With so many people following the ‘Adopt, don’t shop!’ ideal, the staff at pet shelters are finding it difficult to manage the huge amount of adoption applications coming their way.

They care about the animals at these shelters and are concerned about what kind of people adopt them.

The manual process of evaluating and accepting applicants can be time consuming. Design an experience which will help streamline this process.

Problem the staff at pet shelters are finding it difficult to manage the huge amount of adoption applications coming their way.

Role

• Understanding the behaviors, needs, motivations & challenges of these users
• Making use of various UX research & design iteration methods to derive a solution.

<aside> 🧮 DELIVERABLE

• Primary + secondary research findings.
• Include any relevant artifacts that you’ve used to articulate your thought process in the form of actionable solutions. </aside>

🧑🏼‍🎓 Understanding the problem space

<aside> 💡 Severity Scale Interventions

</aside>

1. Severity of the problem
   1. Many of the puppies sold in pet stores or online originate from puppy mills, commercial dog-breeding facilities that focus on increasing profit with little regard for the health and welfare of the animals. Although puppy mills in the U.S. are legal, a vast majority aren’t regulated.
   2. Practices and conditions in most puppy mills are unethical and downright abhorrent in many cases. Dogs live in filthy conditions without adequate food, water, or veterinary care. And female dogs are bred at every opportunity with little to no recovery time between litters. Inbreeding is also a huge problem.
   3. Because of these conditions, puppy mills often produce animals with serious health problems down the road. And this translates to hefty vet bills for you. Many pet stores also don’t socialize their animals, which can lead to potential behavioral problems that aren’t ideal for a family pet. Adopting a pet, however, has a ton of advantages. The ASPCA reports that roughly 6.5 million companion animals enter shelters every year.
2. Scale
   1. 6.5 million animals enter shelters each year
      • 3.3 million of those are dogs
      • 3.2 million of those are cats
   2. 1.5 million shelter animals are euthanized each year
      • 670,000 of those are dogs
      • 860,000 of those are cats
   3. 3.2 million shelter animals are adopted each year
      • 1.6 million of those are dogs
      • 1.6 million of those are cats
   4. 710,000 animals who enter shelters as strays are returned to their owners
      • 620,000 of those are dogs
      • 90,000 of those are cats
   5. 23% of dogs and 31% of cats are obtained through an animal shelter or the humane society, compared to 34% of dogs and 3% of cats obtained through a breeder
3. Interventions
   • “Adopt, Don’t Shop” is a national campaign to raise awareness about the benefits of adopting rescue pets instead of puppies from pet stores that buy from puppy mills.
   • The organization that launched the Adopt Don’t Shop campaign is Los Angeles-based Last Chance for Animals (LCA), an international, nonprofit animal advocacy organization focused on investigating, exposing, and ending animal exploitation since 1984. LCA founder Chris DeRose is a leader in the animal rights movement and works closely with countless individuals and groups dedicated to the humane treatment of animals.
   • There are hundreds of licensed breeders across the country who are committed to humane practices and take great care in placing their purebred puppies in ideal homes. Many breeders do what they do for their love of dogs and maintain supportive relationships with their local shelters and rescue organizations. And many people who purchase purebred dogs are also committed to supporting adoption practices.

🎯 Redefining the given problem

1. Those at rescue/shelter homes want their pets to be adopted so that pets can leave the shelters. And they have a process in place to achieve the outcome.
   • [challenges] The existing process is manual.
     • Currently Google Forms are used to create Application Forms that future pet parents can fill.
       • adoptdontshop.in → https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdu7uHq1VKECAz037pFlSRqtr_P4UZPunQEEFOhb4AjUQ0k5Q/viewform
       • https://dharamsalaanimalrescue.org/ → https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfHCz4WzRkB_AKWMvQavM9o5VZObV5HaM9-0_k1ylD44XYtDQ/viewform
       • https://www.hinsdalehumanesociety.org/adopt/#filter=.dogs → https://www.hinsdalehumanesociety.org/help/sponsor-form/d1196/
   • [challenges] accepting applicants can be time consuming.
     • [why] The approval process involves conducting activities like reaching out to potential pet parents or vice-versa and then scheduling the interview, talking to future parents, and visiting their houses to validate interview responses which may include site visits and expense management. Also, making accommodation for pet parents to visit the shelter/rescue to interact with the pet to measure compatibility. Everything is great but is the pet comfortable with future parents?
       • [why] The outcome is from a set of interdependent processes.
       • [why] In the evaluation process, criteria set by shelters/rescue homes can be fulfilled only by talking to pet parents and observing how pets and future pet parents interact with each other in a safe space to evaluate compatibility.
       • [why] That’s exactly how evaluation process is supposed to work with minimum expenses and maximum optimization.
       • [why] Tesler’s law: the process complexity cannot be reduced any further.
     • [opportunity] Invite people to adopt a pet by sharing social media posts raising awareness and improving awareness.
     • [opportunity] Have a tool that makes it easier to collect basic must have applicant information like demographics, finances, and physical space arrangements that they have for future pet and also collect diet plan ideas. And maybe a virtual session to narrow down large number of applications to a shortlisted few probable pet parents who can be interviewed 1:1 at the shelter while they shortlist their pet before handing over the pets eventually.
     • [opportunity] Have an online monitored “Care Plan” wherein pet parents will be periodically required to upload content to the Care portal about their compatibility with their pets so as to ensure smooth transition for the pets from their shelters to their new homes. This activity can be carried out for 6 months or 1 year after adoption until the shelter owners are fully satisfied about the well being of their pets.
2. Users want a pet

   • [shelter/rescue home concerns] Why do they want a pet? Why do they need a pet? Are they equipped enough to care for pets post adoption**?**

   • If they already have a pet or had a pet in the past, how’s the relationship between them and the pet like? ( needs, wants, motivations, behaviors)

     • To find answers to these questions, I created a Microsoft Form and shared it with my friends and connections in my social circles. And I personally made an attempt to reach out to people who are in possession of a pet.
     • Ideally, pet parents having successful relationship with shelters post adoption of pets should be interviewed to design the ICP unless the shelter home is itself new and there are no pet owners available to talk to.

     Microsoft Forms

🚀 Design challenge