Rover

RESEARCH • UX • BRAND • UI

Project Background

Rover is an American company that operates an online marketplace for people to offer and book pet care services including pet sitting, boarding, and walking. The company is most popular with dog owners although it does offer the same services to cat owners as well.

PROBLEM

Rover has a website and app for its users to view and offer services, however, the app doesn’t offer the full desktop features from the sitter’s side that would allow for more usability in rebooking previous pets. There is also a lack of communication being offered between sitters to rate/comment on pets they have previously watched.

ROLE

UX/UI Designer UX Researcher

TIMELINE

April - May 2022

TOOLS

Figma, Whimsical

Discovery & Research

ADDING A FEATURE

As a consistent user, I believe that adding the two features (‘Notes' and ‘Comments’) will instill more confidence and sense of security for users taking on pet services thus enhancing user experience from their side. I made sure to keep in my mind my research objectives as I began the process of gathering information:

  • Gather insights from sitters’ perspective when they receive a rebook and/or new pet service request and the pain points they navigate during the process.

  • Determine what the direct/indirect competitors strengths and weaknesses are in the booking process to understand how to improve Rover’s design

APP AUDIT

I began my research by conducting an app audit of the current Rover app to see where I could add the features I was planning as well as what were the app’s weakest points could be improved upon while I was adding the planned features. My focus would center around the booking and pet profile section of the app while also restructuring the inbox design.

COMPETITOR ANALYSIS

While there may be a decent amount of pet care/sitting companies out there, when it comes to overall services, app features, and Caregiver coverage, Wag is the top competitor against Rover. The other competitors I researched had one or two features unique to their company but their weaknesses dwarfed the strengths they had.
Lack of transparency also seems to be a common issue among the apps in regards to pricing and Caregiver options/availability (something that Rover is well known for executing well)

USER INTERVIEWS

I gathered 5 participants for the interview process, all of whom were sitters and were actively using the app to offer pet services. I attempted to recruit sitters with a variety of experience years with Rover in order to get insight from sitters who had dealt with the app during multiple stages and updates.

At the end of the interviews, I asked which features each participant would like to see removed or added to the app that they believed would improve their experience to see if my proposed features were in tune with what was actually needed. The results were affirming:

  • Ability to rate and view other sitter’s ratings of owners so that sitters can also have a sense of security

  • Transparency of pet ratings/comments made available to sitters in the event the owner is not truthful about their pet’s needs

Redesigning the App

ROVER SITEMAP

After the interviews were finished, I mapped out the current Rover app sitemap to start brainstorming where my new features would best fit the current layout. The Homescreen and Inbox would be where most of the changes would occur since those sections are where a majority of the Booking actions take place.

PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS

I laid out the current features of the Rover app and placed the new ones all in green in the sections they corresponded to as well as their role and description:

  • Inbox

    • Past, Pending, Booked

  • Directory

    • Pet/Client Card, Filter

  • Navigation

    • Directory added

  • Pet Profile

    • Rating, Your Notes, Sitter Notes

SITEMAP REDESIGN

After finalizing my product requirements, I updated the sitemap with the changes to the navigation and added features I planned on building.

I wanted the Inbox to be less confusing for Sitter users so I simplified the tabs I would be building so there wouldn’t need to be as much jumping back and forth to view bookings.

Flow

USER FLOWS

I mapped out simple user flows for the tasks I would be using later on in my testing phase. They are all pretty straightforward to test what does or doesn’t work about the design of the added features. Since the user wouldn’t be exploring the entire app, just the redesigned sections, the tasks didn’t need to be overly involved.

  • Get info about upcoming bookings

  • Contact a past client without making a booking request

  • Check to see if you or other sitters have any notes about a pet

Wireframes

VERSIONS

My initial wireframe sketches made minimal changes to the original design of the Rover screens but after receiving feedback, I decided to challenge myself and push the extent of my design change for the homescreen, directory, and pet profile.

  • Replacing the Homescreen with Schedule so users could make more use of that screen and clearing up space in the navigation by adding a calendar with upcoming booking info to the new homescreen

  • I did away with the Rebook a Client feature as my research indicated that the amount of times sitters used it was basically nonexistent. In its place, a Client Directory where sitters could communicate with past clients without needing to create a booking request

  • The pet profile now contained icons to demonstrate pet info in a more engaging way instead of pure text and showed ratings and comments given by previous sitters

Branding & Design

ELEVATING THE DESIGN

Since my main project goal was to add a feature to an existing app, I wasn’t looking to do an entire rebrand for the company. I kept the same primary and secondary color palette but opted for icons that were a bit more playful than the current ones since this is a dog service app and can reflect some of their playfulness. I implemented the icons throughout the pet profiles to keep up the playful vibes of the pet through its profile. Continuing with the theme, I selected the expressive typeface Plantin for my header fonts followed by Graphik for a nice mixture of playful modern typography.

