Design Process
This project spanned over 10 weeks. For the first 5 weeks, the team did extensive research, user interviews, and analysis. Following that, we operated in an AGILE methodology where we ideate, design, test, and iterate based on feedback from users.
Reading time: 15 minutes
This phase provided the opportunity for us to find issues with the current app while also defining objectives and goals for this project.
Research & DiscoveryThe current Pet Lovers Centre (PLC) app is unintuitive and only exclusive for members. In this project, me and my team will be redesigning the Pet Lovers Centre app to make it look and feel more catered and curated towards its dedicated audiences to create a better holistic experience feel.
Additionally, having functions that aid the user groups will help boost and elevate the use of this app to allow for more versatility to better care for and provide for their beloved pets.
In summary, after our preliminary research, a S.M.A.R.T goal for this project is:
- Improve the ease-of-use and Quality of Life (QoL) features of the app for pet owners and others who frequently use the app
- Measure pre-redesign and post-redesign satisfaction and frustration levels (done in Phase 2 and Phase 4)
- To do so within the 10 short weeks
By doing a thorough research on the user and competitors, we had a clearer picture on specific features to add, remove, or improve.
User & Competitor AnalysisOur first discussion was to define our target audience first to do the redesign. However, we need to interview the current users in order to find out additional information. To this, we conducted a questionnaire and an interview. 20 respondents did the interview, and we interviewed some of them further to get more information on their answers.
By defining the competition, we're able to analyse what PLC's competition does better or worse and benchmark from there. Note that we are against the idea of totally copying certain features of competitors. They act as a gauge for us to cross-reference our data we receive from users to solidify our design decisions.
Questionnaire
To better understand and identify our target audience, we came up with a list of survey questions, split into 3 categories: Demographics, Platform (Broad), and Platform (PLC).
We ensured to keep the question short to ensure the engagement of our users, and that they only answer questions relevant to their experience and usage.Demographic questions
(1) How many pets do you own?
(2) What type of pets do you own?
(3) How long have you owned your pets?
(4) What supplies & services do you get for your pets?
(5) Where and how do you get these products or engage these services?
(6) Would you shop for pet products online if given the opportunity?
Platform (Broad) questions
(1) How often do you visit your platform (Physical Store/Website/Apps)?
(2) Which stores do you usually frequent on your platform?
(3) Why do you prefer your platform over the alternatives?
Platform (PLC) questions
(1) Have you heard about PetLoversCentre (PLC) and its VIP Concierge app?
(2) On a scale of 1-5, how frequent do you shop at Pet Lover's Centre?
(3) How would you rate your shopping experience? Why?
(4) What features or services would you add to improve your shopping experience?
Questionnaire Findings
Through the results of our questionnaire and interview, we analysed the data, and afterwards, come up with a reasonable conclusion.
Questionnaire general analysis
(1) 20 interviewees
(2) 90% of interviewees have owned pet for more than 1 year
(3) 65% of interviewees owns more than 1 pet
(4) Most frequently purchased category of product is Food, Toys, and Hygiene
(5) Most engaged service is Grooming and Health Checkups
(6) 55% of interviewees purchased physically
(7) Physical shoppers cited their reason for shopping physically due to "Being able to get their items immediately" and also "So that I'm able to see the products physically"
(8) Non-physical shoppers (through web or app) cited their reason for doing so due to "Convenience" and "Ease of use"
Usability issues
(1) “The lack of functions within the app makes it unintuitive to use...”
(2) “The website seems to work better than the app...”
(3) “If there are more functions apart from buying food or toys, I’d use it more...”
(4) “I generally had a bad time using the app...”
Service issues
(1) “Why would I use the app if there’s a store near my place?”
(2) “I’d rather go to the store, I don’t like how the purchase function works...”
(3) “Why buy from the app if I can get my items immediately in-store?”
(4) “It's really hard to make use of my VIP membership when I'm in-store as I may forget my card or forget my member ID”
Conclusion
(1) The current version of the app is too hard for users to use to purchase products
(2) The redesign should provide more functions other than purchasing products
(3) The redesign should cater to physical shoppers so they can easily purchase products and make use of their membership
(4) There needs to be a simpler and clearer visual language for pet owners of all ages to navigate through the redesigned app easily
(5) Both physical-only, online-only, or hybrid users can make use of the redesigned app
User Definition
After analysing our questionnaire and interview results, we identified and classified the target audiences into 2 main types, along with their traits. This will help us cater the proposed redesign to features that's relevant for the target audience.
Primary Target Audience
Pet owners and their families
- Multiple caretakers
- Varying budgets
- May own different types of pets
Secondary Target Audience
New/To-be pet owners
- Lack of knowledge and experience in pet care
- May not have enough caretakers
- Not sure what to purchase
Competitor Definition
PLC has several competitors, defined into three main categories. This list shows the relevant unique selling propositions (USPs) that a store has.
Large Chains have more than 1 physical stores across Singapore and an online store. Small Stores only has 1 physical store and may not have an online store. Online-only has no physical stores. Note that this list only shows 1 brand each category, but during the actual research, there are more.Large Chains
Pets' Station
- Cashback
- Budget-friendly
- Online product discovery
- Adopt pets
- Grooming services
- Membership program
Pets' Station best USP is its robust product discovery, allowing users to discover recommended products based on their needs. Additionally, they also have an intuitive membership program where they can earn pawpoints for future discount.
Small Stores
Perromart
- Cashback
- Budget-friendly
- Online product discovery
- Adopt pets
- Grooming services
- Membership program
Perromart’s primary USP is the vet services. Customers can book this service easily online. They also have a tiered membership program which encourages users to be regular customers.
