Pawsome!

Team members

Zoe

Jia Sui

Siew Ching

Yong Sheng

Yuan Lih

Hai Yang

Pawsome! is a platform to connect pet owners and pet sitters, providing services such as dog walking, pet boarding, day care and house sitting. Users can sign up and be verified as a trusted pet sitter, or seek their services as a pet owner. The app will allow pet owners to look for dog walking, pet sitting or grooming services, connecting them to pet sitters or dog walkers that are near their location who are able to take the job and provide the service.

Target audience

Pet owners

Pet sitters

Problems we solve

Pet owners:
It's often a challenge to locate a trustworthy pet sitter nearby. Even when they have someone in mind, coordinating schedules can be tough. There's also the uncertainty of whether the chosen pet sitter will be dependable and capable of delivering the expected level of care for their furry companions.

Pet sitters:
Establishing a client base can be challenging. While formal training isn't mandatory for pet sitting, not all animals are a walk in the park. Some sitters worry about their ability to handle certain pets, particularly larger dogs, due to a lack of experience.

Project timeline

Personas

Summary of research and findings

We conducted a survey to find out what are the most used services pet owners use and the concerns they have when using such services.

Majority of pet owners only engage in pet sitting services when they have to go overseas, thus pet sitters usually have to be able to commit for an extended duration and not just one to two days.
The biggest concern pet owners have with pet boarding services is trust, as they are unsure of how reliable the pet sitters are and it is difficult to hand over their pets to a stranger without building up rapport and connection first.
Dog owners mainly consider dog-walking services if they have a busy work schedule or if they are injured and unable to walk their dogs themselves.
Pet sitters are expected to provide timely updates and communicate with the client multiple times a day. As a pet sitter or dog walker, the biggest issue seems to be finding the clients and scheduling.
In order for a pet services app to be a successful platform, it has to be able to establish a relationship of trust between the client and the service provider.

Pet owner flow chart

Pet sitter flow chart

Mid fidelity prototype snippets

Second itereation

High fidelity prototype snippets

Final itereation

Project post mortem

What worked

Video call function can help to establish rapport and trust for both the client and pet sitters. Might even be preferable to have a video call instead of a physical one, especially if the booking is rushed and both parties cannot find time to meet physically.
Sitter filtering options are helpful in searching for more specific needs, such as night time hours, handling multiple pets, or bookings for non-consecutive days.
Adding payment options helped ensure that both pet owners and pet sitters have a peace of mind regarding monetary transactions.
Improved review page and system along with filtering of reviews helped pet owners with finding the sitters they want.
Flagging of false or unjustified reviews help to protect pet sitters against unreasonable pet owners.
Taking reference from apps other than our competitors allowed us to include functionalities that aren’t in any other apps of the same genre.
Implementing these functionalities had significantly increased the reliability of bridging the connection between our users and pet sitters to help find a suitable match for their pets. These stand out features also help with being distinct in this niche market.

What didn't worked

UI is still a little cluttered on the filtering page as there is a lot of information to filter and process.
Some of the UI elements on the filtering page could be simplified and changed to make it take up less space and look cleaner.

What didn't worked and is out of our control

Review system is not 100% accurate, as it is based on the pet owner’s perception and they are not actually there to check on the services provided. It is up to the pet sitter to provide timely updates and hope that the communication is to the client’s satisfaction.
Unwarranted bad reviews that weren’t flagged could’ve already been read by other users, and may leave a bad impression either way.