Flagler Humane Society
The Flagler Humane Society (FHS) is a dedicated animal welfare organization serving the Flagler County community in Florida. FHS provides a sanctuary for abandoned and rescued animals while striving to find them permanent, loving homes. FHS also collaborates with local authorities for animal control to ensure the safety and well-being of both the animals and the residents of Flagler County.
About The Project
As the UX designer, I was involved in updating the animal control part of the Flagler Humane Society's website throughout its extensive redesign. My main goal was to develop an easy-to-use interface that offers services like pet licensing, lost-and-found pet resources, and local wildlife rules in a straightforward and accessible manner.
Duration: 6 months
My role: UX Designer
Research methods: Information architecture, wireframes, prototyping.
Tools: Figma, Google Docs
Statement of Work
The Flagler Humane Society’s website is outdated and needs an overall UX/UI update, along with some new features to improve workflow for both employees and volunteers. Adopting a pet, taking care of its health, and surrendering or ending its life can be an overwhelming and challenging process. As an animal shelter, you want to make this process easier and more accessible to your customers by providing a good user interface and seamless user experience design. Some of the issues with the website include accessibility, which hinders those who use screen readers or assistive technologies from using the website, an extremely poor interface for displaying the adoptable animals, and unorganized, redundant pages that require the user to hunt for the information they need. We will also be adding new features that include a calendar, to better organize events, and filtering options for the adoptable animals in an effort to create an easier user experience.
The Flagler Humane Society also uses an outdated analog whiteboard process for tracking many of the daily animal needs. The system is plagued by human error, low visibility, and lack of accountability. By implementing a new digital tool that is efficient and intuitive for volunteers and employees of all ages, our team aims to solve some of the common challenges, such as missed walks or overdue litter changes, that come from the current process. Our new tools will match volunteers to animals that need to be cared for with little effort. This will reduce the time currently being spent on manually finding a match. In turn, this will increase the amount of productive time each volunteer has while at the shelter. The animals will benefit by receiving the correct amount of attention at more regular intervals.
In addition, the administration staff will have a way of determining if anything has been overlooked, which will provide a level of accountability. By improving the Flagler Humane Society’s website we will create a better, more accessible, experience that allows users to easily adopt an animal or find the information they need. The added features will improve the usability and workflow for both employees and volunteers.
Our Team
Case Study
Case Study: Enhancing the Adoption Interface of Flaggers Humane Society Webpage
With its enormous amount of land and touching past, Flaggers Humane Society has served as a shelter for innumerable animals looking for safety and affection. For homeless animals looking for a second shot at life, Flaggers Humane Society has long been a ray of hope. However, their outdated and poor online adoption interface conflicted with their mission. Because the adoption method is unclear and confusing, potential adopters can find themselves losing interest. We explore our path of revamping this digital platform in this case study. Our goal is to make sure that every online visitor experiences the same love and optimism that the actual sanctuary of Flaggers Humane Society creates. Our suggestion attempts to revive user involvement by rebuilding this adoption interface to incorporate simple screening methods, better serving the animals and potential adoptive families in the process. The creation of a sophisticated, user-friendly interface with easy filtering features is the key to this transition, guaranteeing that prospective adopters can easily connect with their ideal furry friends.
The Flaggers Humane Society was established in 1985 to create a safe refuge for abandoned, neglected, or abused animals. It is located on the outskirts of the city. The goal of Flaggers Humane Society has been to protect and rehome animals in need for more than 20 years. Numerous success stories have resulted from their on-the-ground efforts, and many animals have found their homes. But when our world went digital, it became clear that while their commitment was solid, their online visibility was lacking. As a college student with a passion for digital products and a soft spot for animals, I felt it was important to work with this society. Their dedication to animal welfare and our team's expertise in digital design and user experience came together to form this collaboration.
Every digital platform is fundamentally a bridge that links people to products, narratives, or solutions. But what happens if there are obvious structural problems with that bridge? In addition to making travel more difficult, it can discourage users from ever entering the area. The online adoption site of the Flaggers Humane Society is in a similar predicament. Instead of a dynamic list with filters and sorting options, potential adopters were presented with static lists. Adopters may find themselves scrolling endlessly in search of pets that meet their particular requirements if there are no options for filtering. Finding hypoallergenic dogs might be difficult for a household with allergies. It might be overwhelming for an elderly couple looking for a low-energy companion to see profiles of energetic puppies. The difference was further emphasized when the Flaggers website compared with other modern adoption platforms like Petfinder. The Flaggers Humane Society interface was simplistic and lacked easy navigation. Without any filtering tools, information overload frequently overwhelms consumers. Petfinder, which is renowned for its simple, user-friendly layout, provides simple dropdown menus, intuitive search bars, and categorically labeled pet listings. The Flagger's website linear listing was unorganized and made searching on it difficult and time-consuming. For Petfinder, numerous filtering options are available on the platform, including those for pet type, breed, age, size, special requirements, and even color. Users are given the ability to personalize their searches, which increases efficiency and accuracy. Modern interfaces provide a wide range of choices, including compatibility with children or other animals and age ranges and activity levels. In sharp contrast, the platform of the flaggers appeared to be outdated. This interface was unfit in the digital era, where adaptation is crucial. Due to this inefficiency, user engagement can drop significantly, as well as the number of online adoption inquiries. The collaborative investigation revealed several areas where Flaggers fell short of an industry leader like Petfinder. These spaces, however, also offered opportunities. We are in a better position to design a solution that fills in these gaps for Flaggers by carefully examining Petfinder's advantages and user-centric features. Although it isn’t our intention to copy Petfinder, learning about its best practices helps us develop the Flaggers platform in a more educated and comprehensive way, ensuring that it meets user demands while yet retaining its own brand identity.
