WoofMate
Who says your soulmate has to be a human?
Project Overview
When pursuing certification in User Experience at UCLA, I had the opportunity to choose a topic of interest as one of my capstone project. I pursued the issue about #AdoptDontShop and created better experience for potential dog owners.
Timeline
April - June, 2019
Role (Individual Project)
User Research, UX & UI Design, Prototyping
Tools
Adobe XD, Photoshop, Illustrator, Jamboard
Project Background
Every year, approximately around 7.6 million pets enter animal shelter every year, and half of them got euthanized because they didn’t get adopted for a very long time. Dogs who are taken into the care of shelters find themselves homeless through various reasons like: “moving” and “landlord issues”.
This happens because most people didn’t spend much time needed before getting a dog as an addition to the family.
Brainstorming
I explored every aspect of the problem and determined user goal of this project. In addition, I thought about how this product will bring in revenue.
Who is my target user?
Anyone who are considering to get a dog at the very moment or in the future.
The market for WoofMate is huge. Whether you just visit your friend's house with their lovely dogs running around, or maybe you just finished watching a dog-related heartwarming movie that gets you inspired: "Well, it looks so fun and warming to have a dog in the house.", any possible event can be that moment to inspire you to get a dog now, anytime soon, or later in the future.
For instance, most people use social media now, and there’s a lot of resources available where people can access videos of animals, especially dogs. The more they spend their time looking at video or photos of dogs, the more likely they are open to get a dog in the future.
Studying Competitors
Pet applications have been tremendously growing throughout decades, and by practicing Competitive Analysis, it helped me to break down about what I want to achieve from WoofMate.
Determining the value
Of course, throughout this process, my design solution has to be aligned with my customer’s problem and how I bring value to them.
VALUE PROPOSITION
WoofMate is a platform to help potential dog owners to find and match dogs that fit their lifestyle and personality.
We also provide virtual advice and experience along the journey.
Ideation
Users will open this app and fill up a simple questionnaire about dogs, and we created categories such as financial, activity life, experience, and housing. Through these questions, it helps users to determine the readiness to commit a life of a dog they are getting.
After the questionnaire, WoofMate will show all the list of the types of dogs that match with the user’s personality and situation. Each result contains information about the breed dog itself, common illness, care needs, shedding, hypoallergenic or not, activity level, size, etc.
This way will educate users on what to expect and to think twice before committing.
So, are you saying this is like a Dating app, but between a human and a dog?
Yes and No.
Yes, we take the concept of Matching where you fill out your interest and profile, then it shows you your potential people (ahem, dogs in this case) who might be your great match, but within the next step, it's up to you if you're willing to go for it.
Unlike dating apps, we don't provide any feature where you can say yes or no to your potential matches,
but we provide you information and resources about the breed(s).
Let's just get into it.
I. The Questionnaire
The first steps that users need to do as soon as they open the app.
Opening question focus on dog allergy questions. (according to research, most people don’t realize they have one until they own a dog)
So far, the categories of the questions that I created are based on their experience with dogs, housing, financial, and activity level.
II. The Results
After completing the Questionnaire, it gives you the list of potential matches that fit your personality and living situation.
Let's say you want to know more about your first match on the top: Golden Retriever, it will give you more details based on its personality, care, and also resources are also provided if you need more information.
How does WoofMate calculate the matches?
I'm glad I asked myself that question.
My vision is to have a database of dog DNA as the support of the results, so it's based on a scientific data, and it's not random answers that users will receive.
III. Virtual Assistance
Another feature in the app is that user can seek for answers virtually through community (freemium) or professionals (premium).
This is a feature where it brings more value to this app, so its function is not only matching, but to provide help whether users decide to have one, undecided, or even already have dogs.
What’s next
There are tons of possibilities that I can see from Woofmate. Aside from its premium plan, I project more opportunities like:
Partnership with Pet Stores/Animal Shelters (cross-sell/ads)
We will help potential dog owners finding their perfect match, then it results in reducing the number of dogs being sent to shelter.
A necessary platform at shelters before they get a dog.
A global product, so we can expand our mission throughout the world.
I mean, the list can go on and on..
Reflections
As strong and as big my passion for this product, this will be my long-term goal to make this really happen. I grew up with dogs, and it's been my passion to create a life-changing product to help them, no matter how big or small the impact is.