Audopp
It's not only about adoption,
it's about a good adoption!
Photo by Aaron Burden at Unsplash
Field: UX | UI
Date: Jul.2019
Time: two weeks
Individual project
Tools:
The Challenge
Build a digital product to solve a real problem based on my own vision, research and findings. Passing through all the stages of the UX and UI process and delivering an animated Hi-Fidelity prototype for an App or a responsive website.
Methodology & Tools
Believing that the starting point and one of the main pillars for the success of any project is planning and organization. That's why I always work using Agile methodologies and for this project, I used Trello as a tool to help me organize my process based on the Kanban method.
The second step, also very helpful for maximizing the flow of the project, was to develop the
UX Strategy Blueprint:
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Empathizing with the cause
Before starting to empathize with the users I decided to empathize with the cause.
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So after a lot of market research, here are some numbers...
According the Organização Mundial da Saúde (OMS) there are more than 30 million animals living in the streets of Brazil.
20 million Dogs + 10 million Cats
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More than 44,3% of the houses in Brazil has at least one dog = 52,2 million (aprox.)
41% adopted = 21,4 million (aprox.)
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+17,7% of the houses in Brazil has at least one cat = 22,1 million (aprox.)
85% adopted = 18,8 million (aprox)
Data:
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) 2016
instituto Fess'Kobbi
Fonte: Bonalume, 2007
8 in 10 street animals already had a home before.
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After being abandoned only 45% of dogs and 38% of the cats
are adopted again.
Fonte: Bonalume, 2007
These numbers ensure that the amount of domestic animals (dogs and cats) living in the streets and the number of abandon is a real and serious problem for the animals, which are living in pitful conditions, and also for people, due to diseases and accidents that may be transmitted and caused by these animals.
Adoption is starting to appear on the spotlights
What proves that the market is creating awareness about it and it's a good time to develop a digital solution to help solve this problem.
Business Analysis - Competitors
ADÔ
Pets search based
on location
MEAUDOTE
Tinder interface
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SOS PET
Connect adopters with shelters, not animals
ADOTA PET
Filter to search animals
by preference
ADOTA AQUI
Pet search based
on location
Posible Market Gap...
...or a market failure...
Searching
X
Matching
All players seem to prioritize adopter's interest and power of choice but don't take into consideration the animal's need and the shelter's point of view.
Empathizing with the users
Qualitative Interview
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Target audience:
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People between 25 - 40 y/o, financial independent, involved or sensitized with the animal cause, have/had or would like to have a dog/cat;
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Shelters / Independent protectors.
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Main Goal:
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- Adopters:
Understand their awareness and relations regarding adoption;
Understand their preferences, motivations and behavior patterns related to having a dog/cat;
Understand their knowledge about responsible adoption;
Understand their pains regarding adoption and animals care;
- Shelters:
Understand their reality;
Understand their adoption process and requirements;
Understand their pains regarding the process.
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Total number of interviews:
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Adopters: 12
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Shelters: 1 in-person visit
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Note 1: due to physical location and time limitation it was only possible to do one interview with shelter but the research was complemented with a lot of desk research. I read a lot of shelter articles and testimonials and also used the information I had from previous experiences working as a volunteer in a shelter in Barcelona.
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Note 2: due to the good quality and amount of information I get from the qualitative interviews and because the subject of research is a very sensitive topic I decided not making online surveys.
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Interviews Main Insights
Adopters:
What they want?
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Animal's story
Animal character
Health issues
The conditions of the Shelter
Size and age
Location
Create a connection with the animal
Main Issues
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Don't know where to search
Randomly Google + Social Medias
Go to shelters
What about after the adoption?
Don't feel comfortable with an online adoption
Shelter - How is the process today
Adopter arrived - no booking;
Volunteer asked about family and house structure and dog's preferences to know the adopter's profile
Volunteers talked with each other about dogs options;
Walk around the whole shelter showing lots of different dogs;
Adopter left without taking any decision.
Report of one adoption visit I followed during the visit at União Zoófila in Lisbon.
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Based on all the information collected on the interviews, I did the bellow Affinity Diagram.
Followed by the bellow two Emphaty Maps - one for each user, adopter and shelter's volunteer.
User Personas
The adopter - Bruno
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34 yo, Strategy Manager at a digital marketing agency
“Dogs help us to have a better life! It’s the truest love and the best company you will ever have, but they also requires a lot of time and energy.”
