Modernizing a cat shelter's online experience.
Modernizing a cat shelter's online experience.
Embedded Files
Key achievements
Key achievements
Conducted research to identify 10 personas, 29 user stories, and responsive limitations.
Defined user needs and aligned them with product goals.
Designed a scalable interface tailored to the chosen front-end framework.
Delivered a streamlined design to enhance adoptions, discoverability, and engagement.
Improving cat adoptions with research driven design.
Improving cat adoptions with research driven design.
Problem
Problem
The cat shelter’s outdated website lacked mobile compatibility and was difficult to update and manage. This created accessibility barriers for users seeking to adopt or engage with the shelter. Confusion was consistent, from browsing to adoption.
Solution
Solution
The website was redesigned with a user-first approach by conducting user research, verifying product requirements, and addressing user pain points. Research participant feedback was incorporated into a scalable, easily updatable front-end framework.
Identifying key pain points through research and feedback.
Identifying key pain points through research and feedback.
The outdated adoption process contains navigation difficulties, poor mobile compatibility, and inefficient user flows. Documenting the legacy patterns provided clarity on the existing challenges.
When we onboarded a new developer, I created an onboarding project document. This was useful for organizing project details, user research findings, user stories, and requirements. Our developer was able to quickly access and learn from essential information.
Discovering unexpected personas.
Discovering unexpected personas.
I created a list of user stories for approval by the product owner to ensure alignment on requirements.
From our user insights, I created detailed personas to guide product requirements and design. Conversations with stakeholders uncovered "hidden" personas—the Carmah volunteers who update and maintain the website. With a robust list of personas, user tasks were identified to make sure all primary use cases were met.
These user tasks helped build usability test scripts for tests on participants. Video, recorded screen sharing, and detailed notes were collected from each session. I broke down the notes into cards to begin card sorting to quantify common patterns. I organized findings into key needs and wants for each group.
Personas
Personas
Card sort results
Card sort results
Design efforts are ongoing.
Design efforts are ongoing.
I'm working closely with a developer throughout the design process to ensure compatibility with the front-end framework. Our design patterns need to integrate smoothly without introducing unnecessary complexity or risk. This collaboration allows for a scalable solution that meets the shelter's evolving needs.
The following assets and patterns were created with the cat shelter's brand in mind, as well as responsiveness. This ensures an optimal experience across phone, tablet, and desktop devices. By focusing on scalability and flexibility, the design is ready to adapt to future updates and long-term goals.
Color palette
Color palette
Typography
Typography
Buttons
Buttons
Text input & dropdown
Text input & dropdown
Layout & spacing
Layout & spacing
Connecting cats with their humans.
Connecting cats with their humans.
The final design is focused on a responsive, mobile-first experience, simplifying the search process for potential adopters, updating for volunteers, and improving the overall efficiency of connecting cats with their new families.
Check out my other projects.
Check out my other projects.
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