The
Challenge.
A 5-day design sprint where in a team of two designers we needed to redesign and help a social impact organization express its value and inspire people to take action in order to drive positive change.
The
Outcome.
Redesign of the main website for Hope Rescue. A charity based in South Wales that rescues and rehomes dogs in need.
Year
2023
Duration
1 Week
My Role
UX/UI & Rebranding
Tools
Figma; Adobe Ilustrator & Photoshop
The Design
Sprint Process.
I followed the double diamond process as a foundation for this process and implemented some other UX methods like User stories and task flows.
Map.
Secondary research
Competitive analysis
User interviews
Affinity Mapping
Synthesis
Assumptions
Sketch & Decide.
Inspiration moodboarding
Crazy 8s
Solution sketch
Art Museum
Heat Map
Storyboard
Build.
Wireframes
Low-Fi Prototype
Visual design
Interactive Hi-fidelity prototype
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Test.
User Testing with 5 people
Prototype refinement
Project
Overview.
This project was a redesign of the current Hope Rescue Dog Adoption Charity in South Wales.
Problem Statement.
People adopt dogs based on appearance and breed rather than personality tendencies or past traumas.
This results in a mismatch between the dog's needs and the owner's ability to provide proper care leading to people giving up their dogs later.
Sprint goal.
Redesign the current Hope Rescue website adoption task flow to help better match their dogs with future owners.
What?
A new dog adoption process involves an interactive quiz to match adopters with the perfect dog based on their needs and preferences.
Who?
For people who are looking to adopt dogs in need of a new home, as well as those who are interested in supporting the rescue and rehoming of dogs through volunteering or donating.
Why?
Hope Rescue receives numerous adoption requests, but each dog requires individualized care and attention, making the process rigorous and time-consuming.
Feature
Higlights.
Meet the new
Hope Rescue.
The homepage of Hope Rescue aims to guide visitors through their services and ways to help or donate. The main call to action is a quiz to find the ideal dog match for potential adopters.
Find your
new buddy!
When people visit Hope Rescue's website, they usually want to adopt a dog but may not know how to begin. By taking the "Best Buddy" quiz, users can learn about important factors to consider when adopting and identify a suitable dog right away.
Connect with your new buddy.
Once a match is found, users are able to view their best match along with background information on the dog's personality, history of trauma, and needs.
If the user wishes to continue searching for other dogs, they can scroll through close matches listed by percentages in order to make a more informed decision.
Understanding the client.
Client: Hope rescue
Hope Rescue is a registered charity based in South Wales that rescues and rehomes dogs in need. They operate a rescue center and a network of foster homes, providing veterinary care, rehabilitation, and training. The organization is funded by donations and relies on volunteers and supporters to continue their work.
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Hope Rescue also provides support and advice to dog owners in the community, promoting responsible dog ownership and the benefits of adoption. The organization is funded entirely by donations and relies on volunteers and supporters to continue their important work.
To gain a better understanding of the charity's operations, the team analyzed its website. This is because potential users who are interested in adopting a dog or volunteering with the charity often visit the website to learn about the process.
Homepage
As one enters the Hope rescue website is presented with blog articles in the hero section and once the user scrolls down one can see the type of work and services the charity does. However, due to confusing copy and unorganized information architecture is hard for the user to differentiate. Overall, the team selected 3 different usability problems:
- No highlighted call to action in the hero section ( highlights article blogs instead of rehoming/ adopting a dog);
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- Unorganized information between services, volunteering work, and donations;
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- Confusing Nav bar (need for a more direct and better flow to find the right dog);
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Dog adoption process.
Once the users click on dogs to adopt a dog the user has 3 options: how to adopt, Dogs for adoption, and rehoming a dog. Only dogs for adoption will provide information on the current sheltered dogs inventory. In order to look for a dog the user has only two filters by breed and gender. Then the user has to click on each dog to read more information about its background.
- A more efficient process to find the perfect dog by filtering out mismatches and only displaying suitable dogs.
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- Overall UI inconsistencies like different typefaces, different color palettes, and grids.
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The analysis explored the task flow of rehoming and adopting dogs. A quick heuristic evaluation was conducted to identify usability issues and potential improvements.
Understanding the User.
Every year, 6.5 million dogs, cats, and other former pets are abandoned or lost and enter shelters.
