Overview
About:
Giving up a pet is heartbreaking. Luckily, a little support can go a long way. ForeverPets strives to keep families together by providing information, resources, and support for those who may be going through difficult times.
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Problem:
Many animal shelters are over capacity due to low adoption rates and high intake rates from owners surrendering or abandoning their pets.
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Solution:
Provide helpful resources and support for some of the top reasons for pet surrenders and abandonment.
Research
I began researching to identify and understand the biggest problems that animal shelters face. I found that many shelters are over capacity due to the high number of animals coming in, compared to the number of animals being adopted.
The intake rate at animal shelters is higher than the adoption rate.
Overcrowded shelters cause illnesses to quickly spread between animals.
8 /10 euthanized animals are healthy or have a treatable health problem.
But why are there so many animals entering the shelter?
A big factor in high intake rates is from owners surrendering or abandoning their pet. Some of the most common reasons have been due to housing issues, owning too many pets, health problems, pet behavior, and financial issues.
25% of animals in shelters have been abandoned by their owners.
22.6% of cats are surrendered due to owners having too many animals.
14.1% of dogs are surrendered due to housing issues.
While it became clear to me that owners surrendering and abandoning their pets is contributing to high intake rates, I wanted to turn to the people who were most familiar with the topic, animal shelters and their volunteers.
These are the top 3 problems at animal shelters based on my survey:
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28 volunteers said having to turn away animals
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26 volunteers said overcrowded shelters
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17 volunteers said pet parents surrendering their pets
"It is sad to see that there are so many animals being abandoned and surrendered."
"I think we need more outreach to help slow down animals going to shelters. Discounted spay clinics, vaccine programs, etc., to keep pets in homes and reduce surrenders."
"I've been fostering for more than 20 years and can handle a lot, but there are still times when I need more support. When the rescue can help point me to resources, it helps me feel like I'm not in it alone. We all need support sometimes – fosters, adopters, etc."
Both my desk research, and the surveys, confirmed the need to address the issue of overcrowded shelters.
Comparative Analysis
I looked into some of the most popular pet-related apps and wondered why it wasn't enough to help with overcrowding.
PetFinder
Discover pets to adopt
Find Benji
Home-to-home pet adoption
Apps that currently exist, like Petfinder, decrease the number of animals in a shelter. While apps like Find Benji, help locate a potential home for pets that are no longer wanted or can no longer remain with the owner. However, neither of the apps actually prevent adopters from feeling the need to surrender their pets.
How Might We?...
Based on my findings, shelters are dealing with an overwhelming number of animals because pets are being returned to the shelter or are abandoned by their owner. To identify some potential opportunities, I formed some "How might we" statements.
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How might we...
Lower the intake rate for shelters so that they will not reach beyond their capacity?
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How might we...
Prevent adopters from wanting to return or abandon their pets so that animals will not have to be unnecessarily euthanized?
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How might we...
Make owning pets easier for adopters so that they will not feel the need to abandon or surrender their pet?
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How might we...
Slow down the intake rate without killing or denying the support of animals in need?
Crazy 8 Sketches
I then conducted two rounds of crazy 8's to quickly brainstorm some potential design solutions. I primarily focused on ways to provide help for those who are considering surrendering or abandoning their pet.
Set 1: brainstorming different methods of resources & support.
Set 2: brainstorming ideas for each tab.
User Flow
While the user flow changed and became much more complex than this, I began with a basic structure to outline the main features and their relationship to each other.
Mid-Fidelity Usability Test
With the user flow, I was able to construct my low and medium fidelity prototype.
Through initial testing, I found that users were confused by the section title, "For You". They didn't understand what was meant by this and was unable to predict what kind of information it would display.
Another suggestion from a participant included adding a title to each of the main pages so that the user would know where they were and what they were looking at.
High Fidelity Prototype
For the high fidelity prototype, I made a few notable changes:
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"For You" was switched to "Recommended" as a more understandable term.​
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A title was added to the Discover and Community page so that users could easily tell which page they were on.
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The Saved tab was replaced with a profile page so that users could edit their profile and settings while still being able to view their saved resources and information.
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Usability Testing
After testing the high fidelity prototype, I discovered that users had a different expectation for some of the features. These findings helped me determine what changes to make.
​Chat Feature
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Participants thought the chat button would allow them to privately message other app users
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They expressed the desire to chat with other people rather than AI or a support team
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Most users wanted to chat with other pet parents on the app to privately share personal information like phone numbers, addresses, etc.
Original design: Chat with a representative for online support.
New design: Chat with other pet parents to connect on a more personal level.
Save & Follow Feature
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Most participants wanted multiple ways to see their saved articles and followed posts
- They expected their saved articles to appear on the Discover page and on the Profile page
- They expected to find their followed posts on the Community page and on the Profile page
Original design: View saved articles under the Profile tab and view followed posts under the Community tab.
New design: View saved articles under the Discover and Profile tab and view followed posts under the Community and Profile tab.
Community Feature
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Participants wanted to see when community posts were published
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They didn't want to view poststhat were outdated, less relevant, or unreliable
Original design: Users could view the post title, description, and user profile. The date was only visible after clicking on the post.
New design: User can see the post's date, as well as how many hearts & comments a post received, before clicking on the post.
Final Prototype
As seen above, there were some additional changes to the prototype such as the background color change from yellow to white, the navigation menu displaying a blue highlight for the tab that the user is on, and a consistent vertical scroll throughout (rather than occasional horizontal and vertical scrolling).
Takeaways
While I faced many challenges throughout the design process, I also learned some valuable lessons that I will keep in mind during all of my future projects.
Don't try to build everything at once. Know your time constraints and prioritize what is most important.
It's okay to move away from your original designs. Use your usability test findings to guide you.
Spend more time the prep work. Building out the user flow will help save you time later in the process.