CityPups is a website that helps match city dwellers and dogs find their forever homes.
Challenge
How might we make it easier for people in cities to find dogs to adopt that match their lifestyle and living conditions?
The Objective
CityPups should enable city dwellers to search and meet dogs to adopt from shelters in their area. My job as a UX designer is to design a website in 4 days that exceeds the start-ups expectations.
Case Study
Competitor Analysis
I started doing research on other dog adoption sites like Petfinder, or Adopt a Pet. I also analyzed other websites that require users to filter search results through a number of different categories like Air BnB and Zillow to see how I can use filters in my design.
Crazy 8’s Sketching
Because of the 4 day time restraint, I sketched wireframes using the crazy 8s design method. This allowed me to asses different options and solutions without spending too much time developing wireframes. My main focus was to figure out the best way for users to apply filters and display the search results.
Final Sketches
From the Crazy 8 exercise, I picked the sketches that would be easiest for users to search and apply filters as well as display the search results and the information that users looked for the most: breed, age, and gender.
Hi-Fi Screens
After conducting user interviews, I noticed that each individual differs when it comes to what criteria they look for. Some users would prefer to "window shop" and others would remove filters if there were no dogs that they liked. I used this information to add features to the platform to cater to the users browsing habits.
Usability Testing & Iterations
I conducted 5 moderated usability tests to see how I can improve the platform. There were issues with readability and accessibility as well as incorporating more ways for users to search and apply filters on later screens.
