Three Things to Know
The adoption process can be complex, often involving multiple online and offline steps. This can lead to confusion and frustration for potential adopters, especially when instructions are outdated or missing. To address these challenges, researchers in Taiwan applied the concept of “service design”.
Service design is an approach that prioritizes user needs and input to create new and improved services. By observing and identifying problems within the adoption process, researchers were able to define an initial concept. This concept was then refined through a series of co-creation workshops involving key stakeholders.
Following the workshops, surveys were conducted with potential adopters and broader shelter staff to identify the most impactful changes to prioritize. This collaborative approach led to the development of a new adoption process that includes ongoing post-adoption support and helps shelter staff reduce recurring issues.
For Dog Welfare Practitioners:
This paper demonstrates how service design can be applied to improve complex processes like animal adoption. While the specific details of the Taiwanese shelter’s adoption process may vary, the underlying principles of service design remain relevant.
It’s crucial to recognize that service design can be beneficial for addressing a wide range of processes, from animal adoption and transport to veterinary appointments. Even without a formal service design workshop, internal workshops can be highly effective. By encouraging staff to experience processes from the perspective of clients or patients, you can uncover hidden challenges and opportunities for improvement. This firsthand experience can lead to innovative solutions and a more user-centered approach.
The Full Picture
In 2015, Taiwan implemented a “no-kill” policy, marking a significant step in stray animal protection. While commendable, it has presented significant challenges for animal shelters. With an estimated 147,000 stray dogs and a limited shelter capacity of 7,000, shelters are struggling to cope with the influx of animals.
To address these issues, a study titled “Optimizing the Adoption Process in Public Animal Shelters through Service Design Thinking” aims to streamline the adoption process. By employing service design thinking, the study seeks to identify pain points in the adoption process, co-create solutions with shelter staff and enhance the adoption experience. The ultimate goal is to increase adoption rates, reduce the number of animals returned to shelters, and improve the overall reputation of animal shelters.
Defining Service Design
Service design is a multidisciplinary approach that focuses on creating user-centered services. The process involves conceptualizing, developing, and continuously improving services to reflect user input and deliver unique experiences. By involving stakeholders in co-creation, service designers develop effective and holistic solutions.
Study Methods
To optimize the adoption process, this study follows a three-phase approach:
- Discovery and Definition: Identify and analyze challenges through research, observations, and interviews.
- Development and Delivery Loop: An initial service design is developed, followed by a co-creation workshop with shelter staff to iterate on design concepts.
- Design Concept Testing: Prioritize and implement feasible solutions.
This structured approach considers all stages of the adoption process, from pre-adoption to post-adoption, ensuring a comprehensive and user-centered solution.
Study Results
1. Discovery and Definition
By breaking down the process into eight key stages, they were able to closely observe adopter behavior. These observations, combined with insights from interviews with both adopters and shelter staff, provided a comprehensive view of the challenges and opportunities within the adoption process.
The analysis uncovered five key issues hindering the adoption process:
- Information Asymmetry: Inaccurate map positioning, limited working hours, and insufficient information about stray animals create a knowledge gap between the shelter and potential adopters.
- Poor Navigation: The lack of clear navigation within the shelter and guidance on interacting with animals can lead to confusion and frustration.
- Information Gaps: Missing critical details about animals, coupled with excessive paperwork, can deter potential adopters.
- Unsynchronized Information: Discrepancies between online and offline information about stray animals can lead to confusion and missed opportunities.
- Inconsistency and Inefficiency: Variability in staff responses and service quality can negatively impact the adopter experience.
These insights serve as the foundation for designing and optimizing the adoption process.
2. Development and Delivery Loop
To address the challenges identified in the discovery phase, the researchers developed an initial concept, “TAKE ME!”, aimed at improving the visitor flow and streamlining the adoption process. However, difficulties in accurately capturing animal personalities necessitated further refinements.
To enhance the design, co-creation workshops were held with both staff and adopters. These collaborative sessions focused on aligning staff workflows with adopter needs to create a more consistent, efficient, and user-friendly experience.
Building upon the insights gained from co-creation workshops, researchers created the “CON+” service design concept. This new concept expanded its scope to focus on three key stakeholders: stray animals, adopters, and shelter staff. It also introduced nine functions designed to create a user-centric, mission-aligned, and impactful adoption process. These functions aimed to enhance adopters’ understanding of animal care, promote equal treatment for all animals, and align staff responsibilities with the shelter’s mission.
The co-creation workshops fostered collaboration among service providers, bridging the gap between conceptual design and practical implementation. This collaborative approach encouraged innovative thinking and shaped the revised CON+ design.
3. Design Concept Testing
The final phase of the study involved evaluating the CON+ concept through stakeholder analysis and a service design competition submission.
Stakeholder Analysis
- Service Recipients: A questionnaire was administered to stray animal community platform members to assess their preferences for the nine proposed CON+ services. A total of 127 Respondents ranked their top three preferred services.
- Service Providers: Shelter staff completed a questionnaire to evaluate the feasibility of implementing each proposed service based on practical considerations and existing resources.
The feedback from both service recipients and providers was analyzed to identify the most feasible and desirable services for implementation. By focusing on these prioritized services, the adoption process can be streamlined to better meet the needs of both service recipients and providers, ultimately improving the adoption experience and outcomes.
Conclusion
This study utilized a holistic service design approach to analyze and optimize the services of a public animal shelter, considering the perspectives of both adopters and shelter staff. Key findings emphasize the importance of creating a positive and informative adoption experience, simplifying the adoption process, fostering a deeper connection between adopters and animals, and providing ongoing post-adoption support. For the shelter, improving staff efficiency, reducing recurring issues, and enhancing post-adoption assistance are crucial. By applying service design principles, this study demonstrates how low-cost strategies can be implemented to enhance the adoption experience and improve the overall effectiveness of public animal shelters.
Miscellaneous
Data From Study:
–
Year of Publication:
2020
External Link:
Wang, D., Chen, C., You, Y., Tsai, S., Hong, S., Chen, S., and Tang, H. (2020) Optimizing the Adoption Process in Public Animal Shelters through Service Design Thinking, in Boess, S., Cheung, M. and Cain, R. (eds.), Synergy – DRS International Conference 2020, 11-14 August, Held online. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2020.173