Our group suggested completely redesigning the adoption interface. A dynamic filtering mechanism was one of the main components of this overhaul. We intended to customize the adoption search by letting customers select by age, breed, size, and other pet traits. A quicker way to examine each animal's profile would be a welcome addition to the interface's aesthetic appeal. As a result, people wouldn't have to click on each profile unless they were genuinely interested. Our primary goal was to create an intuitive, responsive, and user-focused platform for the digital interface of the Flaggers Humane Society. The detailed plan for the renovation includes the following stages:
1. Detailed User Research: We set up a comprehensive user research phase before moving forward with design revisions. With potential adopters, Flaggers volunteers, and those who had just adopted from another platform, this would involve surveys, one-on-one interviews, and focus groups. This will enable us to better understand the needs, problems, and preferences of users in terms of their ideal pet adoption website.
2. Creating the Filtering System: Using the available data, we proposed a sophisticated filtering system. The new system would feature parameters like activity level, compatibility with other dogs or cats, and any particular medical needs in addition to allowing customers to search based on age, size, or breed. The 'Adoption Explorer', is a guided questionnaire that let users narrow down potential dogs or cats depending on their living circumstances, preferences, and lifestyle.
3. User Testing: We intend to construct a prototype of the updated adoption page before completing the design. A limited user base would be used to test this, allowing us to gather feedback, study user behavior, and make the required adjustments before the launch.
We anticipate several results with these adjustments in place:
1. Increased User Engagement: With a clear filtering mechanism, we expect the adoption page's bounce rate to significantly decrease. Within the first six months following launch, a decrease of at least 40% is what we aimed for.
2. Higher Adoption Rates: The platform's ability to result in actual adoptions will accurately indicate its success. In the year after the redesigned platform's launch, we predict a 30% increase in adoptions that were initiated online.
3. Increased User Satisfaction: The 'Adoption Explorer' and engaging multimedia components would make the user experience more than simply a search; it would be a trip. We anticipated positive comments, with at least 70% of consumers rating their overall experience at least four out of five stars.
4. Increased Reach: With a user-friendly platform, positive word-of-mouth and reviews will inevitably increase the website's reach. As a direct result of recommendations and positive user ratings, we hope for a 20% increase in monthly unique visits.
5. Strengthened Brand Perception: A website is a reflection of the brand, rather than just a tool that serves a purpose. The Flaggers Humane Society's reputation as an innovative, user-friendly organization would be improved by a smart, clear, and exciting platform.
We compared redesigns in communities that are comparable to our own and analyzed a wealth of information on user behavior when presented with intuitive interfaces to support these assumptions.
The process of redesigning the Flaggers Humane Society's website will be filled with obstacles and victories. Undoubtedly, seeing the effectiveness of user-centric design in action will be the high point of this project. We made a wise choice by putting potential adopters at the center of our makeover. By clarifying our course and ensuring that the interface is properly adapted to user demands, the feedback loops, surveys, and focus groups may help. During a brainstorming session, a seed of an idea grew into one of the platform's highlights. Users will appreciate the interactive quiz for its creative method of matching pets. Testimonials from users will show an improvement in their experience as the UI becomes more user-friendly. On the downside, it will be more difficult than expected to integrate the new filtering system with the backend databases. Our ideas might have included a prolonged phase devoted only to backend restructuring if we had a clearer early understanding of the backend complexity. Despite our enthusiasm, we can occasionally misjudge the amount of time needed for certain stages, particularly user research. We may learn the significance of buffer periods in project schedules through delays, particularly those that occur during the prototype phase. It will be difficult to integrate complex functions while maintaining a straightforward and clear user experience. Multiple design changes are necessary to achieve that balance. One important lesson will be the value of ongoing user feedback throughout the design process as opposed to after deployment. This project will illustrate how well-used technology can close gaps and transform lives. In summarizing this reflection, I would like to say that my experience working with the Flagler Humane Society Website will be more than just a project; it will be a lesson in innovation, empathy, and the value of sincere teamwork.
