Midwest Animal Rescue & Services
Non-profit Website Redesign
MY ROLE: UX Research & UI Design
TIMELINE: 3 Weeks
The Problem
Midwest Animal Rescue & Services was designed to find loving homes for surrendered animals, but it was observed that MARS isn’t utilizing their website to the fullest potential. Potential pet owners struggle to navigate the site without a clear way to search and filter animals. Also they have trouble finding comprehensive background information about the available pets which is causing these users to find pets through other organizations.
Objectives
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Improve search & filter features to make it easier for users to find specific pets.
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Create a better user experience while applying to foster or adopt an animal
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Design a fun, inviting user interface to help spark the joy that animal bring.
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Give users clear call to actions for how to donate and what the donations help with.
RESEARCH
Google Survey
Finding out about experiences from people who have adopted and/or fostered animals was key to helping with the MARS website redesign. 23 survey responses were gathered.
User Interviews
In addition to the Google Survey, five user interviews were conducted to find out more about the experiences, information they seek and how they make their decisions when it comes to adopting or fostering an animal.
User Persona
Meet Nash Dryer, who is originally from Pennsylvania but just relocated to Minneapolis for a new job and is seeking companionship to help him explore his new city. He hasn't adopted or fostered an animal previously, so he's looking for an animal rescue that will help educate him on the fostering process and to ultimately help him with meeting his need of companionship.
DEFINITION
User Insights
Through the interviews and survey results, it was discovered that users have specific expectations when visiting any type of animal shelter resource for adopting or fostering a new pet.
First, users expect to have access to readily available information about all available pets. Whether it be in the form of an image catalog or individual pages, users want the opportunity to browse available animals and even utilize filters to find the specific animal they are searching for.
Next, users want the information provided to be accurate and transparent. Potential pet owners would like to be aware of what conditions their potential pet are being kept in. These users also want to know as much detail about their potential new pet before making adoption or fostering decisions.
Problem Statement
Midwest Animal Rescue & Services was designed to find loving homes for surrendered animals. We have observed that MARS isn’t utilizing their website to the fullest potential, or providing potential pet owners with comprehensive information about the pets’ backgrounds, which is causing these users to use a different foster or shelter system to find a new pet.
How might we improve the Midwest Animal Rescue & Services website discoverability and information availability for potential pet owners, so they can learn more about available pets, understand pet backgrounds, and ultimately find a pet that fits their lifestyles more efficiently?
IDEATION
User Journey
Every person who has adopted or fostered an animal has their own story. Described below are potential steps Nash would encounter on his journey as he explores is options for fostering.
Competitor Analysis
After comparing other animal rescue and pet adoption websites it was determined the MARS redesign would focus on three key areas: finding available animals to adopt or foster, streamlining the adoption application and making the option of donations more clear.
User Flow
Knowing that users are information driven when utilizing an animal adoption website, the user flow was focused into paths of fostering, adopting, donating and general info about Midwest Animal Rescue.
PROTOTYPING
Wireframes
Utilizing the information from the competitor analysis and knowing what features are must haves for users initial wireframes were drawn up. With having a few different iterations, a dot vote was conducted to help define the look further.
Style Guide
Since the existing MARS website lacked character and personality, bright cheerful colors were chosen and matched with san serif fonts, Roboto and Raleway, as they have nice balance and provide for a more casual tone. These choices reflect the fun and exciting experience of adding a new pet to a users family.
#1C6EF2
#FBBC05
#298541
#FF6600
#FFFFFF
Roboto
Raleway
Mid-Fidelity to Hi-Fidelity Prototypes | View Desktop Prototype
Playing off of the bright color palate, it was necessary to source some fun images to start to bring the MARS site to life. There is just so much joy!
USABILITY TESTING
After completing the mid-fidelity prototype, usability testing was conducted with a 47.5% success rate on user tasks. A few issues were discovered that we needed to address immediately.
The first was color accessibility across the site as a whole. Having a solid color background on the site proved to be distracting and made it hard for users to focus on the task at hand.
Next, feedback was given that the secondary navigation on the homepage was a bit confusing and made it harder for users to choose between the two navigations.
Finally, users said the application process still felt a bit overwhelming even after iterating on the original design of the application on the clients website.
After addressing these changes users had a 100% success rate on all tasks.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Get Insight from client...
The intent of this project was to work with a local non-profit to be able to get insight and feedback. The organization was contacted a couple of times to connect but due to the timing of this project and schedules, client insight was unfortunately not attainable.
Utilizing color to enhance user experience...
Early on it was decided that changing the colors of the website would provide users with a more joyful experience, just as adopting or fostering a forever pet should be. The colors chosen for this redesign did a good job at conveying energy and excitement to enhance the experience.
Giving users more control...
Findings from user interviews and usability testing show users value the opportunity to be able to filter and sort results when searching. Whether it be consumer products or available pets for adoption, users want the ability to filter criteria to find more specific results to best match their preferences.
If given more time...
If given more time the mobile website would get continuing iterations as all the text used on the desktop site was crafted specifically for the desktop, but when it came to mobile copy length was too much.
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