Between the Spring-Summer of 2021 I took a Google-led Coursera UX Design Certificate. Throughout the program we were tasked with designing a user-centered responsive website. With that, I sought to design a pet adoption concept flow for a shelter that can help streamline the pet adoption process and make it more modern by giving it a matchmaking app feel based on user profile and preferences.

Pet Adoption Flow for a Shelter - Adopawtables

Certificate Project

4 weeks

Lead UX Designer, UX Researcher

Pet adoption flows normally include filling out extensive PDFs, paper or digital documents that are almost never user friendly, then submitting them via e-mail and hoping for the best. More often than not, pets are no longer available for adoption by the time these forms get processed by the shelter, which is a major pain point for people who would want to adopt.

Making pet adoption a fun and interactive experience by leveraging the very concept widely employed by matchmaking apps, which has proved to be a great way way of engaging people, and also providing real-time feedback on their pet preferences, clearing a major roadblock for adopters-to-be when they learn later on, after filling out forms and more form, that the pet they want is no longer available.

Adopawtables is a pet adoption flow that entices users to use it just like any other matchmaking app, by leveraging the same concepts behind algorithmic recommendations they us. It is fun and is adds on service opportunities, such as pet day care offers, grooming service, which can be an extra source of income for shelters, in addition to general information about caring for an adopted pet.

Users can also search for pets based on a limited set of filters without the need to create a profile ahead of time, where they can see all pets available for adoption. That feature gives them insight into the adoption process before they can commit to adopt a pet and fill out their prferences.

The adoption application process takes place entirely on the site. Users create a profile, start matching, then can submit their application for adoption when they are ready, and can track how their application is progressing, all in one place.

User research was mainly based on secondary research carried out by the City of Toronto, shelters across the US and Canada, and universities, in addition to in person interviews to help understand the challenges people who want to adopt a pet face.

Government-run and private shelters abound both in Canada and Toronto, an their adoption processes vary as well, but one elements that seems to be consistent across the board is that they are heavily dependent on physical paperwork and request a considerable amount of documentation ahead of time from those interested in adopting a pet.

The goal of the ideation exercise was to come up with a flow that was easy to follow and would be completely automated from beginning to end.

After ideating and drafting paper wireframes, I designed the initial digital wireframes for adoption website, focused on delivering a smooth experience.

From the start the design process has been directed by information architecture commonly found across all the sites I included in the competitive audit. However, some novelty elements have been as options for future services offerings, like the Pet Services section.

Unmoderated, with 5 participants in Canada who were thinking about adopting a pet or had just adopted one in the past 6 months and were asked to follow a series of prompts to complete tasks such as searching for a pet and completing the adoption flow.

Very few interactive elements were used and labels can be read by screen readers, and I kept colour contrast within acceptable ranges by using the A11y Color Contrast Checker plugin for Figma to adjust them.

Offer more informational content and tips on the website about caring for your pet and alternatives to adoption, such as fostering. 

Include social media options to allow users to share pet profiles to expand reach, generating buzz and increasing interactions with the shelters.

Working on this project allowed me to empathise with people who want to adopt a pet and more often than not are faced with lots of constraints imposed by traditional websites that are heavily base don paperwork and the costs included in the process.