REPLACING THE HOME SCREEN

I did a big redesign for the Homescreen in order to simplify the navigation. The prior Homescreen did not offer much use to Sitters as confirmed by my research so I made the Calendar the Homescreen and renamed it Schedule. This way, Sitters could immediately see their availability upon opening the app and view not just current bookings but also upcoming ones.

The change also allowed you to manage your availability right from the Homescreen. Rover only prompts its users to confirm availability before holidays and it is up to the user to remember to navigate to the Calendar screen and manage their availability. Now users would have their availability reminder from the moment they opened their app.

ORGANIZING BOOKINGS

As a consistent user of the app, I decided to also tackle redesigning the inbox/booking requests for Sitters. Rover attempted to simplify the different categories a Sitter could place a booking request by using tab menus and an archive icon, but the result was a confusing back and forth that made finding requests a pain point for many Sitters. Instead of separating the menus, I laid out all the tab menu options in a horizontal scroll so users could quickly jump to different booking categories. Adding color to the menu options also made it easier to immediately reference and know which section a user is in.

ADDING A FEATURE

This was the main goal of this project, adding a feature that would benefit users and ease pain points when using the app. With all my research, it was an easy decision for the added feature to be a section on a pet’s profile where Sitter’s could reference any previous notes or ratings they had left as well as view any other notes other Sitter’s have left.

Adding this feature wasn’t just about convenience, it was a matter of safety as well. In my research, and experience, Sitters brought up instances of booking boarding stays with dogs that had been described by owners as ‘behaved, shy, and quiet’ in their profiles. However, during the stay, the dog became reactive/aggressive and bit the Sitter.

I wanted to make sure that adding this feature would create more transparency between Sitters looking out for fellow users and the pet owners who may not be as forthcoming as they say. Aggressive behaviors in pets are a high risk for users utilizing this app as Sitters and Owners, and I think this added feature could help relieve some of the stress of the booking process for all users.

Prototype

TESTING

I created a prototype so that during testing, participants would be able to complete three tasks created with in mind: You’re using the Rover app from a Sitter perspective and need to be able to handle communication between you and potential/past clients while navigating the app.

  • Get info about your upcoming bookings from calendar page

  • Contact a past client without them making a booking request

  • Check to see if you or other sitters have any notes about a pet

View the final prototype with changes implemented after user testing.

Usability

TEST OBJECTIVES

The usability test took about 20 minutes with each participant including follow-up questions. All participants were able to complete the set of tasks given from start to finish within a 10-minute time frame. The two participants who didn’t have experience with the app were able to give unique feedback compared to the participants who had experience with the app. I was able to administer in-person testing for two of the participants and used screen sharing with Zoom for the other three participants. Overall the design of the prototype was well received with a few minor feedbacks for fixes.

  • Identify if users face any frustration/pain points in viewing booking requests.

  • Determine the overall quality in navigating between menu sections user reaction using the prototype.

REVISIONS

I ending up adjusting the changes/suggestions from my earlier version of the affinity map after reviewing my time frame. I wanted to play around with changing the names in the navigation for Inbox and Directory to see if that creates more clarity to their purpose.
Directory --> Contacts/(Clients possibly) Set this up more like a contact name list of previous clients and keep current design but remove message button.

Inbox --> Bookings, Since this page is more than just messages and deals specifically with booking requests/history. I added a button near the top of page to be able to confirm a booking request from the initial message page when received. This will be good for Sitters who receive a booking request from a repeat client and want to confirm immediately without needing to navigate to the pet profile.

NEXT STEPS

The process for this project went much more smoothly than the previous one having had the advantage of being an avid user of Rover for a few years. I was able to sympathize and communicate more efficiently during the research phase with the participants who had experience with the app. After my initial round of usability testing, I shared my prototype on social media with a select group of Rover Sitters to gain more insights. It was well received and initiated great discussions on more improvements that could be made from the Sitter perspective.

My next steps would be updating and expanding my design changes based on the feedback I’ve received since finishing this project.