Roles & Permissions

Know Your Pet DNA by Ancestry

Overview

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

We needed a way for users to share pet DNA results and profiles with others, like they could through Ancestry DNA. Member Services documented consistent pain points: users couldn't easily share results without giving full account control, and there was no way for veterinarians or professional caretakers to access the DNA insights they needed. Competitors like Embark already offered shareable pet profiles, and we were losing ground.

Enabling shared access would open new use cases: vets reviewing health screening results before appointments, groomers understanding behavioral traits, and pet sitters accessing relevant behavioral information. This wasn't just a convenience feature—it was a growth play that positioned Know Your Pet DNA as a tool for professional pet care.

My Role

As Content Designer leading UX design, I developed the information architecture for roles and permissions, designed the interface in Figma, created the permissions matrix, and collaborated with developers to adapt Ancestry's existing sharing infrastructure for Know Your Pet DNA use cases.

Timeline: October 1st - 15th, 2025

The Challenge

Leveraging Ancestry's Infrastructure

Ancestry already had two distinct sharing models: DNA results sharing (with permission levels) and family tree sharing (with user access controls). We needed to create a hybrid that worked for pet DNA, combining profile sharing with granular permissions while maintaining familiarity for Ancestry users and leveraging existing back-end systems.

Complex Information Architecture

The feature had to support multiple layers of organization. At the account level, we tracked who owns the Ancestry account (the human). At the pet level, we managed who has access to each individual pet's data. At the permission level, we defined what each role can view, edit, or manage.

We also needed to handle invitation states (pending versus accepted, incoming versus outgoing) and perspective shifts between "Your pets" and "Pets shared with you." Each layer added complexity to the information architecture.

Technical Constraint: Owner Lock-in

The original test purchaser would remain the Owner permanently. Unfortunately, we couldn't transfer ownership due to back-end limitations. This meant the gifting problem couldn't be fully solved by ownership transfer. Instead, I had to design a permissions system flexible enough that non-owners could effectively manage pets without technically owning them.

Audience Complexity

We had to serve wildly different use cases in a single interface. Families needed to share pets among household members. Professional users like vets, groomers, and sitters needed specific data access without unnecessary features. Pet owners needed to maintain ultimate control while enabling meaningful collaboration. Each group had different expectations and workflows that the permissions system had to accommodate.

Research & Discovery

Without budget for formal user research, I grounded the work in three sources:

Member Services Insights: Two years of documented support patterns showed users struggling to share gifted kits, families frustrated by single-user limitations, and requests for vet access to health data. The gift kit journey was broken because results stayed tied to the purchaser's account with no way to grant meaningful access to other users.

Competitive Analysis: I reviewed Embark and Wisdom Panel's sharing features. Both offered shareable profiles, but their permission structures were simplistic—mostly binary "can view" or "can't view" models. We set out to build something more sophisticated.

Ancestry Pattern Review: I studied both of Ancestry's sharing models to understand what patterns users already knew and where we could reuse back-end infrastructure. The DNA results sharing had tiered permissions; the family tree sharing had role-based access. I decided to combine both: role-based access with permission tiers.

A sampling of Ancestry's sharing experience, demonstrating separate experiences for "DNA test sharing" and "Tree settings".

System Design

Defining Roles & Permissions

I started by mapping every action users might take with pet data, then grouped them into logical permission categories:

View-Only Permissions:

View Breeds & Matches Report, DNA Matches, Traits Report, and Health Report.

Data Management:

Download DNA data.

Collaboration Permissions:

Manage Tests, exchange messages with matches, and share results via share buttons.

Profile Management:

Edit pet's details and receive updates about DNA results.

Owner-Only Permissions:

Grant and edit access to the test, permanently delete DNA test results, and manage pet's memorial status.

From this, I created four distinct roles:

Owner: Full control. The person who registered the test. Can't be changed or transferred.
Friends & Family: For household members and close family. Can view all reports, download data, edit pet details, manage tests, and receive updates. Can't grant access to others or permanently delete results.
Veterinarian: For professional pet care. Can view all reports and download DNA data for medical review. Can't edit pet details, manage tests, or access social features like messaging with DNA matches.
Caretaker: For groomers, sitters, or short-term care. Can view Breeds, DNA Matches, and Traits—helpful for understanding behavior and needs—but can't access Health Reports or download data. Limited to read-only access.

This structure balanced control (Owner retains ultimate authority) with flexibility (non-owners can meaningfully manage pets they care for).

Information Architecture

Two Primary Views:

"Your pets" shows pets you own. Here you can invite others, see who has access, manage their roles, and revoke access. The Owner always appears at the top with a "(You)" label making it clear you can't change your own role in a similar way to the core Ancestry site. "Pets shared with you" shows pets others have invited you to manage. Here you see your assigned role and can leave access if needed. Only the Owner can't invite others or change roles.

Within Each Pet:

The Accepted tab shows current access. For your pets, this lists people with active roles. For shared pets, this shows pets you've accepted invitations for. The Pending tab shows unresolved invitations. For your pets, these are outgoing invites awaiting acceptance. For shared pets, these are incoming invites you haven't responded to yet.

