Paws - Making pet care personal
Transforming an e-commerce platform into a personalised pet wellness experience
Joining the Paws team
In late 2022, Paws was tackling an ambitious challenge: transforming from a traditional e-commerce platform into a subscription-first pet wellness service. The existing platform wasn't built for this vision of personalized, recurring pet care. With only 20% of pet owners having insurance and the market shifting toward younger, more digital-savvy pet parents, we saw an opportunity to reimagine the pet care experience.
Our research highlighted several key challenges faced by pet owners: finding reliable care services while balancing work commitments, managing separation anxiety and behavioural issues, and addressing nutritional needs, especially for fussy eaters. These insights shaped our approach to the platform's transformation.
User Interview themes
How We Worked
I joined a focused three-person design team at a crucial moment in this transformation. While each designer led different areas - one focusing primarily on high-level flows and another on design systems - we collaborated closely on all aspects of the platform. I took the lead on the Pet Profile, My Account, and Basket experiences, but we all contributed to each other's areas, sharing ideas and feedback daily.
Our process balanced quick iteration with thorough validation. Daily design team sessions helped us move quickly, while monthly company-wide reviews brought essential perspectives from veterinarians, marketing, and merchandising. This approach revealed critical user needs: strong preference for veterinary-backed services, high demand for breed-specific guidance, and desire for community support among pet owners.
Pet Profile overview
Design process
My role focused on transforming three core platform areas that would be crucial to our subscription-first model. The challenge lay in creating a seamless user journey that would support both first-time visitors and returning subscribers, while addressing key pain points in the pet care experience. Through user journey mapping and competitive analysis, we identified opportunities to reduce cognitive load and create more intuitive paths to subscription.
The Pet Profile became our foundation for personalisation. Initial user research showed that pet parents often abandoned profiles when faced with lengthy forms, so we implemented progressive disclosure in the onboarding flow. Breaking the process into digestible steps created meaningful touchpoints for personalisation while making the onboarding process less overwhelming. The Health Check section employed clear information architecture to transform complex health tracking into manageable tasks, using visual hierarchy to guide users through regular check-ins.
Pet Profile overview
The basket redesign tackled a critical conversion challenge: making subscription choices feel natural within the purchase flow. Through usability testing, we found that users often missed subscription benefits when they were presented as separate options. Our solution integrated subscription choices directly into product cards, using visual weight to highlight potential savings. We implemented contextual defaults based on product type - suggesting monthly deliveries for food but quarterly for treats - and surfaced community reviews to build trust in subscription choices.
For My Account, we focused on improving information architecture and reducing navigation friction. Analytics showed that users frequently switched between pet management and account functions, leading to a unified dashboard approach. We used card sorting exercises to organise features into logical groups, resulting in a hub-and-spoke model where pets remain central while essential functions are immediately accessible. This pattern reduced the steps needed for common tasks while maintaining a clear mental model of the platform's structure. We also integrated breed-specific content and seasonal care recommendations, addressing user demand for tailored guidance.
Basket
Basket before and after
Project Learnings
Just as we completed the first phase of designs and were preparing for development, Paws unfortunately entered insolvency.
Had we launched, this is how we would have measured performance
Pet Profile completion rates and depth of information provided
Subscription conversion rate from product pages vs checkout
Time spent managing subscriptions in My Account
Engagement with breed-specific content and community features
Customer support contacts related to subscription management