During my five years of working in the aviation industry, I noticed the world of air traveling was growing and advancing quicker than anything we can imagine. The experience of air traveling for passengers has changed so much, yet I have noticed an area that wasn’t keeping up with these advancements: passengers traveling with pets or transporting their pets. I was encouraged to create a platform that can help improve pet owners’ travel experiences with their furry friends.

Sources: Condor Ferries, PetRelocation, and Forbes

I also conducted primary research through user interviews. This helped me gain more first-hand knowledge of pet owners who had previously experienced flying with or transporting their pets. I set up an online screener survey to help me gain more insights and find participants to interview. I reached out to my community through social media, friends, and family to fill out this survey.

Survey participants: 43
Interview participants: 5

Here are some quotes that stood out to me from the user interviews:

Affinity Map

I organized my notes from the user interviews by writing down all the insights and user quotes on Post-it notes. Then, I grouped them and labeled each group. Grouping them helped me dove deeper and identify any patterns or discoveries that stood out.

User Personas 

With the insights gathered from the user survey and interviews, I created two user personas to keep in mind as I began my ideation stage and also to help me make design decisions. I created two user personas because one has a small dog she would travel in-cabin with, while the other persona has a big dog who has to travel separately through cargo. I believe it is vital to keep both types of users in mind as their travel experiences can differ.

Competitive Analysis

I conducted a competitive analysis to determine if any websites or mobile apps offer similar concepts. I couldn't find any mobile apps, but I found three websites for my analysis. I compared what the websites provided to their users and concluded that BringFrido scored the highest. BringFrido offered the most help to its users with information on the airline’s pet policies, pet requirements, customer reviews on airlines, and pet travel tips. All the competitors provided informational resources to the pet owners, but none offered simple tools, like pet check-in or managing their travel documents.

 Competitors:

• PetTravel.com

• BringFido

• PetRelocation

During my research, I learned that...

To conclude my research, I came up with my “How might we” questions to better define the problem before beginning the ideation stage.

• How might we ensure a smoother process for those who are trying to submit pet travel documents?

• How might we reduce the stress of those who are flying with their pets or transporting them?

• How might we help to close the communication gap between the airlines and the pet owners traveling?

Key Findings

The key findings I gained from the user testing allowed me to decide which aspects of my design I would like to change and revisit before moving on to wireframing. One of the main changes I made was combining the Check-in and Manage Flight flow. During the testing, a few participants said they could not differentiate the two routes. They also recognized the similarity of inputting the same information before getting to their flight details. I decided to revisit the two flows and combine them into just one flow. I named this flow Add Flight.

Wireframes

Below are my low fidelity wireframes I created from my revised sketches:

Browse Airlines Flow

Brand & Identity

Before I could turn my wireframes into high-fidelity screens, I needed to determine my brand’s platform and style guide. Since this project is a new concept, I had to create them from scratch.

I chose Pair as the name because “P” represents pets, and “air” means air travel. It also combined the words Paw and Air (Pair). I wanted a short, easy name that was both recognizable and incorporated pet and air travel.

Style Guide

Final Product

With the brand’s platform and style guide I created, I transformed my wireframes to high-fidelity screens.

What needed improvements?

• Button hierarchy

  A few participants wanted to click the white button more than the brown one. They did not feel like the brown was a primary button.

• Where is the added flight information stored?

  If they left this screen, participants were unsure where to retrieve their flight information.

• Where to add additional pet documents?

  Participants could not quickly figure out where to attach more documents.

Round 2

I reiterated my high-fidelity prototype with the feedback I received and recruited five new participants to conduct my round 2 usability testing.

Did I solve it in round two?

• Button hierarchy

  I reversed the color and made the primary button white. Some participants felt brown was more of the primary button in this round of testing.

  ❌ Result: Issue repeated.

• Where is the added flight information stored? 

  I added a popup screen to let the user know their flight information has been added to their home screen.

  ✅ Result: Issue solved!

• Where to add additional pet documents?

  I created two separate links to view previously attached documents and to attach more.

  ✅ Result: Issue solved!

Next Steps

Iterate, repeat, iterate, repeat. Let’s do this all again!

In the second round of testing, I received great feedback and solved a few issues I discovered from my first round of testing. However, there is still more feedback for further improvements. 

For my next steps, I would go back to my product and reiterate with the following:

• Button hierarchy

  Instead of using color to differentiate the primary and secondary buttons, I will explore other ways to make the primary button stand out more.

• Options to customize the checklist

  Some participants found the checklist helpful, and some said they preferred to customize it. I want to work on a feature allowing users to add, delete, and edit the items on the checklist. The new feature will help encourage the users to use the list to stay organized.

• Boarding pass

  A few participants said they would like to obtain a boarding pass on the app. This way, they will feel like the whole trip can be managed through one app. I will work with developers to see how we can connect with the different airlines and allow our users to check in and obtain their boarding pass all through our app.

After iterating, I will go back for another round of usability testing.

Reflections

By the end of this project, I realized how much I love problem-solving and designing for people. This project allowed me to be both creative and analytical. I initially thought my favorite part was creating my high-fidelity prototype, but it turns out I enjoyed the usability testing much more. I valued the opportunity to see how the participants interacted with the product and received their feedback to improve. Without my participants from both usability testing rounds, I would not have known which part of my product worked and needed more improvements.

During the entire project, I completed every step remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I missed the opportunity to gain more insights from observing human behaviors and how they interact with the product in real life. I look forward to the prospect of conducting interviews and testing in person.

The most rewarding part was beyond what I achieved and created from this project; it was my growth as a new designer.