About the company
Petmate (now Petzzing) is India’s first petworking app aimed at helping pet parents network, form communities and gain access to multiple pet related services.
Project in a nutshell
Background
Over recent years the phenomenon of ‘pet humanization’ has become increasingly prevalent. Owners see themselves as pet parents and their pet is treated as a member of the family. This familiarization has fuelled the need for new types of care. Raising a pet requires a good amount of patience, attention and consistency and owners want to ensure that their pets every need is well taken care of.
Context
We collaborated with Petmate to create a one-stop digital experience wherein pet parents can connect, discuss shared experiences, learn from the community, and avail pet services. Alongside this, we worked with the team at Petmate to incorporate vital trust markers to ensure a safe space for pets from breeders. In this case study, I'll share how we redesigned Petmate's service booking flow, uncovering the 'why' and 'how' behind the transformation.
Outcome
The redesign facilitated easier decision-making and created a seamless checkout which helped Petmate attract 4x users in just one month. The play Store rating improved from 3.5 to 4.6 in just 3 months.
My Role
Lead UX designer - discovery, user research, strategy, information architecture, design, animation & testing
Team
Team of 1 UI designer, 3 founders & 3 developers, mentored by Ishiyetaa Sani
Timeline
6 month | Feb 2022 - Jun 2022
Client
Petmate Service and Demographics
1,05,000
App Downloads
11,000+
Active users in Tier 1 cities
1000
Service Providers onboarded
10,500
Pets registered
Business Challenge
How might we reduce drop off rate on our app & increase online booking rate?
50%
Monthly active users
20%
Sign up rate
45%
Drop off (just before payment)
Stakeholder Interviews
Capturing business goals, user needs & technical constraints
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To prioritize the design flows that would create the most impact we conducted a virtual design strategy workshop, using the lightening talk method to invite knowledge experts from various areas of the business,
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Used affinity maps to extract common themes
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Themes helped define our feature set for the revamped app
Phase 1 features
Adoption
Current operation not well organized and lacks coordination
Ecommerce
Delivery channel will take time to set up
Pet Social Feed
Knowledge base articles, community forum, pet community (for user engagement)
Pet Services
Book over 24+ pet services. We narrowed down to top 5 for phase 1 (Service module)
Playdates
Find and match with pet buddies near you for mating
Investigating the problem
Understanding our user pain points
While designing the product three key challenges were identified based on preliminary research and interviews with users.
App store reviews
Users expressed “trust concerns” related to the personal information petmate was collecting
118 particpants
People treat dogs as family members. 80% of dog owners think the service providers “cut corners”.
24 User interviews
6/10 Petmate users believe that the service providers do not meet the specific needs of their dog, particularly when the dog is ill, hyperactive, or old.
What our users thought -
Time consuming. Not reliable. Fragmented. Overwhelming
How we changed the narrative -
Trustworthy. Petmate Assured. Exciting and Progressive
Before vs After Screens
Before
Home page
Pet Match
Pet Directory
Service Listing
My Bookings
After
Design Process
Design and development of a feature were broken down into parallel work streams
After a key feature was approved, the engineering team began implementation. We worked concurrently with engineering to see the current feature through to completion.
Working backwards from a fixed launch date and a tight scope
A fixed launch date and aggressive scope called for us having to figure our upfront how much time we could devote to a design of a certain feature.
Remote working due to Covid-19 called for new ways of collaborating with the client
We set up frequent calls at the start of the project. This helped us to collaboratively define the product vision, and get quick feedback on the designs. By opening up the creative process to “non creatives” we created a culture aimed to earn trust through accountability and inviting others to scrutinise the work.
Design Challenge
The all new service aggregation flow
Out of the many design challenges that we undertook, I will be going in-depth into two of them for this case study.
Creation of pet boarding flow
Incorporate vital trust markers to ensure a safe space for pets.
Out of the many design challenges that we undertook, I will be going in-depth into two of them for this case study.
Creation of pet boarding flow
Incorporate vital trust markers to ensure a safe space for pets.
Reframing the problem statement
How might we make the booking process less time-consuming, less blocking, and less frustrating for a new user?
Success Metrics
Quantitative - Conversion Rate, Task Success Rate, Time on Task Qualitative - Customer Satisfaction Score
Persona
I developed 3 distinct personas to reflect the common user desires, pain points, and goals
Wireframes helped us capture feedback at the early stage and acheive alignment between multiple product partners.
Final Design
Streamlining booking and ensuring trust from start to finish
Design Exploration
Users weren't customizing their pets service
Project Learnings
I worked on petzzing (previously petmate) for 2 years. As petzzing’s user group grew and the product evolved, I had the opportunity to be involved in the design of the partner app, vet consultation app, e-commerce platform , pet training and grooming modules growing the ecosystem and ensuring design consistency and a seamless user experience.
Designing a successful full scale product requires planning and time
Designing a large scale app doesn’t just take a few months. It is important to think about many different use cases and design for everyone.
Don’t be afraid to iterate
We frequently devise an 'ideal' solution that requires considerable effort to develop. However, as the design process progresses, it may become apparent that this solution no longer aligns with our needs. In such instances, setting aside sunk costs and prioritizing the user experience is crucial.
Projects get messy
Lots of changes can make a project very messy. For instance, midway through the project our app had to be taken off the app store due to privacy concerns (we had to fix the crucial problem of dog breeders joining our platform, leading to drop off genuine users who were anti breeders). We had to adjust course and fix the issue by incorporating ethical design patterns to build trust amongst users. If we din’t collaborate with users, listen to their concerns and evolve the product, our beautiful app revamp would look nice only as a prototype, but fall flat once in users hands.
Future Scope
If I had more time, I would ...
After a horrifying assault of a dog at the groomer was caught on camera, pet parents have cause for concern for their pet and how they are treated. This got me thinking how can we further empower Petmate customers to hire trustworthy, dependable boarders for their furry friends.
Introduce meet and greets
Consider a pre-service meeting, similar to Rover's approach, to ensure the service provider and the dog are a match.
Petmate assured background checks for service providers
Exploring industries where customer trust is paramount, such as on-demand nanny services, might provide insights. These industries often invest heavily in transparency and safety policies.
Leverage social networks
Utlizing customer's social media network showing tangible connections to the service provider to build trust
I'd consider measuring metrics differently, focusing on the perceived level of trust and the likelihood of customers rebooking using the new experience. Outcomes > output
Pic: 2 staffers assault a dog at a pet clinic in a now-viral video. Read more here
Link to my Figma File here
Sana worked with us as lead UX designer and quickly became an essential member of the core product team. Her contributions have had a measurable impact on our product. Her design solutions were insightful, impressive, and well-executed.
Romit Dalal, Cofounder, Petzzing
