HonestDog
Transforming the onboarding experience for future pet parents.
Check out the full prototype here.
Project Introduction
COMPANY
HonestDog
4 weeks
TIMELINE
Redesign the onboarding flow (from sign-up through submitting an adoption inquiry), homepage, and breed landing page.
SCOPE
Project Goals
HonestDog wants to help pet seekers to find the best possible dog match. However, after submitting adoption inquiries, pet seekers were not responding to breeders. Our mission was to discover why users were dropping communication and define a path that would improve the response rates.
The company’s secondary goal was to create a way to monetize the website.
The Team
AMY FRANZ THOMAS
UX/UI Designer
SAMANTHA HEUER
UX/UI Designer
SHEIL MEHTA
UX/UI Designer
Project Plan
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Secondary Research
Competitive Analysis
Design Audit
User Persona
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User Flows
Sketches
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Wireframes
Design System
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Prototypes
Usability Tests
The Onboarding Experience
Visitor > Clicks main CTA > Onboarding > Sign up > Profile > Application > Adopter/breeder conversation > Dog finds forever home
EXISTING FLOW
Per the client, the onboarding flow wasn’t going to change, so we needed to discover other ways to improve pet seeker response rates and promote HonestDog membership for monetization purporses.
APPROACH
Discover
We evaluated three competitors to identify areas where the market was excelling and where it was lacking.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
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(+) Thorough search & filter options
(+) Engaging pet-matching quiz
(+) No sign up required to browse site
(-) Dated design
(-) Shelter information not clearly separated from pet information
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(+) Eye-catching design
(+) Engaging pet-matching quiz
(-) Broad search & filter options
(-) Shelter information not clearly separated from pet information
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Good Dog was the most similar competitor to HonestDog since both companies are currently focused on breeders only.
(+) Modern design
(+) Organized information architecture
(+) Clearly highlighted important facts, i.e. breeding standards
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Although not a pet adoption site, Lemonade’s onboarding flow emulates HonestDog’s.
(+) Simple, yet punchy designs
(+) Highly personalized experience
(-) Must sign up before exploring the site freely
Next, we evaluated HonestDog’s existing website to discover what they did well and where they could improve.
DESIGN AUDIT
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Frequent CTAs
Education-based; provides resources for pet parents
Breeders are thoroughly vetted and verified
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Doesn’t advertise membership perks
Doesn’t alert pet seekers when inbox has a message
Doesn’t highlight previously adopted litters/puppies
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Add search & filter options, especially for undecided pet seekers
Add back button for onboarding quiz
Create email notifications for HonestDog inbox messages
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Requires an account to view available puppies
Doesn’t adequately explain breeders’ verification process and ethical practice standards
To support the goal of monetization, I researched conversion techniques for freemium to premium business models.
SECONDARY RESEARCH
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(+) Incentivizes unpaid users subscribe to access restricted content
(+) Rewards paid users with new features or exclusive content
(-) Limits product features
(-) Risks user abandonment
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(+) Reminds users of premium
(+) Easy & accessible for users to upgrade from any point in the website
(-) Interrupts user’s experience
(-) User becomes desensitized to up-selling
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Companies using a freemium to premium business model must understand it’s a delicate dance.
The free product/service must be valuable enough to users so that they adopt it, but not so good that they don’t upgrade to paid accounts.
Focused on the demand-side experience, our persona reflected HonestDog’s typical user plus info gleaned from user interviews.
USER PERSONA
Analyze
We created user flows based on HonestDog users’ most crucial red routes.
USER FLOWS
SKETCHES
Next, we translated our user flows into sketches for a first look at our designs.
User Flow 1: Pet Seeker Visits Website for First Time
User Flow 3: Pet Seeker Creates an Account
User Flow 3: Pet Seeker Submits an Adoption Inquiry
Onboarding Introduction
Onboarding Question
Homepage
Pet Seeker Dashboard
Breeder Profile
Explore Dogs
Adoption Application
Breeder Preview Card
Design
WIREFRAMES
Our sketches became wireframes which we used to do cursory usability testing.
During the time of this project, HonestDog was undergoing a complete rebranding so they didn’t have a style guide for us to use. Therefore, we developed our own for this project to keep our designs cohesive, using the existing logo. The only design preference the client had was that we use the colors blue, orange, and possibly green.
DESIGN SYSTEM
Onboarding Question
Onboarding Breeder Matches
Pet Seeker Dashboard
Homepage
Breeder Profile
Explore Dogs
Adoption Inquiry
Adoption Inquiry Question
Breeder Preview Card
Validate
PROTOTYPES
Check out the full prototype here!
We completed two rounds of usability testing. Due to the short time frame, we tested on a total of six test participants — three participants per round.
USABILITY TESTS
Homepage
Homepage
Onboarding Quiz
Onboarding Quiz
Breeder Profile
Breed Page
Application Start
Application Question
Application Submission
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Users expected basic correspondences with the breeder to be in the profile inbox, understanding phone calls will be made throughout the adoption process.
However, users expressed interest in receiving email notifications when:
a) they have submitted their applications, and
b) when they have a new message on in their profile inbox since they check their personal emails daily, but may not be checking the website as frequently.This was not something we could implement in our designs at this time, but is very important for improving pet seeker-to-breeder correspondences long term for the client.
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Users wanted to see more filter options on the Explore page; more categories with better clarification.
Example: Filtering dogs by “behavior” only could mean many things. Adding filters such as “maintenance” and “temperament” could help clarify the search.
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Users wanted better clarification on what it means to be a verified breeder.
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Users wanted an area to expand upon their answers for the onboarding quiz and adoption inquiry, feeling as though binary yes-no questions were limiting and unhelpful to their applications.
USABILITY TEST, ROUND 1
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Users felt that the brand partnerships and endorsements of German companies made HonestDog feel more secure and trustworthy. This was a major highlight for them.
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Users appreciated the dashboard being personalized to them and wanted the entire process from homepage to applications to feel personalized.
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Users wanted a better understanding of what being a premium member means and how it would benefit their search and life after becoming a pet owner.
USABILITY TEST, ROUND 2
Challenges
Due to the constant website changes, the client was unable to provide meaningful data and metrics. Therefore, we would not be able to measure the improvements of our designs.
LACK OF DATA/METRICS
One challenge we navigated during this project were constant design changes being made to the existing site, making it difficult to document the website and view our improvements. It also led to the second challenge: a lack of metrics.
CONSTANT DESIGN CHANGES
Results
HonestDog’s revenue doubled since implementing our designs.
Reflections
DESIGN SYSTEMS ARE YOUR ALLY
Start your projects off strong with a design system. Even a basic one can create an efficient and collaborative work environment.
I learned that it’s important to approach it with a quality-over-quantity mentality.
We implemented too many methods, occasionally causing our work to suffer in order to complete our tasks.
In retrospect, I would’ve chosen methods with the highest impact versus simply showcasing what we can do.
PRIORITIZE, PRIORITIZE, PRIORITIZE
This is my favorite takeaway.
Our team almost built out this project without a clear understanding of the scope of the project. As we started to work, I felt as though we were not headed in the right direction, so I asked our client for further clarification which prompted us to learn more about the company and project…which led to more questions!
Finally, we had all the information we needed to continue the project.
DON’T BE AFRAID TO ASK QUESTIONS