Feline Rescue Website Redesign Project
Overview
Problem: Feline Rescue is a cat focused animal shelter saving the lives of abandoned or stray cats in the Twin Cities area. They rely on their foster program to
An example of the current foster portal page. One of the problems with this page is that there is no way to login via the home page.
Project Initiation
Audience: Feline Rescue volunteers and fosters.
Solution: This new foster portal allows for easy access and improved communication flows for articles and Feline Rescue's internal veterinary teams.
Starting this project, I first reached out to Feline Rescue to volunteer on their website's development and setup an interview. Due to limited volunteer staffing, a consistent design and framework for the website has not been fully developed, resulting in various problems on the website such as not being able to login to the foster portal directly from the homepage.
Further qualitative research with Feline Rescue fosters and volunteers also confirmed this. Sentiments are that the website is difficult to use and that the most important links are easily findable on it. From this research, I was able to create these user stories.
Feline Rescue Needs:
Increase foster numbers and retention
Improved foster portal experience
Easy access to commonly used resources
Foster Needs:
Easy access to commonly used resources
Clear navigation to find resources
From this research, two personas were developed.
Low Fidelity Solution
Notable changes were implemented in the low-fidelity solution prototype for the foster portal. Key points being a login button from the home page and implementing cat photography throughout the website, which is a priority for Feline Rescue. Articles are now searchable and the most important links such as requesting supplies are at the top of the navigation bar.
Initial low fidelity solution that was user tested.
Usability Testing
Open Card Sort
Since one of the main goals of this project is to improve the homepage's information architecture, I conducted an open card sort to test how website visitors and Feline Rescue volunteers would categorize the website.
Two main divisions arose. One with minimal categories and one with expanded categories.
User Interviews
Overall, qualitative user research was positive on the foster portal design. Fosters were able to find resources easily and complete important tasks such as requesting supplies. Further iteration is needed on the cat check-in flow.
High Fidelity Wireframes
Final Thoughts
Working on Feline Rescue's foster portal and website designhas allowed me to make a positive difference as a designer in a nonprofit setting. Working with a nonprofit with limited resources has stretched my skills as a designer. Being a team of one, I've conducted researcher, UX and UI design to better serve Feline Rescue's needs and meet their adoption goals.
I'm looking forward to what using what I've learned volunteering in my next case study!