Context

City Pups is a desktop adoption website that specializes in showing dogs that are open for adoption. As an aggregator, the dogs are compiled from shelters and pounds from the searched area.

Scope & Constraints

This is a modified version of the Google Venture (GV) Design Sprint that generally lasts 5 days with a team. I used a scenario from Bitesize UX that included preliminary research about the problem space to complete tasks for each day.

Users

• Adults over 20

• Have adopted a dog before

• Interested in adopting in the future

• Willing to invest time to research before adopting

Problem

Potential dog adopters have a challenging time finding a dog that meets all of their criteria when most adoption sites don’t have detailed profiles or a variety of specifications and filters to use to narrow down searches.

Solution

Based on research and user flow, the solution is a dog adoption website with lots of filters for users to narrow down their search for their dream dog.

My Role

• UX Researcher

• Project Manager

• UI Designer

• Test Moderator

Puppy Spot - Takeaways

• Collections:

  • Best Apartment Dogs

  • Best Family Dogs

  • Hypoallergenic Dogs

• Only puppies with videos

• Ready to Travel

ASPCA - Takeaways
(American Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals)

• Qualities:

  • Needs a Foster

  • House Trained

  • Declawed

  • Special Needs

• Good with:

  • Cats

  • Dogs

  • Children

Get Your Pet - Takeaways

• Energy sliding scale:

  • Range low to high

Get Your Pet - Takeaways

• Compatibility:

  • Children under 5

  • Children 5 to 10

  • Children over 10

  • Cats

  • Dogs

Big and Small Dog Ranch Rescue - Takeaways

• Bonded

• Adult-only Home Preferred

• Dog Friendly

• Hypoallergenic

• Must Have Another Dog in Home

• No Cats or Small Animals

• No Kids

• Separation Anxiety

• Single Dog Home

• Shy / Timid

Petfinder - Takeaways

• Good With:

  • Any

  • Kids

  • Other Dogs

  • Cats

Petfinder - Takeaways

• Care and Behavior:

  • House-trained

  • Special Needs

I discovered that the most critical screen is the first results page following the basic search because the biggest challenge for users looking to adopt is not having enough information.

In our solution sketch, our user:

• Starts on the landing page

• Inputs their first search criteria

• Clicks search

• Views a results page with dogs matching their first search

• Clicks through additional filters

• Views dog profiles

• Chooses a dog to adopt

To begin the prototyping process, I created a storyboard of 14 screens focusing on:

• Landing page

• Search filters

• Dog profiles

Landing Page

• Search to find your new best friend!

• Choose breed, age, gender, size, and zip code
  (The default filters for search engines like this)

• Click Search

Pups Page

• Narrow down preferences with more filters:

  • Home

  • Activity

  • Personality

  • Attention

  • Good With

• Scroll through available dogs that meet the filters chosen

Pups Page

• Click through relevant additional filters:

  • Training

  • Food

  • Color

  • Coat

• Results have filtered down to 3 dogs

• View dog profiles for:

  • Tulip

  • Pico

  • Silver

• Decide who to adopt

Pups Profile

• Include multiple pictures

• Include distance in miles

• Details based off filters chosen

• How to adopt me

• If the words used made sense

• Which categories and filters are important to users

• What else users need to know in order to adopt

• Creating more filters within categories

• Adding more information to the dog profiles

(Before) Pups Profile

• Users wanted to see more information on dog profiles

(After) Pups Profile

• Added more information under Bio:

  • Past

  • Health History

  • Breed Information

  • Common Health Conditions Associated with Breed