Research & Synthesis

While Petminded is pivoting, dogs will be the only pet focus for now but we wanted to included at least 2 Cat Parents to see if there would be significant overlapping data in our User Interviews.

8 Dog Parents were interviewed
2 Cat Parents were interviewed

Through Affinity Mapping and synthesis, we were able to create our Persona, Dahlia, to guide our decisions going forward.

Design

The team agreed on a Problem Statement:

How might we help Dahlia find an online source of trustworthy pet advice and community?

We found in our data, the golden thread was trust. We kept that in mind as we began several rounds of Design Studio and even pulled our client in for the first round to feel apart of the process and give us a look into the business’ considerations.

Our final designs focused on key needs to build Dahlia’s trust:

1. Experiences

2. Browsing/Research

3. Experience Recaps

4. Recommendations

5. Trust Sources

6. Community

Journey of Trust

The stages of trust Dahlia navigated became a Journey Map of the incoming users based on additions and changes to Petminded’s website. We built a graph to show the journey of Dahlia gaining trust until she ultimately feels invested and connected enough to the community to “Become a Member”.

Next Steps

• Test “Events” or “Experiences” with a Card Sort. We tested this change of wording in our Hi-Fi usability test but it should be tested more thoroughly.

• Without the membership portion of the site being fully built out by the client, we recommend testing it once it is complete for user preference on signing up within Petminded.co or within Circle.

• An idea for a “quiz” to help personalization on the site came late in the process.

• Once dog content is fully integrated, start testing and integrating cat content and other pet parents.

Takeaway

Through our research, our team found that users long for social connection with other pet owners who are just as excited and interested in their pets as they are. We also learned that users are passionate about researching their pets’ health, behavior and needs, but they strongly value credibility and reliability in their sources of information. In it’s new iteration, Petminded.co will be a website centered on trustworthy community and resources for dedicated pet parents.

We created a site which, through specific features and aesthetic design will present a trustworthy product that showcases the Petminded passion for pets, connection and credible information. The site offers users a chance to participate in events as non-community members and provides a resource center of thoroughly vetted, Petminded approved resources.

Finally, the site projects Petminded’s values and invites users to join the members only Petminded community, where they can enjoy perks and social connection with other like minded pet parents.