Tailwise a dog charity estimates that up to 40,000 stray or abandoned dogs are in need of help as a result of the pandemic. Among the reasons for dog abandonment are the lack of knowledge of specific dog breed and their behaviors; and not having enough space, money, or time.
To obtain a more in-depth understanding of the problem space, we interviewed 5 people: 2 people who have adopted dogs and 3 people who wanted to adopt dogs a more in-depth knowledge of the problem space.
The main goal was to understand the specific experiences and challenges when adopting a dog and what type of information one wishes to know.
Affinity mapping.
In order to organize the insights gathered from the interview process we organized them into pain points, behaviors, and motivations and pain points further clustered them into themes: Dog adoption process, donation process, and information accessibility.
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Research
Takeaways.
People adopt dogs based on their current lifestyle, and personal preferences (like personality, popularity, breed, etc.) but one of the biggest problems is that people choose based on their perception of what it is to have a dog without knowing the responsibility and the way the current website is designed it enhances this bigger problem.
Adoption by appearance & breed
People adopt based on their appearance and breed. Also, dog adoption charities incentivize adoption by breed through their current approach
Lack of knowledge about dog's history
Some charities do not provide full disclosure about past traumas and personality tendencies, leading to a lack of knowledge when adopting.
Donation transparency
It can be challenging to comprehend how donations directly benefit charitable organizations.
Persona.
After completing our quick research and interviews, we created a persona to empathize with and showcase the potential target user groups' pain points, goals, and behaviors.
Pain Points
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Does not know if the dog's personality and his lifestyle and preferences are a good match since he does not know too much about dogs.
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When looking for information about specific dogs, he often feels that there is insufficient about the dog's personality and background information available on the websites.
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He worries that the adoption process may lack accurate information regarding the dog's previous trauma, as he is hesitant to go through the process of rehoming another dog.
Bio.
When Alex was younger, he bought a dog named Elvis simply because of his breed and popularity. However, he didn't consider how much work it would be to take care of him and how he wouldn't fit into his lifestyle. Eventually, Alex had to give Elvis up. Now that he's older, he's on the lookout for a new dog to adopt. This time around, he wants to ensure he makes the right decision and won't end up having to give the dog up again.
Goals & Motivations
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Would to adopt a dog that can adapt to his current lifestyle.
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Wants to find a dog that does not have too much trauma since he is afraid that he won't be able to correctly care for him.
Behaviors
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Alex starts looking into dog adoption charities to make sure he makes an informed decision but this time about the dog's personality and past trauma.

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Ask friends about the process and the easiest and most trustworthy way to adopt a dog.
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Compares which charities and platforms have the most informed, transparent, and easy process of adoption.
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Visits local dog shelters for more information to connect with the dogs and to start the process.
How might we
provide the best possible match between a potential dog owner and their future dog in order to prevent dog abandonment?
Sketch
& Decide.
After understanding the pain points and needs of the user it was clear that the website needs to be more clear and focused on the dog adoption process.
The adoption process only begins once the user sends an email. So, the website is only to show the users what dog they would like to adopt.
The solution.
The team focused on providing a guiding information experience through a quiz in order to reduce unnecessary information being through at the user and help them from the moment they visit the website to already have a well-made decision.
Team's Assumption
The matching process will filter and reduce the pool of potential uncommitted dog owners which will help more time to the charity’s donation management.
The solution.
Homepage Redesign.
the current Hope Rescue homepage has a confusing copy and unorganized information architecture. Most users who visit Hope Rescue want to rehome a dog or donate to the charity. This is reflected in the new nav bar that focuses on those two tasks and a call to action to take a quiz to see the best dog match for them.
Matching quiz instead od dog breed filtering.
At present, Hope Rescue's dog search process only allows filtering by breed and gender. This approach does not prioritize what the user wants or needs to know. Some first-time adopters may not be aware of the necessary guidelines and information. To address this, users can take a questionnaire to gain insight into what they should consider and prepare for when adopting a dog such as the user's lifestyle, dog personality, and past trauma.
Dog background information
After the user takes the quiz he will receive the best match according to his answers. Additionally, there will be more information about the dog's background, traumas, and personality.
Filtering for close matches.
The quiz is optimized to find the best match based on lifestyle, dog personality, and experiences. As the user scrolls, they can see more potential matches and their corresponding percentages based on their answers. This allows for greater flexibility and options in choosing the right dog.
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