According to the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), approximately 6.3 million animals enter U.S. animal shelters annually. While thousands of families and individuals look to add a new pet addition to their family each year, the overcrowding of animal shelters is not getting any better. Due to factors like location, availability, and preference, many of these families resort to breeders and inhumane options like puppy mills, leaving animal shelters overcrowded. Finding a perfect pet match that meets the owners needs while also supporting shelters is extremely challenging.
To develop my recruitment plan for identifying participants in my pet adoption research project, I designed a structured approach to make sure I could connect with individuals who fit the criteria and provide valuable perspectives into the motivations and challenges behind pet adoption. My plan is outlined as follows:
Initial Contact: I will begin by reaching out to classmates, friends, and members of my hometown network. Starting with these connections will help me identify a diverse group of potential participants who meet the research criteria.
Research Description: To introduce the purpose of my research, I will prepare a brief description of the problem, highlighting how many families opt for breeders or inhumane sources over shelters, despite the overcrowding crisis in shelters. I will include this when I reach out to initial contacts.
Screening Process: I will include a checklist in my outreach message to screen participants based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. This screener will determine if they:
• Own or have owned a pet within the past year.
• Are looking to adopt a pet.
• Are involved in any animal volunteer organizations.
An affirmative response to any of these questions will qualify the individual for participation.
Scheduling: For close contacts, I will arrange interview times directly. For others outside my immediate network, I will include a Calendly link, allowing them to select a convenient time for both parties.
Consent: Since this research involves non-intrusive questions about pet adoption experiences, I will use a standard consent form to make sure participants understand their rights and the purpose of the study.
Recording: For virtual interviews, I will request consent to record Zoom sessions. For in-person interviews, I will seek consent to use a voice recorder to document the discussions accurately.
I began by creating my interview guide and piloting an initial interview to make sure the process was well-prepared and effective before conducting the rest of my interviews. This beginning step allowed me to refine my guide and plan how the interviews would proceed.
Takeaways from Developing and Testing the Guide:
Pilot Interview:
I conducted the full interview, including the activity, and recorded it exactly as I planned to record all interviews. I also considered how I would transcribe the audio recordings in advance.
I began by conducting interviews to explore the motivations and challenges behind pet adoption. For my recruitment process, I established inclusion and exclusion criteria to select individuals who either own or have owned a pet within the past year, are looking to adopt a pet, or are involved in animal volunteer organizations.
I identified participants based on their prior pet ownership, active interest in adopting a pet, or involvement in animal-related activities. This ensured that their contributions were both relevant and informative for the research objectives.
I asked participants about their pet adoption background, search methods in the adoption process, and general adoption preferences. I guided participants through a photo elicitation activity, discussing thoughts and feelings about specific images related to pet adoption to explore their perspectives further.
I began coding my interviews by reviewing the transcripts and noting recurring themes and patterns. This process allowed me to break down participant responses, identify similarities, and simplify their key pain points. By organizing the data, it became much easier to pinpoint common patterns and understand shared experiences.
Pattern 1
One pattern that was noticed was participants expressing anxiety about not knowing exactly where their pets were coming from, particularly when dealing with breeders. Many reported feeling unsure about the conditions in which the animals were bred and raised, leading to doubts about the ethics of their choice. This lack of transparency created a sense of anxiety, as participants wanted to make sure their pets came from humane environments, but often found it difficult to verify this information. Some participants felt that breeders were not transparent about the health or background of the animals, adding to their frustration.
Pattern 2
Another pattern that stood out was frustration over poor communication and long delays during the adoption process, both with shelters and breeders. Participants frequently mentioned not hearing back from breeders for extended periods or being left in the dark about the status of their application. Some also expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of transparency about how long the process would take or what the next steps were.
To analyze the data gathered from my interviews on the pet adoption process, I used affinity diagramming to organize interview codes into important themes. Each color in the diagram represents a different aspect of the analysis (data = yellow, codes = blue, themes = pink)
Themes
1. Technology plays a crucial role in streamlining the pet adoption process.
Ex: A search filter would be helpful in navigating through all my potential options.
2. Clear information and visual aids are essential for an informed adoption decision.
Ex: It was frustrating not having very much information on the pets when we were looking.
3. Past experiences and emotional connections shape future pet adoption choices.
Ex: I experienced a pet loss causing me to search for a new one.
4. Adoption preferences are guided by convenience and clarity in expectations.
Ex: I find extreme value in having the adoption process by located close by
5. Social feedback and relevant questions help improve the adoption experience.
Ex: I value hearing from other people about a dog's behavior.
The user persona ("Lily") captures a college student’s goals and challenges in adopting a pet, highlighting her need for transparency, a respectful process, and alignment with her family's values.
The journey map breaks down Lily's adoption experience, showing her key actions, pain points, and emotions at each stage, from initial research to post-adoption. It identifies areas to improve, like clearer pet history info, faster response times, and better post-adoption support.
Together, these deliverables show the user’s needs and pain points and offer specific opportunities to make the adoption process smoother and more user-friendly.
The persona and journey map provide a clear understanding of my target audience’s needs, challenges, and emotional journey during the pet adoption process. Using data from the affinity diagram, the persona captures shared traits among participants, while the journey map outlines their step-by-step experience.
The persona shows that adopters value transparency, convenience, and alignment with their family’s values. They want clear pet information, a smooth adoption process, and timely communication from shelters or breeders.
The journey map highlights pain points like unclear pet histories during the research stage and poor communication or intrusive questions in the application stage, which caused frustration. Emotional highs occurred when adopters successfully completed the process and bonded with their new pet.
In the early stages of product development, I will focus on these pain points in my design decisions and consider identified successes to develop potential solutions.
Based on what I learned from the research process, if I were to do a similar project or continue this one, I would aim to include a more diverse range of participants, such as first-time adopters, single individuals, and older adults, to ensure a fuller understanding of various adoption needs. Expanding the research to cover additional scenarios, like foster-to-adopt or rehoming, would provide information into different user journeys that were not fully explored. One challenge I faced was avoiding bias, as many of the participants had prior positive adoption experiences, which may have skewed the findings and limited the ability to fully capture pain points.
Finally, tracking users’ experiences over a longer period, from pre-adoption through post-adoption, would provide valuable information on how their needs evolve, helping design better support solutions.
This project taught me valuable user research methods that I hope to apply as I work toward building a platform to address the identified issues. Using the insights gained, I aim to create a solution that effectively meets user needs and improves the pet adoption process.