Snuggle

As a group of animal-loving students, we wanted to improve pet adoption rates to allow rescue animals to find their forever homes. Given that many people are open to adopting, why do such few actually convert into adoption? To better understand the reasons behind the gap, we interviewed both shelters and pet owners. Through our conversations, we were able to pinpoint the following user pain points in the current adoption experience:

shelter pain points

Spread Too Thin

With a lack of resources and an abundance of tasks, shelters are short in the amount of time they have to interact with applicants and assist them with their needs

Prehistoric Processes

Manually managing postings for rescues and processing/screening applications and scheduling calls/meet-and-greets with adopters using outdated technology is time-consuming and inefficient

adopter pain points

Tedious Applications

Filling out lengthy forms (which are sometimes in-person only) is not fun

Being Ghosted

Adopters are rarely updated, uncertain whether or not they have been rejected (and, if so, for what reason)

Non-transparent & Confusing

Adopters struggle to get answers to questions, making fully-informed decisions impossible. Without adequate preparation, new owners encounter unforeseen expenses and underestimate commitment and responsibilities of a new pet

Forced to Jump the Gun

Photos and short bios (paired with a lack of time to meet/bond with the pet) is not enough to make a decision

We decided to go for an approach inspired by dating apps, featuring AI-powered, personified chatbots of each rescue (PetBots). The idea was to offer a simplified, fun and interactive alternative to traditional, resource-consuming applications, which we later named Snuggle.

As the lead designer of the team, I crafted the design system, design tokens, and screens from scratch. Colours and typography were chosen to emanate a playful and warm feeling. The use of colours was minimal and deliberate so the user’s attention would be on the profiles.

However, the interim screen did not completely eliminate user confusion during the second round of testing, due to the animation on the tutorial not completely representative of the actual interaction. To solve this, I replaced the sliding animation with animated cards to better represent the profile cards on their feed. Each step of the tutorial now also repeat itself in case users missed it the first time (which many did during this round of testing).

The new tutorial seemed to be well received during the third round of testing, with users now intuitively swiping left/right on the cards after completing the tutorial.