Unleashed Love
Dog Adoption and Fostering Website
The goal was to design and develop a user-friendly platform that promotes dog adoption, encourages fostering, and raises awareness about animal welfare.
My Role: UX/UI, Research, Strategy
Industry: Non-Profit / Animal Welfare
Goals and Objectives
Approach
I tackled the project in three phases:
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Discovery:
User Research, Competitor analysis.
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Ideation:
Persona Development, Brainstorming ideas/themes for the website, Strategy Development.
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Design:
Iteration, User Flows, Wireframes, Low fidelity protypes, High Fidelity Screens.
Sneak Peek
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User Research
The research process included three main components:
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Background Questions:
I asked participants about their experiences with adoption and fostering to understand their motivations and challenges.
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Exploring User Needs and Expectations:
Participants shared their desired features and functionalities for an ideal adoption/foster website.
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Prioritization of Features:
Participants were asked to rank the most important features they would expect from the platform, helping us identify key areas to focus on during development.
I conducted surveys(8 participants) and interview(4 participants) with potential adopters and past donors. Here are the main takeaways:
Key Insights:
Detailed pet profiles, including images and descriptions, are a must for users to make informed decisions, so these should be prominently featured on the site.
Many users learned about adoption or fostering through friends and family, so incorporating shareable features and social media tools can help spread awareness.
Many users are driven by the desire to save an animal’s life
A significant number of users are interested in donating, so the website should clearly highlight donation opportunities and make them easy to access.
Easy and intuitive navigation is crucial to keep users engaged and ensure a smooth experience.
Competitor Analysis
The analysis was conducted on five notable competitors in the dog adoption and fostering space:​
Comparison Metrics:
I evaluated five well-known foster and rescue platforms: Adopt a Pet, Pet Finder, Rover, ASPCA, and Petco, focusing on five key areas: Homepage, Navigation, Content, Donation, and Adoption/Foster Process
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Homepage:
Effective homepages engage users by showcasing available pets and creating a personalized experience through visuals and messaging.
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Navigation Bar:
Clear and well-organized navigation is crucial, ensuring key sections like adoption, donation, and foster programs are easy to find.
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Content:
High-quality, purposeful images paired with concise text are essential. Each piece of content should serve a clear purpose and enhance the user's understanding of the services offered.
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Adopt and Foster Process:
Emphasizing the emotional journey of matching pets with the right families and fostering relationships is critical for creating a positive user experience.
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Donation Process:
Transparency around donation use, as well as providing donors with easy access to giving history, can increase trust and encourage long-term support.
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This analysis underlines the importance of a user-friendly interface, clear communication, and building trust through transparency and relationship-focused content.
User Personas
Name: George
Goals
Wants to help dogs in need while assessing for a potential adoption.
Challenges
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Concerns about the application process and support from the shelter during fostering.
Needs
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A dedicated section for fostering, including an application form and guidelines.
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Community aspects such as forums or social media links for sharing experiences and tips.
Name: Alex
Goals
Seeks to adopt another dog to provide companionship to their current pet(s).
Challenges
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Needs reassurance about the behavior and health of adoptable dogs; often concerned about the integration of a new dog into an existing household.
Needs
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Detailed dog profiles.
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Information on how to introduce new pets to existing ones.
Name: Emily
Goals
Interested in adopting a dog for companionship; desire to have a loyal, loving pet.
Challenges
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Lacks knowledge about dog ownership, concerned about long-term commitment and costs.
Needs
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Clear educational content on dog care.
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An easy adoption application process.
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Profiles that highlight temperament and compatibility with various lifestyles.
Design Principles
After the research phase, I was able to identify insights that would guide my design principles.
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Make it simple for potential fosters and adopters to find and understand the information they need about the pets and adoption process.
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Create a space for current fosters, adopters, and donors to connect, share experiences, and support each other.
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Focus on matching dogs with the right families to build strong partnerships and increase successful adoptions.
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Establish credibility and transparency to encourage more donations and build lasting relationships with supporters.
Ideation
During the ideation phase of the pet adoption website, I focused on creating an intuitive and engaging platform that would connect foster families, adopters, and donors.
To begin, I created freehand sketches to explore a variety of layout and interaction ideas, considering the unique needs of each user group. These sketches helped me visualize potential user flows and refine the overall structure of the site. Afterwards, I transitioned to designing user flows, ensuring a seamless journey for users as they navigated through the platform to find, adopt, or support pets.
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Finally, I developed a mid-fidelity wireframes that offers a solid foundation for the next phase of testing and refinement.
Evaluation and Iteration
In the evaluation phase, I focused on assessing the effectiveness of the single-page design for both the Adoption and Fostering sections. Our main goal was to determine if the layout and content organization were clear and intuitive enough for users to easily navigate the website and find the information they needed without becoming overwhelmed.
Usability Testing:
The purpose of usability testing was to identify potential issues in navigation, content clarity, and ease of task completion. I conducted tests with 5 participants who were asked to find specific information within the Adoption and Fostering sections, such as details about the adoption process, available pets, resources, and the adoption form.
Key findings from usability testing included:
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Navigation Challenges:
The single-page layout made it difficult for users to quickly locate specific information. Many participants struggled to find the adoption process or available pets because they had to scroll through large blocks of text.
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Lack of Clear Segmentation:
Without distinct subpages or dropdown menus, the information on the page felt overwhelming. Users had trouble distinguishing between the different categories (e.g., adoption process vs. available pets) since everything was on the same page.
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Forms Accessibility:
The adoption form was located near the bottom of the page, making it harder for users to find quickly. Users suggested that the form should be more prominent or easily accessible.
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Confusing Resource Locations:
The various adoption resources were mixed in with other information, making it hard for users to identify them at a glance. Users expressed a desire for clearer headings and better content organization.​
Iteration Changes:
Based on feedback from usability testing I made several iterative changes to improve the user experience within the limitations of a single-page design:
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Dropdown Menus:
Introduced dropdown menus under both the Adoption and Fostering sections to provide quick access to subcategories like "Adoption Process," "Available Pets," "Resources," and "Forms." This change reduced unnecessary clicks and improved the overall navigation flow.
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Content Reorganization:
Reorganized the content within the Adoption and Fostering pages into distinct, visually separated sections, ensuring that key information like the adoption process and available pets was easy to find and navigate.
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Forms Visibility:
Made the adoption form more prominent in the header or sidebar for easier access, ensuring it was not buried within the content.
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Search & Filters:
Incorporated filtering options for the available pets section, allowing users to narrow down results by factors like breed, size, or age.​
Hi-fidelity Prototype
Since the adoption and foster processes are similar, the improvements made for adoption are also applicable to fostering, aiming to streamline the experience and encourage more adoptions and fosters.
Hi-fi screen flow:
Next steps
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Add Fostering and donation flow.
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Conduct follow up user research to evaluate the effectiveness of re-designed prototype considering user engagement, user satisfaction and responsiveness.
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Assess the website's performance on different devices, ensuring seamless experience for users.