‘Cause You’re Pawfect To Me: Optimizing SPCA Singapore’s Adoption Experience
Introduction
SPCA Singapore’s mission has always been to create a more compassionate world. One of their main focuses is to provide homes for unwanted, abused, and abandoned animals. The over 200 animals at the shelters are still too many.
This is where The Pawfect Match App comes in. It is a pet matching app to make adoption easier and help more animals find their forever home.
“There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’.
There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.”
― Arundhati Roy
How Do You Adopt From SPCA Right Now?
The current adoption process requires users to browse the SPCA Adoption Gallery. Then users have to remember the pet/pets they like before heading down to the SPCA. They have a choice to make an appointment online but these appointments are only available on the weekends. The appointment can be quite cumbersome as users are expected to fill out numerous physical forms.
The Current State of SPCA’s Adoption Gallery
Our users are frustrated and overwhelmed when they navigate the current SPCA Adoption Gallery. The gallery is too wordy and users are bombarded with pictures of pets at one instance (even though they are very cute!). Animal profiles lack information, and users have to constantly click through pages of the gallery without any sense of direction.
There are also no options to shortlist the animals that users are interested in. To make it even more exasperating, the appointment link is hidden and users must scour through chunks of text to get to it. In a nutshell, the adoption experience, right from the act of browsing, is not seamless.
Adopting animals or even the act of browsing animal pictures/profiles should be fun and not frustrating. Therefore, the adoption experience and process at the Singapore SPCA can undoubtedly be improved.
Adoption Was The Top Issue While Reporting Abuse Came Up Second
User Interviews
5 user interviews that consisted of adults between the ages of 20 and 60 were conducted via zoom.
The first goal was to validate the problem. The second goal was to discover users’ current attitudes, habits, and pain points.
Making Sense of What The Interviewers Said
I analyzed the collected data from the user interviews with the help of affinity mapping.
A Closer Analysis of Interviews
I found that there was overwhelming support for animal adoption. Interviewers mainly visited the SPCA website for adoption. However, the interviewers didn’t enjoy the adoption process. They perceived the process as complicated and messy.
Subsequently, the initial engagement with the SPCA website, even before moving to the adoption task, was frustrating as the website was deemed too wordy and users did not want to read chunks of text — but wanted to go directly to fulfilling their task.
The consensus was that information on animals in adoption galleries was incomplete and sometimes irrelevant.
User Surveys
Surveys were sent out to 15 participants from the age of 25 to 55 to further validate the problem and discover more about users’ current attitudes, habits, and pain points when engaging with SPCA Singapore.
Finding #1
Again, adoption remained the users’ top focus/issue. Therefore, the findings from here on focus solely on the findings related to adoption.
Finding #2
The results from the user surveys also showcased, overwhelmingly, that users wanted to see information about pets’ health issues and personality traits when browsing their profiles.
Finding #3
When engaging with SPCA Singapore, users’ second most important task was to report animal abuse.
Thus, it begs the question — can the users’ experience when reporting animal abuse be improved too?
Contextualizing Users’ Pain Points
Two problem statements were created based on research findings to help further contextualize users’ pain points that specifically relate to the adoption and reporting of abuse cases.
The act of contextualizing users’ pain within the problem statements is to ensure that we did not lose sight of reality — that our UX process was situated as close as possible to real-life scenarios.
The Characters Who Matter
Through research and the above problem statements, two personas came to life that determined what information needed to be included in the creation of the app.
Creating rich, detailed, and relevant personas that were based on real-life users’ experiences helped me understand certain behavior patterns and ways that users engaged with the interface when trying to complete a task.
Exploring Adoption and Reporting of Abuse Flows
Leveling Up The Adoption Experience
The Pawfect Match App
I took inspiration from popular dating apps such as Tinder and Bumble where users (in this case, prospective adopters) will be given a list of matches (in this case, suitable pets) based on their preferences and the personality traits they want in a pet companion.
By gamifying the adoption experience, I want to bring joy back!
Additionally, to make Singapore’s streets safer and to encourage more people to report animal abuse when they see it, a simpler and more efficient reporting function within the app is necessary.
What Does The App Do Specifically?
Accessible and Fun design
This app is targeted at a diverse audience. Thus the user interface has to be easy and accessible for users with different levels of tech literacy and on all types of mobile devices.
The use of clearly labeled buttons will direct users to fulfill their tasks efficiently.
I have structured my app layout around intuitive navigation, and I have also decided to use cute illustrations and animal pictures to create a fun and lighthearted feel.
I have stuck with the dark blue color of the SPCA Singapore brand because I wanted a color that is accessible and well-liked across a wide group of people, and blue, fittingly, is a color that is favored by many people across demographics.
Changing Peoples’ Perception Towards Adoption
The bigger challenge is to change and educate more people about the benefits of adoption, especially in Singapore.
The unfair Housing Development Board Policy in Singapore that bans cats and some breeds of dogs in public housing places a barrier to animal adoptions. The fear of being caught by authorities deters some people from adopting pets.
Educating the public about animal welfare and the benefits of an animal companion would pave the way for users to use the Pawfect App.
Self Reflection
I have learned that empathy is an essential life skill. I not only learned to understand users’ frustrations when navigating the SPCA adoption process but I realized that the adoption of animals should be a positive experience for users.
It is frustrating to see users get overwhelmed when engaging in what should be a fun, lighthearted, and warm experience of adopting a new furry family member.
And of course, feeling empathy for unwanted and abused animals who are waiting patiently at the shelter is important. The need for more to be done for voiceless animals drives the creation of this app.
My curious nature has always informed the way I learn. There is so much to learn and the learning never stops. At times, it has been frustrating learning new, foreign concepts during this UX journey, but I have realized that with patience and perseverance I will eventually get good at it. It is a process.
This UX journey has been unpredictable and human-centered, and nothing is impossible or off the table if you are acutely aware that there is no such thing as ever learning enough. The possibilities are endless. And to me, that is what drives my initiation into this exciting minefield of User Experience.
Thank you for reading.
You can also view the project at https://www.behance.net/gallery/119143617/SPCA-Singapore-The-Pawfect-Match-App
