OVERVIEW

During my course at the General Assembly, we had to design a concept project that could have a social impact, so my team and I came up with the idea of DogHome. We were concerned about the increasing number of dogs being abandoned or left at shelters by their owner because of their inability to take care of their pets during stressful situations like losing a home to natural disasters, illness, etc.

 RESEARCH AND SYNTHESIS

To serve our users best, we started with market research to understand how other pet fostering and adoption agencies worked. We conducted interviews with dog owners and foster families and sent out a survey to reach wider audiences.

Purpose of our research was to:

• Identify what resources exist for dog owners trying to find foster care for their pets.

• Understand what is essential for dog owners when seeking foster care.

• What frustrates owners in the process of finding care.

IN-PERSON INTERVIEW

When asked what was most important to dog owners while looking for foster care, the responses were not surprising. Love and safety were the user's primary concerns.

“A safe, friendly place for McGruff. He is an older dog and wouldn't do well in a shelter.”

“The care and safety of my pet when I could not care for him myself.”

Affinity Mapping

We collected all our insight from the interviews and created an affinity map to see prominent trends. A caring environment, safety, and communication are the top things dog owners care about when leaving their pets with someone else.

SURVEY RESULT

Our survey results clearly showed:

• That none of our participants had ever used an app for finding foster care.

• It generally took somewhere between 2 weeks to 2 months to find a foster care.

• All of them, at one point or other, have felts stressed while looking for care.

• They are likely to use the same source repeatedly.

INTRODUCING FOSTER FAMILY

While we understood pet fostering involved two types of users, i.e., dog owner and foster family. We didn't realize they both faced a similar problems until our research.

“Name, details on breed, age, bathroom trained, back story, are most important.”

“The pet's behavior, whether or not it would fit nicely in my home.”

• Detail of the dog's nature and health was something foster families wanted to know before committing to fostering.

• Some reported that finding the right dog for their family to foster was stressful.

• And the communication was of utmost importance as they wanted a clear understanding of how long the commitment was.

MARKET RESEARCH

I considered Pet Finder and Paws the most widely used organizations for my market research. And Rocket Dog, the Wonder Dog, and Family Dog are all small non-profit organizations dedicated to rescuing animals.

IDEATION

Based on our research, we concluded that to serve our users best, we need:

• To build an app for our concept as it was the gap in the market.

• To have a detailed profile for both dogs and foster families. Knowing all the details upfront will take away the stress and anxiety of finding the right fit.

• To include in-app messaging for secure communication before and during fostering.

As finding a foster family during a stressful situation can sometimes be time-sensitive, we came up with the idea of self-generated matches based on application answers.

EARLY SKETCHES AND WIREFRAMES

My team and I mainly focused on layout and navigation during our early sketching phase. We went through several iterations in our mid and high-fidelity prototypes based on usability tests and user feedback.

HOME PAGE

We did a lot of layout exploration for our home page. We even tried showing browse and self-generated matches on one page.

FAVORITE PAGE

Our initial idea was to differentiate between the connection request sent and the request accepted to let users know with whom they are actively communicating.

So we tried side swipe and scroll, active and pending status, and even toggles to show different statuses.

 USABILITY TESTING

For our usability test, we focused on the efficiency of finding and messaging the right match, especially as dog owners have a lot on their minds when looking for the best care for their pets.

HOME PAGE

Issue: Misunderstanding of icons and words. The two heart icon made users confuse our app with dating apps.

Update: Changed the hearts to puzzle and later to our logo. And changed "most compatible" to "matches."

Success: Users liked the idea of self-generated matches as it saves a lot of time finding the right match.