Citizens for Animal Protection
RWD Design
Citizens for Animal Protection is a non-profit animal shelter located in Houston, TX. My team and I provided them with a RWD prototype that was warmer and simpler to navigate than their existing website. In this project my roles included conducting user research and user interviews, as well as prototype development ranging from low to high fidelity.
Citizens for Animal Protection
The CAP homepage is heavy on text and without much imagery. We conducted a competitive analysis and heuristic evaluation and concluded that CAP's competitors have websites that are generally better organized and more aesthetically pleasing. Additionally, we wondered whether joyful or sad images of animals would be more likely to compel users to adopt or foster an animal, so we conducted a user survey. Users overwhelmingly preferred joyful images.
Research
A teammate and I met with representatives from CAP to learn more about their organization and what aspects of their website they would like prioritized. Our key findings from the stakeholder interview were that the "Clinic" page is their highest priority since it generates revenue, and that CAP wants a website that conveys a sense of family, trustworthiness, and transparency.
Definition
Next we created an affinity diagram and were able to conclude that users felt that the CAP website was not compelling and overwhelming at times. We then created an empathy map and a problem statement: when seeking a clinic for their pet, people are apprehensive of websites that appear disorganized and uninviting. How might we create a website experience that emits a sense of competence and warmth?
Ideation
We then made a prioritization matrix and used the I like, I wish, What if method to help flesh out solutions. Additionally, we created a storyboard to further put ourselves into Jim's shoes and understand exactly what he would need from a redesigned clinic website. Finally, we chose a color palette and created a style guide that would help give the website a feel that was fun, friendly, and warm.
Initial Sketches
Based off our research, our initial sketches incorporated large images with reduced text to tell CAP's story.
Prototyping and Testing
Desktop
Mobile
Prototypes as they evolved from low to mid to high fidelity. Test questions probed users' feelings about the overall usability of the prototypes at each phase and ranged from the wording of the copy to placement of UI elements and ease of navigation.
Final Prototype
The stakeholders at CAP were very pleased with the final product and how it conveyed a more organized and warm feel to the website--although they slightly preferred their original color palette. Their key takeaway was that a polished website will boost CAP's credibility, driving customer trust and investment. Future developments might have included further improvements to the navigation system as well as continuing to reorganize the rest of the website.