Account Settings

Overview

Know Your Pet DNA is a dog DNA testing platform by Ancestry, a leader in consumer genetic testing.

Our Account Settings redesign was inspired by our team's intention to develop a role-based permissions system. During discovery, it became clear that the settings page itself needed fundamental restructuring before the new permissions feature could be effectively integrated. A fragmented, confusing settings experience would undermine the roles & permissions project as well as other upcoming features.

Our Member Services team provided a comprehensive analysis of documented pain points from customer outreach over the years, validating a few common themes:

A "Two Systems" Problem: A button labeled "View More/Edit your settings at Ancestry" sent users away from the page to edit core account fields (name, email, username). These appeared as non-editable text on the pet DNA site, and users didn't understand why these were separate settings. This was a common reason for support calls.

Unclear Messaging Controls: Ambiguous toggles labeled "All Messages" and "Messages" lacked context. Users couldn't tell if these controlled email notifications, on-site community messages, or something else. An SMS marketing opt-in feature was also in the works, which further highlighted the need to provide greater clarity in this area.

My Role

As Content Designer, I led this UX design solo when our UX Designer transitioned to a new role. I conducted competitive research, collaborated with Member Services, designed the interface in Figma, worked with our developer team, and established design system documentation.

Timeline: September 19th - October 1st, 2025

Constraints & Context

We inherited a product without complete design documentation or a fully-established design system. The Account Settings page existed in production but was never designed in Figma or properly documented. This meant simultaneously addressing significant design debt, designing new functionality, and building documentation.

Know Your Pet DNA exists under Ancestry but maintains some operational independence. The core Ancestry account fields are managed through Ancestry's separate systems.

And our user base is its own challenge: a Venn diagram between Ancestry customers and independent pet DNA users (often younger, overwhelmingly mobile, with lower adoption of the Ancestry side). A single interface serves both groups with different mental models and expectations.

Existing Know Your Pet DNA Account Settings page:

Exploration & Discovery

Given budget and capacity constraints, we couldn't conduct traditional user research. Instead, we built our strategy on two sources: competitive analysis and Member Services insights.

In this process, we reviewed competitive products like Embark and Wisdom Panel to identify settings design best practices. We also worked closely with our Member Services team to analyze real user needs from documented support patterns spanning two years.

To maintain consistency for the subset of users who navigate both Ancestry.com and Know Your Pet DNA, we took cues from Ancestry's settings structure. This helped us identify what patterns users might already be familiar with, while recognizing Know Your Pet DNA's inherent differences.

Ancestry.com Account Settings page:

The Result

One Unified Interface

Ancestry settings are no longer hidden behind an isolated button. All relevant account information appears on a single, organized page with inherited Ancestry settings grouped contextually.

Pet Management as the Center

Pet management moved from a buried section to the main focus. Each pet displays with consistent action buttons (Update, Edit, Download data, Delete) making core functions immediately accessible.

Explicit Message Controls

A dedicated "Messages settings" section replaced ambiguous toggles. Clear separation between "All pets" and "Individual pet settings" with descriptive labels eliminates the confusion that drove support calls.

Contextual Descriptions

Each setting includes a brief explanation of what it controls. Marketing opt-in mentions GDPR implications, SMS updates show the connected phone number—users understand what they're agreeing to before clicking.

Visual & Information Hierarchy

Section headings paired with descriptive subtitles explain user intent. Consistent button patterns (primary, secondary, destructive) provide clear action hierarchy. Settings are grouped by function with pet profiles showing avatars and role badges for quick scanning.

Impact & Outcomes

Member Services confirmed the redesign would substantially reduce support burden by making account functions discoverable and self-explanatory. The project delivered measurable improvements in information architecture, clarity, and discoverability—directly addressing the most common support call triggers documented over two years.

The redesigned interface consolidates what was previously a scattered, multi-step experience into a single, organized page. Ancestry account information that users frequently searched for is now visible at a glance. Message controls that generated confusion are now explicit and well-labeled. Pet management functions that were buried are now prominent and actionable.

Learnings

Settings Design as a Distinct Discipline

This project expanded my understanding of settings design as a distinct UX discipline. Settings pages are aren't exciting feature work, but they represent a critical moment in user experience. A confusing settings page creates cascading support overhead and erodes user confidence. Designing settings requires balancing information architecture, progressive disclosure, contextual help, consistency across related products, and real-world usage patterns that can scale.

Managing Audience Mismatch

Know Your Pet DNA's dual audience revealed the importance of understanding whose mental models we're serving. A single interface can't perfectly serve both, but we can make the distinction explicit: what's inherited from Ancestry versus specific to Know Your Pet DNA, what's managed where and why, and what options are available at each level. Clear labeling and information architecture can bridge the gap better than trying to hide the complexity.

Design Debt as a Strategic Constraint

Inheriting a product without design documentation or a true design system meant every new project was partially an archaeological dig. This taught me the long-term cost of shipping without documentation. Design debt doesn't go away, it accumulates. Future UX work becomes exponentially slower and more error-prone. Prioritizing foundational design documentation, even when it slows initial feature delivery, compounds in value over time.

Collaboration Across Systems

Working within a larger organization where back-end systems are shared but front-end needs diverge required constant negotiation. There's no perfect solution when you don't control all the systems, only thoughtful trade-offs. Making those trade-offs explicit and well-labeled is often the best we can do.

Conclusion

The Account Settings redesign transformed a fragmented, confusing experience into a unified, self-explanatory interface that directly addresses well-documented user pain points. While external circumstances prevented us from measuring real-world impact, the project delivered substantial improvements in information architecture, clarity, and discoverability.

More importantly, it established a clean foundation for implementing new features. The reorganized structure made it straightforward to add SMS marketing opt-in controls, integrate the Roles & Permissions feature, and accommodate other planned functionality without further restructuring. By addressing the underlying design debt and creating proper documentation, the redesign set up the product for sustainable growth.

It demonstrated that settings design is a critical component of product health that requires the same strategic thinking as feature work.

This adds the forward-looking element about how your work enabled future features while keeping the honest acknowledgment about measurement limitations.

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