Mower County Humane Society
The goal of this project was to select a non-profit organization and execute the full user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design process. Working collaboratively in a group, we created a high-fidelity, responsive web design solution that aligned with the organization’s mission and user needs.
To achieve this goal, focus was applied to:
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UI Analysis & User Research – understanding user needs and evaluating existing design patterns.
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Information Architecture – organizing and structuring content for clarity and usability.
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Lo-Fi Wireframing & Testing – exploring layouts and validating early design concepts.
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Hi-Fi Prototyping & Style Development – applying visual design, accessibility, and brand alignment.
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Interactive Design – creating dynamic, engaging interactions to enhance the user experience.
Mission Statement
Provide care and shelter to homeless dogs and cats from Mower County, Minnesota until they can be placed in responsible forever homes, and to reduce the number of unwanted, homeless dogs and cats in Mower County, Minnesota by promoting, facilitating, and sponsoring spaying and neutering activities.
Proto-Persona
To begin, we hypothesized who might visit the Mower County Humane Society website and conducted user interviews to better understand motivations and challenges. After analyzing and affinitizing the data, we created our persona, Lola Johnson.
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Lola is a compassionate animal lover who wants to research dogs and adopt a pet from a trusted source. While she’s eager to give a dog a loving home, she feels hesitant about the lengthy adoption process and concerned about each animal’s background. She values transparency and accessibility and wants to avoid commercial breeders by adopting through a reliable local shelter.
Heuristic Evaluation
We conducted a heuristic evaluation of the Mower County Humane Society website and identified several usability issues. The site lacked depth, structure, and engaging content, resulting in a basic and limited user experience. These findings highlighted the need for improved information hierarchy, visual appeal, and interactive features to better support adoption and community engagement.
Research Plan
We conducted user interviews to understand how people approach adopting animals in need and to identify challenges within the process. Participants shared pain points around researching available animals, as well as frustrations with the lengthy adoption process and required paperwork. These insights helped define opportunities to simplify adoption steps, improve transparency, and create a more supportive user experience for potential adopters.
Journey Map
Based on our research, we mapped out the user journey for Lola and her family as they decided to adopt a pet through the humane society rather than using a breeder. The journey outlined each stage of the process—from initial decision-making and researching available animals to completing adoption paperwork and bringing their new pet home. This exercise helped identify pain points, emotional moments, and opportunities to simplify the adoption process and create a more transparent, reassuring user experience.
Usability Testing
After reviewing our research, we concluded that users would most likely search for a dog based on specific needs and then complete an adoption application directly through the website. We created low-fidelity sketches and interactive mockups to test this flow. During usability testing, participants successfully completed five of six key tasks with a 100% success rate, confirming that the revised navigation and task flow were intuitive and user-friendly.
Desktop Prototype
We developed our final high-fidelity prototype based on critical feedback gathered from multiple rounds of usability testing. In addition to refining functionality and navigation, our goal was to modernize the website’s look and feel to better reflect the organization’s mission. The redesigned experience aims to increase adoption awareness, boost adoption rates, and highlight volunteer opportunities, ultimately strengthening community engagement with the Mower County Humane Society.
Conclusion
There are many opportunities to make the adoption process easier and more accessible for potential pet owners. Streamlining paperwork and improving how an animal’s personality traits and behaviors are communicated play a key role in helping adopters find pets that best fit their homes and lifestyles.
Next Steps:
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Engage in more in-depth conversations with stakeholders to understand current application workflows and technical needs.
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Introduce user accounts that allow visitors to save favorite animals and store application progress.
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Implement refined filtering options on animal listing pages to help users quickly find pets that match their preferences.