1) Understand
(2) Ideate/Explore
(3) Prototype
(4) Test
(5) Iterate
Customer Journey
The business case of the Website results in two different customer journeys: One for Pet Owners and one for Pet Sitters
Pet Owners
Pet Sitters
Interesting Insights
#1 Safety and Privacy
Among the Pet Owners joint me for the research phase, the top 1 concern is about Safety and Trust. The owners have a high need to be sure that the sitter is being verified as he/she would be able to enter their home with their keys and directly in contact with their furry friends. Some owners still find it hard to trust someone that they don’t know yet.
How can I know if he or she would even show up on the agreed day to take care of my Dog?
What if the sitter don't know how to take care of my pet? Or if my pet doesn't like the sitter?
On the other side, the Pet sitters also want to be sure that their privacy is protected. As they are putting themselves out there on an online platform and providing their personal data, weak privacy and security concepts can make them vulnerable targets for cyber attacks. Statistics (according to zippia.com) also shows that the majority of pet sitters in the US are female, making the privacy and safety demands for them is even higher.
Gender statistics for Pet sitters in the US - zippia.com
Proposed Solution
Verification process is highly recommended for both Pet Owner and Pet Sitter. Verified profiles are more visible and more likely to be selected. Providing clear benefits of a verified account and ensuring a simple process for verification will help to ease the complexity of it.
There are in addition certain features which can be used to support the concept that such as: options for Sitter to verify their professional skills with certificates or experience; establishing a score system to rate the strength of user profiles based on experiences.
Handling all data in a compliant way under GDPR is also an essential aspect. Besides that, allowing not only Pet Owners but Pet Sitters to give reviews or report suspicious profiles will also strengthen the Safety & Privacy concept.
#2 Meet & Greet
Another pain point that the owners and sitters often face is the Meet & Greet appointment for handing over the key. Often “Meet & Greet” is expected for the 1st booking; however, it can be time-consuming for recurring appointments. Some of the users established a “trust-based” concept with the sitter e.g. drop the key in the mailbox, but the security concern does comes along with it.
Proposed Solution
One solution is to offer "trust-based" concept as a transparent option for recurring booking and ensure transparency and traceability in the booking history. By providing different options for Pet owner to choose from and helping them to track or save the options, we would help increasing the reliability of the services.
Options for Meet & Greet could be: Drop key, Meet & Greet meeting or Pin code (for smart home).
#3 Ease in Communication
There is a high expectation for messaging services provided by the Application. There are multiple occasions when the Owners expect updates/messages from the Sitter, including images and videos. The use of external applications like Whatsapp is not recommended as it can weaken the security & privacy concept of the pet care services.
Proposed Solution
Include video chats and option to send images and videos in the inbox to provide multi options for communication.
User Flow & Low Fidelity Prototype
I started with creating a user flow and then transformed it to a Low Fidelity Prototype using Figma.
Wireframe
The website wireframe covers the main user flows of the website: Registration & Identity Verification, Search & Book and Message function.
High Fidelity Prototype
Landing page with search and browsing options
Emphazised profiles with high rates
Pets profile in Account session
Landing page with search and browsing options
Highlight #1 - Identity Verification
Identity Verification is a feature for both Pet Owner and Pet Sitter with the aim to increase the reliability of their profile.
The feature:
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Is optional
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Consists of 3 steps
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Is provided with clear guidelines and progress indicators
User can start the Identity Verification during onboarding process or directly in their Profile.
Highlighted #2 - Suggestion for Greet & Meet
Message function and automatic suggestion for Meet & Greet not only provide users an easy communication tool but also give users options to simlify their Meet & Greet events depends on user's choice.
Example: ​
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​Greet & Meet: mandatory for the first booking and always recommended
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Drop Key (dedicated for frequent-booked sitter)
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Pin Code e.g. for Smart house / smart key
The option selected will also be saved in the chat history and user's booking history.
User Testing and Iteration
The hi-fi prototype has been tested with 2 users: 1 in person interview and 1 online session via Zoom.
During the test session, the users were asked to perform:
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Registration and Identity verification
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Search process
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Booking process
The Usability Testing results brought great insights for Iteration phase, including:
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UI Design elements enhancement
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Enhanced Workflow of verification process
Color scheme & UI components
I mainly used Components, Variants and Properties features in Figma to create Interactive Components and use them accross multiple screens in the prototype
Setting up a "mini" design system certainly helps me in boosting productivity, increasing the consistency in my design and speed during the iteration phase.
Conclusion & Lessons Learnt
As a user of various pet sitter applications and websites, I find it exciting to work on this project. Managing it alongside my full-time job has helped me enhance my time management skills and deepen my commitment to design.
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Throughout this project, I discovered the value of incorporating interactive components to boost productivity and maintain consistency in design and prototyping. Ultimately, I learned the importance of having a design system, which is essential for implementing and scaling products.