GOALS:
Grow in his career
Build a family
Have a dog, or maybe two
FRUSTRATIONS:
Travels a lot
Has an unstable schedule
Don't know where to search
Energetic / Extrovert / Active Social Life / Traveler / Dog Lover / Social and Environmental conscious
The voluntary - Teresa
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52 yo, Part-time Jornalist at a Decor Magazine
She manage her time between her family, her job and her voluntary work at the shelter.
GOALS:
Help abandoned animals
Promote the shelter and adoptions
Ensure a responsible adoption
FRUSTRATIONS:
Convince adopters to follow her suggestions
Find balance between adopters and animals needs
Time
Independent / Emotional / Observative / Animal Lover / Engaged with social and environmental causes
Ameixa - The invisible dog
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Ameixa, 5 yo approximately
Mixed breed | Size: Medium / Large - 25kgs
Time in the shelter: 5 years
“Ameixa is a very sweet and calm dog. We really don’t understand why she is taking so long at the shelter and why no one ever got really interested on her.“
Sweet | A bit shy | Calm but energetic at walks | Social | Not aggressive | Obedient | Quiet
How Might we...
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Show the adopter the benefits of the Matching Process, find a good match between adopter & animal
and ensure a Responsible Adoption?
How Might We tool - I asked for a colleague to vote on the HMW options with me.
Hypothesis:
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Increasing adopters' awareness of animal needs and giving more power to the shelter's using a "matching system" instead of a ''searching system" we could positively influence on adopter's selection in the process and increase the chance of a responsible and successful adoption and also decreasing the number of abandonment.
Concept Test
Does Matching really works?
1. Kindly see the next dogs and put them in your order of preference. Please briefly explain why.
4. Would you change your order of preference? How and why?
2. Please tell me your order of preference and give a brief explanation of why.
3. Now let's get to know a bit more about each dog personality and behaviour.
Test Results - Number of testers: 24
Change their minds: 19
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"I can't control an aggressive dog"
"My house is too small"
"I stay to much time outside of home"
"I don't have time to play with her"
Didn't change their minds: 5
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"I had aggressive dogs before"
"I like big dogs"
"He looked calm and that's the best option for me"
IDEATION
With my hypothesis validated by the Concept Testing it was time to start the Ideation phase to find some solutions.
Brainstorm + Clusters
MOSCOW tool to prioritize features and find my MVP
User Jorney for both, adopters and shelters, without the app and using the app:
At this stage of the process, I also used some strategic tools to ensure the solution was really solving the pains of users that I mapped during the empathy phase.
Lean UX Canvas
Value Proposition Canvas
The result of a hard, intense and delightful week of work :)
Note: After finishing the project all the papers were properly separated and sent for recycling.
Moodboard
The Solution
A matching marketplace for
dog's and cat's responsible adoption.
Adopter issue:
Wants to see the dogs and questionnaire is too long.
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Solution:
Browse without fill questionnaire + Save & finish later.
Shelter issue:
Don't remember all the animals.
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Solution:
The algorithm compares the adopter profile with all the database animals.
Adopter issue:
Don't know the criteria to choose the animal.
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Solution:
Matching criteria methodology explanation and results.
Adopter issue:
Wants a dog that doesn't have a high matching result.
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Solution:
List with all available animals ranked by matching percentage.
Adopter issue:
Wants to meet the animal and create a connection.
Shelter issue:
Need to meet the adopters.
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Solution:
Book a visit online. The app facilitates the whole process but the adoption needs to be finished in person.
Shelter issue:
The adoption process takes too long.
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Solution:
Target visits + online booking.
OFFLINE:
Shelter issue:
Don't have time to fill and update the animal's profile
Are not good photographers
Solution:
A team to help building animals profiles
A team of professional photographers
A team to update the profiles
Next steps
Guides to help take care of the animals;
Channel to connect Shelter and Adopter after adoption (ownership of the animals profile)
Adoption products kit
Sale of pet related products through the platform
Business model
Donations
Donations certificate - stamp of partnership
Partnership with companies - Tax discounts
Animals Products sale
USABILITY TESTS
Mid-Fidelity prototype
Demo video of the Mi-Fi prototype build in InVision that I used to do the tests.
Total number of usability tests: 8
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The main insights I got with the tests were that the context of how the app works were not clear and since the solution followed a different logic than the other apps in the market I developed three onboarding screens to lead the users and improve the experience.
HI-FIDELITY ANIMATED PROTOTYPE
Screenshot of the Hi-Fidelity prototype developed using Sketch + Principal to created the animated demo video below.
