AI Pet Portraits

Delight customers with stylized holiday AI pet portraits increasing app downloads by 23%

 

context

Chewy is an online retail store for pet owners. It has built a loyal following by helping pet parents care for their pets as family members and through various programs like hand-painted portrait program where customers are randomly selected and sent a hand painted portrait of their pet on different occasions.

 

BUSINESS GOAL

  1. Leverage Gen AI to make the program scalable for all loyal customers

  2. Increase mobile app usage

 

TARGET USER


Hydie (55 year old), a typical loyal Chewy customer:

  • Lives in suburbs of Sacramento

  • Spends $3k per year

  • Socially very active and is open to trying new offerings

  • Has a single pet

 

IMPACT

23% increase in app downloads

 

My Role

  • End to end design from exploratory research to working with mobile devs and ML scientists to implement designs as per specs and measure impact for further iterations

  • Created design work back plans with Product Managers and Program Managers, secured critical resources (content writers, office hours with Researchers), and implemented designs directly with Android/iOS developers.

  • Iterated designs through close collaboration with stakeholders in brand, research, design system and support.

 

Exploratory research

  • To explore how generative AI could add the most value, I led workshop with my PM to assess where Gen AI can help improve in the process and where, generating 34 ideas. Detailed out the top 3 to test with 6 customers. AI Pet Portraits surfaced as the idea that resonated the most with customers.

 

CUSTOMER PROBLEM

  1. With Chewy’s growing user base, existing hand-painted portrait program was struggling to create an emotional connection and show recognition for their loyalty. Through user interviews and social listening, I uncovered that the Pet Portrait’s random selection process, to surprise and delight customers, left many loyal high-spending customers feeling overlooked and undervalued. This created a perception of unfairness and missed recognition.

 

2. Speaking with support I learnt many customers returned the canvas unsure why they received it or dissatisfied with the portrait of their pet. Even if user liked the portrait, it was hard to track the impact of pet portraits program on the purchases or user behavior. The program didn’t transfer the traffic to either mobile app or website

 

3. Too many choices on mobile overwhelmed customers, pushing them to browse on web

 

Project Goal

Deliver AI pet portraits to Chewy’s loyal customers, enhancing loyalty recognition

 

UX Guardrails

  • Have consistent and unified Chewy branding like other offerings

  • Balance inclusivity and exclusivity.

  • Develop trust by visually distinguishing AI features from the rest and giving control to users

  • Make the offering uniquely and exclusively Chewy.

 

How might we replace random surprise with intentional recognition that makes loyal customers feel seen and valued?

Define a clear eligibility criteria. Have a well defined tiered program where AI Portrait is offered once (inclusive tier) to customers spending $3k or more per year. Reserve hand painted portraits (exclusive tier) for curated users for special emotionally compelling moments and stories.

The customer should get directed to the mobile app:
- For exclusive tier : Have a QR code on the card sent that directs the user to mobile app experience

- For inclusive tier: send an email that directs the user to mobile app experience.

 
 

Went through iterations to properly set customer’s expectations on how the AI flow works.

Redesigned with design components that surfaced usability and policy issues

Designed two versions with and without overview. Ran unmoderated A/B tests

Simplified option with clear instructions and overview

Simplified upload to improve success rate

 

Iterations of loading screens as I worked through AI constraints and capabilities

Misleading indefinite loader

Unreliable timer and confusing interactions

An engaging wait screen that sets right expectations

Improved processing time for better experience

 

How might we make it clear to Hydie why she received a pet portrait and what she can do next?

100 AI portraits in different styles left users overwhelmed and unimpressed

Redesigned offering a unique holiday style surfacing brand disparity and lack of engagement

Leveraged Chewy holiday theme to showcase personalized AI portraits for purchase and inspire purchases

 

FINAL Prototype

 
 
 

Vision

Support more use-cases

Engage customers by showing products in action with pets

Personalized product listing and description to engage and convert

 
Portfolio
payment model