Visual Hierarchy:

I used consistent patterns to make the states scannable: pet avatars and names for quick recognition, role badges clearly labeled, dropdown selectors to change roles (Owner perspective only), "Remove" buttons to revoke access, and empty states with helpful guidance when no invitations exist.

Key Design Decisions

The Permissions Info Modal

Users needed to understand what each role could do before assigning it. I designed an info modal accessible via an (i) icon that shows the full permissions matrix—every action across all four roles. This lives on the main Roles & Permissions page and can be referenced anytime.

The modal shows two formats: a table view (rows are permissions, columns are roles) and a vertical checklist view (each permission lists all roles with access). Users can pick whichever format makes more sense to them.

Pet-Level Management

Rather than managing all permissions from one centralized page, I organized access management at the pet level. From Account Settings, users navigate to "Manage pets," then select "Edit" under "Roles & permissions" for a specific pet. This opens a dedicated view for that pet's access management.

Why per-pet? Because users don't think in bulk terms ("I want to manage all permissions across all pets"). They think in specific scenarios ("I need to give my vet access to Winston's health results"). Pet-level management matches that mental model.

Invitation Flow Clarity

I separated invitation states into distinct tabs (Accepted/Pending) rather than mixing them in one list. This makes it immediately clear what needs action (pending) vs. what's already set up (accepted), and follows the familiar model in Ancestry settings.

For pending invitations, I added contextual helper text explaining what happens next: "View, collaborate, and/or manage DNA test, reports, and more for pets you've been invited to access." Users know what they're agreeing to before accepting.

Changing Roles

Owners can change someone's role via a dropdown directly in the Accepted list. When clicked, the dropdown shows all available roles. After selecting a new role, a "Save" button appears—making it clear the change isn't automatic and requires confirmation.

Integration with Account Settings

The Manage Pets section in Account Settings became the central hub. Each pet shows pet name and avatar, current role (for shared pets) or "Owner" (for your pets), and action buttons: Update profile, Edit (roles & permissions), Download data, Delete

The "Edit roles & permissions" button is prominent and clearly labeled. This connects the feature to the broader Account Settings experience we'd already redesigned—giving users one place to manage their account, their pets, and access permissions.

Additionally, we considered other areas that would need to accommodate a longer list of managed pets from the Dashboard, like the pet profile switcher:

The Result

A Hybrid Sharing Model

The final design combined Ancestry's DNA results sharing (permission tiers) with their family tree sharing (role-based access) into a pet-specific model. Users could share pet profiles and DNA results with granular control over what each person could access.

Clear Visual Hierarchy

The interface organizes around two primary views: "Your pets" and "Pets shared with you". Accepted and Pending tabs distinguishing current access from invitations awaiting action. Pet-level management matches user mental models by letting them focus on one pet at a time. The permissions info modal provides transparency about what each role can do, and consistent button patterns and empty states guide users through the feature without confusion.

Professional Use Case Support

Veterinarians could access health screening data without getting buried in social features. Caretakers could view behavioral traits without accessing sensitive health information. Families could fully collaborate on pet care. Each role was tailored to real-world needs.

Gift Kit Solution

While we couldn't transfer ownership, Friends & Family role gave gift recipients nearly full management capability—they could edit details, download data, manage tests, and receive updates. The only things they couldn't do were grant access to others or permanently delete results. For most users, this solved the problem.

Impact & Outcomes

The new feature positioned Know Your Pet DNA competitively against Embark and Wisdom Panel while opening pathways to veterinary partnerships and professional caretaker adoption.

Learnings

Permissions Are Deceptively Complex

At first glance, roles and permissions seem straightforward: just decide who can do what. In practice, they're layered with edge cases, perspective shifts, and state management. Designing for "your pets" vs. "pets shared with you" meant building essentially two interfaces that had to stay conceptually aligned while serving different user needs.

Constraints Force Creative Solutions

The Owner lock-in initially felt like a deal-breaker. But by designing a robust Friends & Family role with nearly full permissions, we solved 90% of use cases without needing ownership transfer. Sometimes you can't remove a constraint—you just design around it.

Professional Use Cases Need Different Thinking

Veterinarians and caretakers don't think like pet owners. Vets need health data and nothing else—social features are noise. Caretakers need behavioral insights but shouldn't access medical records. Designing for professional users meant understanding their specific workflows and respecting their limited context and time.

Information Architecture Scales (or Doesn't)

Early wireframes tried to manage everything on one page. It was incomprehensible. Moving to pet-level management made the feature scannable and usable. When designing complex features, how you organize information matters as much as what you show.

Transparency Builds Trust

The permissions info modal was extra work, but it made the entire feature trustworthy. Users could see exactly what they were granting or receiving before committing. In features where control and privacy matter, transparency isn't optional—it's the foundation.

Conclusion

The Roles & Permissions feature transformed Know Your Pet DNA from a single-user product into a collaborative platform. While we couldn't validate the design in production, it demonstrated that thoughtful information architecture, role-based access models, and user-centered permissions can solve complex sharing problems.

It also proved that adapting existing infrastructure for new use cases requires more than surface-level changes. This project required rethinking the use cases and real-world scenarios around who owns data, who needs access, and why for the specific product and our users.

See more of this design process in the case study for pet DNA Account Settings.