Pet Love
Crafting a pet sitting site with responsive design
As a small business, Pet Love was looking to increase its revenue and decrease the time it took for customers to book services. Since users accessed the site on both desktop and mobile devices, engineering an accessible solution was key. Using responsive design, I worked with Pet Love’s owner to redesign his website to increase awareness of services offered and create a simple and effective way for customers to book online.
The Context
Pet Love is a growing pet sitting business in Asheville, NC. Their website offers comprehensive information about services and pricing, as well as client testimonials and images. Waska, the founder of Pet Love, completes the majority of the services himself; but as much as he loves pet sitting, he wants to transition to having other sitters working for him—to do less sitting himself and instead manage Pet Love as a business. Together, we decided to take a look at Pet Love’s website to see how we could reshape his business from the ground up.
The Problem
Most of Pet Loves’ business comes from referrals by word of mouth, and as a result, its customers spend less time on the site and more time talking to the owner directly. Waska wants his clients to go on the Pet Love site to read testimonials, view services and pricing, and book services without having to call him. Additionally, because he has built up his business based on the services he personally provides, Waska finds that his customers are less interested in working with other sitters.
The Objective
In order to reshape his business and have regular pet sitters working for him, Waska wanted to reimagine the Pet Love website to allow users to view the profiles of other sitters and be able to book services through the website. This would allow Waska to spend less time on the phone with clients and more time organizing jobs with his sitters, enabling him to expand his business and offer his services to more clients
The Solution
1. Empathize
Assessing other local pet sitters using competitor analysis
Using competitor analysis, I analyzed three competitors and assessed their pet sitting websites. I looked at two local sitters because this would give me a clearer idea of what members of the community wanted out of their sitter, as well as one larger sitting service to study an example of a widely successful sitting service. Through my research, I found that although local sitting services had online booking tools, they weren’t streamlined and included many unnecessary steps. Additionally, a national service like Rover had a simple and easy-to-use booking tool that saved the user time. Both local and large-scale sites had comprehensive pages that gave information about sitters.
Interviewing Pet Love’s customers to see what they think
With a clearer understanding of the competition, it was time to speak with real pet owners and see how they felt about Pet Love’s site and services. I conducted one-on-one interviews with five of Pet Love’s existing customers. I felt it was important to speak with current clients to understand what Pet Love’s user base felt they needed out of their sitter.
Whether these pet owners had booked with Pet Love once or ten times, one thing rang true for every customer: they wanted a sitter they could trust.
Customers unanimously said that the services and care Pet Love provided were what kept them coming back, and they were open to working with other sitters if they were trustworthy.
To establish trust with a sitter, customers stressed the importance of reading testimonials from previous clients.
Additionally, pet owners said they’d love the opportunity to book with Pet Love online to save them time with the process.
Discoverability for the Pet Love site is low because business is primarily spread by word-of-mouth. The site also sports difficult-to-read text, which makes it hard for prospective customers to learn about services. On the other hand, customers love the site’s About page and Gallery of images and feel they give a good sense of the brand’s integrity.
Customers want to meet sitters in person and feel like they can trust them to sit for their pet. They want to feel a personal connection to the sitter that they can’t get over the site.
Customers are thrilled with Pet Love’s services, though they’d like the process of booking to be more streamlined, especially after they’ve already booked services in the past and know Waska.
Following the user’s experience through customer journey mapping
Having gathered useful insights from interviews, I synthesized this wealth of information using customer journey mapping. This allowed me to assess the customer’s experience of discovering a problem and finding a solution through their interactions with Pet Love. By outlining every step of the journey, I was able to better understand and improve the customer experience.
2. Define
Framing the problem with POVs and HMWs
With a clear understanding of the challenges Pet Love’s customers faced with the current site, I used POVs and HMWs to frame these insights and create a simplified vision of the user’s problems to reference going forward.
POV: Buck wants to book services with a Pet Love sitter, but he has to contact the sitter directly to glean their availability and he finds it inconvenient and time consuming to schedule a booking over the phone.
HMW: How might we reduce the number of steps in the booking process for customers of Pet Love's services to increase convenience and decrease time spent?
POV: Buck wants to read about what makes a sitter qualified to care for his dog and how other customers felt about their services, but he feels there is inadequate information on the Pet Love site to establish trust in the sitters without calling to speak with them directly.
HMW: How might we help prospective customers learn more about Pet Love's sitters to help them feel confident and trusting when making online booking decisions?
Developing personas to capture the core user types
After gathering information from current customers, I synthesized their experiences into two core personas: Buck, the prospective customer seeking an easy way to book a sitter online with enough information to feel he can trust them with his dog; and Constance, the returning customer who is familiar with Pet Love’s services and wants to book online to save time.
Buck and Constance were created by considering the experiences and needs of current and prospective customers of Pet Love discovered during user interviews and secondary research. These two user types represent the range of customers that Pet Love has and were kept front and center throughout the design process.
