Fluffly Tails

Mobile Application to increase adoption rates of dogs in shelters

THE PROJECT

I designed a mobile application for a pet shelter that helps users to reduce the emotional burden and the overwhelming feeling of visiting a pet shelter so that more dogs could be adopted instead of euthanized.

ROLE

Product Designer

DURATION

6 weeks

TYPE

School Project (RIT)

THE PROBLEM

4 MILLION DOGS

enter animal shelters in the US every year

2.4 MILLION

are euthanized. 80% of these are healthy, treatable and could have been adopted into new homes.

Shelter visitors stop to see only 29% of the dogs available for purchase.

Only about a third of the people visiting the shelter leave with a dog, which means most visitors will ultimately go to other sources.

It takes most potential adopters less than 70 seconds to evaluate a dog in the kennel

STEVE & JODI

“The second I walked into where all the dogs are I got an overwhelming feeling of sadness and started to cry after seeing all dogs there”

“I was too upset to pull the camera out”

Users find visiting shelters to be overwhelmingly sad. Their experience is spoiled by the conditions they see during their visit.

A bad experience can decrease the chances of people adopting a pet or recommending the process to other people that might not be familiar with the activity.

Adopting pets from pet shelters is overwhelming and time-consuming and because there are so many dogs in a shelter, the visitors might not see all the options available, which can end up in a mismatch for both the dog and the visitor.

How can a mobile application help users save time and emotional energy when adopting a dog from a pet shelter?

HIGH-LEVEL GOALS

FIND BEST MATCH

Not being able to see all dogs in a pet shelter could lead to a mismatch or not even adopting at all. Users should be able to view all options they have available before making a decision.

SAVE TIME

Adopting a dog can be time-consuming. The app should show relevant content to the user in order to make the process efficient.

REDUCE STRESS

Reduce overwhelming feeling of visiting pet shelters and help make a decision.

APPROACH

DOG PROFILES

Having dog profiles that show the personality and characteristics of the dogs can increase the odds of finding the right match.

FILTERED SEARCH

Filtering search results to what the user is looking for and having sharing options to share with other people that are part of the decision making, instead of visiting the shelter before making a decision.

FAVORITES & APPOINTMENTS

The app should serve as a mediator between the pet shelter and the user. Giving the user time to think about their decision and revisit before taking the big step. Setting appointments with their favorite dogs instead of seeing everything there is in the shelter.

WHO ARE THE USERS?

CURRENT SOLUTIONS

BARK BUDDY

ALL PAWS

WOOF RESCUE

COMPANION

TRENDS

GAPS IN THE MARKET

LIKE OR DISCARD

Many existing adopting applications provide the option to like or discard a dog (like Tinder).

ONE TIME USE

Existing apps don't provide features that lead users to return to the app once they've adopted.

LOCATION ORIENTED

Apps provide dogs depending on the user location to provide relevant content to the users.s

WEAK SUGGESTIONS

Suggestions provided to the users are based only on location or generic aspects of dogs that could not help the user understand how the dog is once you meet them.

BUYING EXPERIENCE

The feel of the existing applications is more related to a buying experience than adopting.

INITIAL SKETCHES & BRAINSTORMING

EMOTIONAL CONNECTION

I decided to make the experience very personal for the user. The feel of the application had to be very friendly and welcoming.

To make an emotional connection with the users, one of the main ideas that I explored was that dogs could have their own profiles, where their personality could be shown through pictures and accurate descriptions made by the volunteers in the shelters.

By providing behavioral information about the dogs, the user could have a more emotional connection with them. This way, the application was not just a database of dogs available in the shelter, but a platform that could help them understand the dogs and their personalities.

PAPER PROTOTYPES

REDUCE NUMBER OF CLICKS

After using paper prototypes with potential users, I received feedback based on the flow of the application. The process was becoming too long so I needed to make it more efficient for the user and reduce the number of clicks.

Using paper prototypes also helped to define elements that were important for the users.

FLOWCHART

WIREFRAMES