about
Petpals is an end-to-end design for a petsitter app. Pet owners looking for a trustworthy petsitter can use Petpals to get top-rated, local recommendations of pet sitters. The app makes it easier to look for a reliable sitter to take care of the pets we treat like family.
background
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The pet industry has grown in recent years, especially during the global pandemic. It is expected to grow at an annual rate of 8.7 from 2020 to 2027.
Also, pet ownership has increased from 56% to 68% in the last 30 years.
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To solve the problem of fulfilling needs of pet owners (booking a sitter).
Make the process easier and less complicated
Provide information for both parties to feel comfortable with one another and build trust
Make pet care more manageable and enjoyable.
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There are multiple pain points for both pet owners and pet sitter.
Owners:
Need to find a trustworthy pet sitter
Choosing can be time consuming and lead to no decisions
Not enough information to validate pet sitter (credentials)
Sitters:
No updates on future schedules and events
Difficulty adjusting information in personal logs
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Overall, the design challenge was to build trust between owner and sitter and make choosing a sitter less confusing.
To address these issues, some features to focus on include: adding an option to update progress, easy access messaging, profile transparency, and recommendations.
users
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25/ Chicago, IL
Ahmed is a business consultant who travels for work frequently and needs a pet sitter for his two small dogs.
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Ahmed needs a recurring reputable and loyal pet sitter because he doesn’t want to explain the small details of his dogs’ care every time.
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He finds it a hassle to find a good pet sitter that can continue to care for his dogs. He has no time to thoroughly search for sitter and can’t easily find evidence of qualifications.
Other apps were mostly pet boarding, pet hotels, etc. There were also too many options of pet sitters with no transparency.
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Ahmed was searching through apps and found Petpals. He was interested in the app because it promotes legitimate & qualified pet sitters and it saves time by showing best results & ability to narrow down.
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37/ Philadelphia, PA
Ashley is a pet sitter living with family in the city. She has a history of fostering pets and currently has two birds. She has previous experience handling pets in school and professional experience for 5 years.
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She wants flexibility for scheduling and to present herself as a trustworthy animal lover. She’d love to create a friendlier connection with her clients.
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Ashley can’t easily adjust schedules and finds it hard to update progress which leads to awkward interactions.
She felt like she was “just another job posting” with no connection and no personality. Most apps also don’t have insights on near future events. She finds it difficult updating progress.
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Ashley was attracted friendly appearance of the app. She saw the more upfront and public pet sitter profile. Ashley was interested in the interaction with pet owners and the ability to see upcoming events.