3. Ideate
Brainstorming features and prioritization
With my personas rooted in the project’s core user types, I brainstormed key features for Pet Love’s redesign and prioritized them according to my research. I determined that the most crucial elements to focus on would be an easy-to-use online booking tool, a reworked About page to highlight other sitters available for services, and a reworked Services page to give a clearer idea of what a customer is getting when they book with Pet Love.
Designing information architecture using a site map
With clear goals planned out, the next step was understand the information architecture of the Pet Love site. I planned out a comprehensive site map that helped me understand not only how users currently navigated the site, but how the navigation could be improved with the additions and changes determined in my feature roadmapping.
Creating a user flow to map out the experience
With a strong understanding of the site’s information architecture, the next step was to translate my goals into a clear structure to support the user journey. I planned out a comprehensive user flow that considered every choice a user could make when navigating the Pet Love site. My goal was to provide a simple site that directed users towards the About and Services pages and on to the booking tool to make the process of booking online as easy and informative as possible.
4. Prototype
Sketching things out with low-fidelity wireframes
With my user flow mapped out, I began sketching out low-fidelity wireframes. Considering my persona’s needs and pain points, I started mapping out crucial parts of the user’s journey through viewing information and booking services with the Pet Love site. I used this time to explore different layouts for the About and Services pages, as well as planning out the booking flow. Using responsive design, I made sure to sketch for both desktop and phone screens to ensure that the site would scale well regardless of the user’s preference.
Desktop low-fidelity sketches
Mobile low-fidelity sketches
Testing low-fidelity screens for usability and design choices
The next step was to test my low-fidelity screens with users. I conducted one-on-one user testing sessions over zoom with five customers of Pet Love to understand how they felt the designs meshed with the new booking tool, as well as with the existing design of the Pet Love site. Using A/B testing and asking targeted questions about the wireframes, I was gained valuable insights that helped me proceed with solidifying my designs.
Key findings
Users wanted a confirmation page to confirm their booking and let them know they will be emailed the details.
Users wanted to see the costs of services listed during the booking process.
Users were comfortable paying a deposit up front as booking inquiries were reviewed by sitters before finalizing.
Users thought it was simpler and easier to view testimonials under sitter profiles without having to navigate to another page.
Users desired a link to the Contact page directly on the Services page to be able to reach out for questions about services.
Using initial sketches to create high-fidelity wireframes
After refining the user experience through low-fidelity wireframes, it was time to bring the experience to life with high-fidelity designs. These designs were prioritized for desktop, as that is the size at which the majority of Pet Love’s customers visit the site. They were also sized to mobile screens to ensure that the site would be responsive regardless of how a customer chose to book.
Desktop high-fidelity screens
Mobile high-fidelity screens
5. Test
Usability testing with high-fidelity prototypes
With Pet Love’s high-fidelity prototype ready, it was time to put the product into the hands of real users. With five customers of Pet Love, I conducted one-on-one usability testing sessions with my finished prototype. The goal was see how easily users could complete tasks, identify usability issues, and ensure that Pet Love’s site was intuitive and easily navigable.
This final round of testing proved that Pet Love’s redesign was on the right track. All users were able to complete each task within the given time frame with minimal misclicks. Users noted that the booking flow was clear and intuitive to complete, and they found the redesigned About and Services pages to provide necessary information without feeling overwhelming. The tests also highlighted key areas for improvement, like adding an option to book a meet & greet and redesigning the homepage.
6. Iterate
Iterating on the prototype with high priority revisions
The usability testing phase was very insightful and solidified many of the decisions I made throughout the design process, while also highlighting key ways to improve the user experience.
Here are a few of the iterations I made:
Redesigned the hero section: before and after
Added a second flow to the Booking page to allow customers to book a meet & greet before scheduling services.
Realigned text and button for clearer visual hierarchy.
Changed background image to fit the brand’s personal feeling.
Added the option to book a meet & greet
Learning & next steps
Designing the new website for Pet Love helped me understand just how much impact a thoughtful digital experience can have, especially when it’s to purpose is to connect pet owners seeking a trustworthy service with dedicated and loving sitters. This was about more than just improving layouts and updating visuals: it was about helping a small business to reach its customers more effectively and making customers’ lives easier with thoughtful, intuitive design.
Throughout the process, I gained a stronger understanding of the importance of responsive design. Designing the Pet Love site for any screen size was not only a necessity to ensure accessibility for all users, but it also served as a valuable source of convenience to users who need to access the site at home and on the go.
Going forward, I’d like to continue working with Pet Love to further enhance the booking tool, and, additionally, consider redesigning the other pages on the site that weren’t in scope for this project. While the improvements made here were a huge step up in the customer experience, there is still so much that could be done to aid both the customer and Pet Love as a business.