Online-only
Happy Town Pets
- Pet box subscription
- Auto re-order
- Loyalty program
- Eco-friendly packages
Happy Town Pets caters to the eco-minded pet owners, offering environmentally friendly packages and quality of life services such as subscriptions, auto re-orders, a loyalty program, and fast shipping. Happy Town Pets effectively targets online-only shoppers, only losing out on pet services (grooming, boarding, taxi).
User Requirements and User Stories
With the target audience and competitor defined, we began to explore and defined a list of the user's requirements.
We also crafted User Stories to help us envision potential use cases of the redesigned app to fit the target audience's needs.User Requirements
(1) Subscriptions
- Recurring Purchase
- Prevent Shortage
- Bundle and Save
Pet owners who are busy or forgetful can benefit a lot from subscriptions. This is also beneficial for the business as it guarantees recurring revenue.
(2) Digital Membership Wallet
- Improves Quality of Life
- Centralised Wallet
A digital wallet enables both physical and online users to easily see their number of points, money left, and their membership details all in one screen. Cashiers can scan this wallet QR to for physical purchases to make payment easily in-store. They can also let helpers or family members use the same wallet without needing to request for duplicate physical cards.
(3) Easy Service Booking
- Convenience
- Ensures Welfare for Pets
Services like pet grooming, health checkup, boarding, and gym can help current or new pet owners to have a bird's eye view of the welfare of their pets in one app.
User Stories
As a pet owner...
As a frequent customer...
As a new or to-be pet owner...
At the end of this phase, we had a clearer picture of what users really need and want.
As a result, we know what are the necessary features to add and current flow that needs to be improved.
Addtionally, this phase as a whole took almost 40% of the whole project duration, but we were glad we did so because we knew exactly what users want. We didn't have to second-guess things during the technical design phase.
Our insights upon completion of the User & Competitor Analyis phase
- Users want to be able to use the app both for online and in-store
- Users prefer features that help them as a pet owner, like automatic recurring subscriptions for products, services booking, and tips & events to help them be a better pet owner
- To have everything in 1 account and 1 app so their helpers or family members can also use it to purchase products
We started wireframing to get a sense of the new layout and flow of the app.
WireframingI reminded the team not to make it "super nice" and "fancy" by using wireframing softwares but rather simply paper-sketching it. I knew the purpose of wireframing is to get a bigger picture of what's happening, and for us to easily zoom in into specific flows through a customer's intent, see if the layout works, and iterate from there.
Wireframing and then testing them out to a few users helped us see that there was various user experience issues, most of them related to confusing navigation. It was fortunate that this happened in the wireframing phase as if it was a fully designed UI, it would have been a lot of time wasted scraping or redoing certain screens.
Wireframing with paper sketches helped us:
- Get an overall view of all screens and all flows for the app
- Get early feedback in terms of user flow from a quick user testing session
- Identify early any user experience errors
To ensure our design goals are met with the user's needs, we conducted thorough user testing and iteration loops.
User Testing & IterationUser testing is conducted to ensure the proposed design solutions are ideal for the end user. We filter the feedback based on our design goals and user's needs and implement the relevant feedback into the next iteration. We repeated this twice, from paper to low-fidelity (lofi), and lofi to high-fidelity (hifi) in the next phase.
Onboarding, Login
New changes on lofi:
- Minor copy change of "Remember me" to "Stay signed in"
- Removed VIP signup page as not all members may be VIP
New changes on hifi:
- Added a screen to upsell VIP after a user signs up for the first time without inputting VIP number
LofiHifi- Minor copy change of "Remember me" to "Stay signed in"
Home, Notifications, Events
New changes on lofi:
No changesNew changes on hifi:
- Converted notification drawer into a dedicated page to prevent nested drawers
LofiHifiServices
New changes on lofi:
- Added search bar
New changes on hifi:
- Removed search bar as deemed not necessary by testers
- Added tags for service type (replaced search)
LofiHifiWallet (1)
New changes on lofi:
- Replaced barcode with QR scanner for easier in-store scanning
New changes on hifi:
- Replaced voucher screen to drawer instead within Rewards screen
- Updated layout to enlarge points total in Rewards screen
LofiHifiWallet (2)
New changes on lofi:
- Added purchase history screen
New changes on hifi:
- Added quick top-up buttons
- Added extend membership buttons
LofiHifiShop
New changes on lofi:
- Added delivery location address on Checkout page
New changes on hifi:
- Added filter drawer for easy product filtering
- Added promotion indicators on products with promotions
LofiHifiProfile
New changes on lofi:
No changesNew changes on hifi:
- Updated pet list layout to show image, name, and age
- Added drawer to see more information on pet
- Added "Add profile" screen for users to add new pets
LofiHifi
We also conducted micro A-B testing, such as trying out various recurring purchase components, dropdowns vs radio buttons, etc. and we figured a lot of users prefer simplicity over anything else.
Conducting user testing and iterations helped us:
- Identify any UX quirks that are unfamiliar with the help of testers
- Validates all proposed user flows for different user behaviours (ie. purchase product, book services)
- Create a unified design system as the fidelity increases
Our interactive prototype consists of micro-animations and interactions of the redesigned app. It garnered a lot of praise and satisfaction from users. Give it a try!
PrototypeNote: Best tested on Desktop/Laptops
I've learned that prior research is as important as the actual ideation, design, and iteration process.
CONCLUSIONWith the additions of quality-of-life features like recurring purchases, digital QR code wallet scanner for in-store payments, and an in-app pet tracker, many users were satisfied from the redesign. We believe that we achieved beyond our design goals, and hence regard this project as major success!
