Role: User Experience Architect
Collaborating with: User Experience Architects, Visual Designer, Project Manager, Business Analyst, Technical Lead, Client eCommerce Team
Challenge: Within a larger site implementation, redesign the booking experiences for PetSmart’s Pet Services.
Solution: Through close collaboration with the client and visual design teams, I led a design update that reduced the number of steps and simplified a highly customized booking flow.
You're making me blush
Awarded Lyons of the week with 5 Nominations:
“As we were finishing out our contract with PetSmart [Emily] really kept going strong right up to the last day. She has maintained that same quality of work throughout. She has throughout this project taken on large projects and a lot of small projects and kept them organized and made every deadline!”
From the happy clients:
“[I]t was wonderful working with a such talented and personable UX crew!
“We appreciate all your hard work and passion in providing best possible customer experience!”
“[W]e are so delighted with the end result!!!!”
Introduction
As part of a larger partnership with PetSmart, I led the redesign of the Pet Services - an online feature where customers can also schedule services, like grooming, training, and boarding. Pet Services make up an important arm of the PetSmart suite and served as a unique omnichannel experience.
This was a massive undertaking, so if you’d like to hear more, please reach out!
For now, some highlights:
Starting on the right paw
When I joined the project, PetSmart’s Pet Services were accessible on PetSmart.com and their mobile app, however the processes for booking appointments and reservations were different across the two. The PetSmart team was happier with the mobile app experience, so we agreed to use it as a starting point.
I began by creating a map of the experience to understand the process and steps in the user flow.
I used screenshots to track how the user completed each reservation.
Opportunities for Optimization
With an initial understanding of the menus of services and information collected, I turned my attention to simplifying the process as much as possible. After many (many, many) iterations, the final user flow looked like this:
Each service requires similar information and I prioritized consistency and logic to ensure the simplest path from start to finish.
Immediate Action
After researching trends in the hotel booking industry, we utilized an action bar to bring the user into the booking flow faster:
Presenting this information on the PetsHotel landing page was a key feature in presenting prices and availability as quickly as possible.
Though most users only book a single room at a time, our design also considered users booking multiple animals (and multiple species) simultaneously.
Building out an edge case was a key factor to ensure we thought through even the worst case scenario.
Necessary Interruptions
Though our goal overall was to reduce friction in the booking flow, there were a few instances where we chose to intentionally pause the user to ensure they read important information.
Without up to date vaccines, a customer and their pet could be turned down when they arrive at the boarding location, so it was imperative that they acknowledge the vaccine warning.
Grooming Makeover
With a large menu of grooming services and even more additional add ons, presenting descriptions in a digestible format when the user the needed them helped ensure they were informed but not overwhelmed.
Utilizing existing statistics, the initial menu is organized by the most booked services.
When it’s possible to upgrade a grooming, the user can navigate a full and descriptive menu to ensure they get exactly what they need.
Wrap Up
Pet Services was my first chance at LCG to own a redesign and though it was challenging, I am proud of what my team and I achieved in improvements to the logic within the customer journey and showcase of features in a key multi-touch service.
