Add a Feature
Chewy
Have you ever been swamped with choices after downloading a pet supplies app?
Pet parents are eager to ensure they are making the best decisions for their fur babies. Chewy's added feature, which enables pet parents to answer questions about their pets, ensures that this goal is met.
How can I could customize the Chewy experience to help personalize pet’s needs? As part of a project to develop a new feature for the Chewy mobile app on iOS, I noticed that the app, which is widely used by pet parents for pet supplies, currently lacks this specific feature.
Role
UX Researcher
UX/UI Designer
Time Frame
75 hours
Type
Mobile (IOS)
The Problem
The Challenge
Narrowing down choices for all types of pets.
The Oppurtunity
An app that allows users to personalize their pet supply options.
There are so many choices to choose from on pet supply sites. How do I know I am making the right one for my pet?
Time to start digging…
I conducted thorough primary and secondary research to gain comprehensive insights into the pet industry. My goal was to uncover the motivations and pain points of pet owners, and pinpoint any gaps in their experiences.
What I am trying to learn?
What is most important to pet parents when shopping for pet supplies.
How is the experience for pet parnents while using pet apps?
What current pet apps are offering to pet parents.
The Research Process
Over 40% of pet-owning consumers purchased pet supplies online rather than visiting a store, because of the lower prices.
66% of U.S. households (86.9 million homes) own a pet.
97% of pet owners consider their pets to be a part of their family.
Research Methods
Learning from competitors
I conducted a competitive analysis to identify opportunities with other pet apps.
By conducting additional research, The Farmer's Dog provides a helpful questionnaire to better understand your dog's specific food requirements and to determine the best type of food for your pet.
There are several well-known pet supply chains that cater to pet owners, offering a wide range of pet products.
However, none of these apps provide a personalized option for narrowing down pet needs. They include filters and a favorites section that offers suggestions based on likes or previously purchased items.
Each pet care competitor brings unique offerings to the table for pet parents. Understanding user preferences is essential in order to incorporate their successful features into my product.
Surveying the users
Research Findings
Process: I conducted user surveys through typeform with 32 multiple choice questions and opened ended question, over the period of 4 days.
Recruitment: Facebook, family and friends.
Participants: 8 participants who all owned a pet
I sought to corroborate my secondary research findings with primary research and gain deeper insights into user behavior and experience.
75% of users spend the most of their budget on food for their pets
50% of users think it is most important to see reminders for vaccinations on pet profiles.
62.5% like to know about popular items for your pet.
75% of users would use a more personalized way to shop for your pet.
100% of users have an account set up for the website you use to purchase or search for pet supplies.
Persona’s
What opportunities does the research present?
Initially, I believed that my research would result in creating an app to alleviate user overwhelm on pet sites. I assumed that all users shared my experience. However, I was surprised to learn that at least half of the interviewees did not feel the same way. Instead, they expressed gratitude for the numerous options available. This insightful revelation will be invaluable in designing the feature.
Across my research, I uncovered patterns in the top values and frustrations for pet parents.
Top 3 values
Health features and brands are the most important when picking out food.
Informed about what is in their pets food.
Auto shio feature.
How can I leverage both values and frustrations to enhance Chewy? Despite the numerous available solutions, I wanted to stay true to my original feature idea.
This narrowed down my focus:
1. Easily finding what they need on pet sites.
2. Not having a personalized way to shop
3. Too many options for pet supplies.
Top 3 frustrations
How might we create an app feature that allows a unique shopping experience to address all users needs?
User Journey
I developed a user journey to identify the exact points where users experience confusion or frustration. By pinpointing these areas, we can focus on making significant improvements to enhance user experience.
User Task and User Flow
I created three different flows to assist users to naviagte site and achieve tasks for app.
UI Kit
The updated UI kit played a crucial role throughout the project, incorporating custom UI elements and components. Icons, buttons, and cards were meticulously crafted using Figma or sourced from material design, ensuring a polished and seamless user experience.
Designing a solution
Let’s go on a little journey together
Low-fi wireframes
Hi-fi Wireframes
When you proceed to the category section, you'll have the opportunity to select the questionnaire that best suits your pet's individual requirements.
Every question helps Chewy gain a deeper understanding of your pet's needs and tailor the results to your feedback.
Walla! Discover your pre-selected options with ease. Save time by eliminating the need to search through filters and sift through extensive information.
Easily add item to cart or Auto ship
View more details on any item.
Click on heart to save to your favorites.
Usability Testing
User Feedback
Testing, testing, one, two, three…
Goal
I wanted to know wheter or not users could successfully complete the key tasks flows using the app.
Tasks
Task flow 1: Complete basic questionnaire
Access the correct page.
Select answers with drop down menu and fill in options.
Continue to next step
Task flow 2: Select category and complete questionnaire.
Select category.
Select answers and continue through each page.
Arrive at completion page and select button to ‘check out pets picks’.
Task flow 3: Ability to navigate ‘pet picks’ section
Select ‘bone n chew’ treat.
Navigate to item details page.
Use back button to navigate back to selection page.
Pros (+)
All users succesfully completed 3/3 tasks.
Enjoyed the tone and personality of the questionnaire, and while it's very detailed and covers most things new dog owners would appreciate.
User noted that they felt the app was easy to use and familiar.
Cons (-)
Users felt the quetionnaire was quite extensive to do in one sitting. “I did find myself starting to skim and wanting to drop off once I got to the toys section”.
Giving a timeframe for completion of questions. Labeling question 1 of 5 ect.
Adding a confirmation page of the completed quiz.
Start with a short questionaire to help Chewy learn basic information about your pet.
Ability to upload your pets pictures.
Easy drop down menu.
All your pets information stored in one place.
The Solution!
Now let me introduce….
Added feature to Chewy to assist pet parents with selections.
Design Decisions
In order to ensure that the added feature I designed for Chewy caters effectively to user needs, I extensively immersed myself in user testing.
By progressing from initial sketches to the final designs, I was able to enhance the user experience, resulting in a more intuitive and user-friendly app. Here are the reasons behind some of my design decisions:
Added progress bar to visualize the progression of questionaire
Shortened questions with easy to select buttons.
Users found the before questionnaire to be excessively verbose, lengthy, and crowded on each screen in mid-fi designs.
Numbered questions were designed to assist the user in keeping track of the length of the questionnaire that remains.
Utilized white space to help users organize visual information better.
Used visual hierarchy to establish an important focal point, giving viewers an entry point to start navigating and showing them the most important information.
Created an edit button to able users to convienctly change information at any time.
The results
Outcome
As I conducted user testing, my primary objective was to evaluate the app's usability and benefits for pet parents. All users successfully completed tasks such as filling out a questionnaire and viewing selected items. Here are some responses:
“ The questionaire was short and too the point.”
“This is a really cool idea. I wish they had something like this for me to use with shopping for my pets.”
“I like to have options picked out for me!
Takeways
Throughout my journey, I gained valuable insights. It became evident that not all users share my perspectives and values. However, our the love for our pets unites us in our pursuit of their well-being.
I believe the feature I developed has proven successful in facilitating pet owners' decision-making processes. Given more time, I would have explored additional features relevant to specific items and conducted comprehensive testing of pet profiles. This would have entailed the inclusion of reminders and the enhancement of pet profiles with more detailed information.
