Rover …a redesign
Rover is a an app connecting pet owners with trusted local sitters… with some room for improvement.
00
Background
Rover is an app that connects pet owners with local Pet Sitters and Walkers. Operating in 10 countries they have a large community of Pet Sitters who will, board, walk, house sit. or just drop by to check in on people’s pets.
PS - This is a case study, I am no way affiliated with Rover.
Problem
Rover's current booking process requires Pet Owners to cold message Sitters and is a time intensive process. Research showed a lot of Sitters respond that they are unavailable or completely ghost the Pet Owners. (Read more how I got this understanding below). By overhauling the existing process, Rover can provide a more fluid process for both Pet Owners and Sitters.
01
Research
Competitive Analysis
Secondary Research
Insights derived from Rover's app reviews on Trustpilot and Apple's App Store proved to be a vital guide to identify prevalent hurdles users encounter. Parsing through all this information, a pattern or pain points started to emerge.
What made booking a Sitter so difficult?
Key insights:
Pet Owners sit request requires high effort out of the gate, and if they get little or zero replies it creates frustration.
Sitters felt no responsibility to get back to the Pet Owner's inquiries.
The primary pain point was the booking process.
How Might We?
02
Information Architecture
Site Map
Research showed most Sitters also used Rover to book other Sitters when they were out of town. The app's current design has two Home pages, one for Sitters and the other for Pet Owners, leaving the user feeling adrift. Moving the Booking menu to a binary CTA on the Home tab and combining it with the Sitting schedule creates a harmonious flow.
Rover's current Inbox tab has 4… yes, 4 inboxes. Combined with reliance on unclear icons makes for a puzzling experience. By simply using an Current and Past makes a more intuitive Inbox.
Task Flow
Changing the approach of booking a pet sitter from a call/respond format to a "Job Posting" ends the back and forth necessary with Rover's current set up. If a pet sitter is interested is the job they simply confirm availability with a single click. Then the client (pet owner) is presented with a list of sitters who have confirmed they are available and interested in the job.
03
Design
Wireframes
The following wireframes show the development of the booking process from the Client's perspective of creating a Job Card, and contact with the Pet Sitter. It also shows screens of the Pet Sitter receiving a notification and reviewing the Job.
Sketch Wireframes
Client creates a Job Card for a Home Sit
04
Design Iteration
Usability Insight
5 participants
Ages 27- 50
3 tasks - create a Job Card as a Pet Owner, review Job Card as a Sitter, then message Sitter
Testing revealed a few insights for the of the design. Users found the process easy to use and needed a few minor changes to make the instructions a little clearer.
Improving the Home screen
Depending if the user a pet sitter or pet owner, Rover's current design has two Home pages. Research showed that most pet sitters also use Rover to as a client, and vise versa. Instead of having two Home screens the user is given a CTA.
Adding a simple carousel of relevant topics creates a sense of community.
Improving the Sitter's Experience
Rover's current systems pings Pet Sitters with an auto-populated message sent by the client with details about the job. Unfortunately this message is disorganized and does not display the information clearly. A lot of the information is repeated in different areas, with no consistency between them.
The way in which information is presented can make all the difference. Using a Job Card format with the essential details laid out in a clear visual cues using the 4 of the 5Ws (who, what, where, and when) generating an effective hierarchy.
Original
New
05
Prototype
Looking back
Lessons
The time spent scouring through reviews for secondary research was well spent. These findings were critical in pinpointing the right problem to solve for the largest user gain.
Also, without the aid of those close to me who participated in testing, research, (and encouragement) I wouldn't have been able to make this project happen, I am forever in their debt.
Next Steps
I would like to pass these findings and solutions off to the team at Rover and hopefully they can implement some of my findings into their app.
