Everett Animal Shelter: Improving Website Usability Through Research
Evaluated and improved the Everett Animal Shelter website through user testing and research to make adoption, volunteering, and fostering simpler, faster, and more intuitive.
Industry
Nonprofit / Community Service
My Role
UX Researcher & Designer
Platform
Desktop & Mobile
Timeline
Sept - Nov 2023 | 14 weeks
The Challenge: A Caring Mission Lost in Clutter
The Everett Animal Shelter website serves as a crucial resource for pet adopters, volunteers, and foster caregivers in the community. However, despite its meaningful purpose, many visitors struggled to complete simple tasks.
Key issues included cluttered layouts that buried important information, inconsistent navigation that forced users to scroll or backtrack frequently, and limited filtering that made finding pets difficult.
"How might we help visitors find what they need easily while creating a warm, trustworthy experience that reflects the shelter’s mission?"
Research & Methodology: Listening, Testing, and Validating
To understand where and why users were struggling, I applied a multi-method evaluation approach, each step feeding insights into the next phase of design.
Heuristic Evaluation:
Used Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics to identify immediate UX red flags.
Revealed issues: inconsistent navigation, poor feedback loops, weak hierarchy.
User Surveys (6 participants):
Collected behavioral data on how people use animal shelter sites.
Revealed issues: confusion about the adoption flow and difficulty finding key pages.
Usability Testing (5 participants):
Conducted think-aloud sessions focused on realistic goals (adoption, volunteering, fostering).
Revealed issues: cluttered pages, buried contact info, and weak search options.
Each step informed the next, creating a feedback loop where research directly shaped design priorities.
Users & Scenarios: Real People, Real Goals
The five participants represented the shelter’s core audiences - busy professionals, families, retirees, and animal lovers.
Ages ranged from 28–57, with varied levels of tech comfort.
All shared one common trait: a genuine fondness for animals.
Core Scenarios Tested
Each participant completed realistic user journeys to uncover friction points:
Adopt a Pet: Browse, filter by type, and contact the shelter.
Learn about the Adoption Process: Understand adoption steps, fees, and timelines.
Volunteer: Find and apply for volunteer roles.
Foster: Locate and submit a foster application.
💡 Insight: Users were emotionally motivated and patient, but the site’s structure worked against their intent, making simple actions feel unnecessarily hard.
Key Findings: What I Observed and Heard
Participants completed most tasks, but not without friction.
Top Findings:
Cluttered interface: “There’s so much text - it’s hard to know what matters.”
Unclear hierarchy: Users couldn’t easily distinguish between categories.
Hidden contact info: Often only found after scrolling to the footer.
Weak search filters: Pet browsing felt tedious without sorting options.
Outdated visuals: The emotional tone didn’t match the mission’s warmth.
Performance Metrics:
User Story | Goal | Success Rate | Avg. Completion Time | Key Pain Point |
|---|---|---|---|---|
#1 Browse Adoptable Pets | Find a family-friendly dog | 60% | 25.6 sec | No filters, cluttered layout |
#2 Learn About Adoption | Understand process & fees | 100% | 25.4 sec | Hidden contact form |
#3 Explore Volunteering | Find a role and apply | 100% | 13.2 sec | Minor scanning issues |
#4 Become a Foster | Apply to foster animals | 100% | 12.2 sec | Application buried in text |
Cross-task | Find contact info | 60% | 45.4 sec | Inconsistent visibility |
💡 Takeaway: The content existed, but it wasn’t findable. Users wanted simplicity and emotional resonance, not more features.
From Research to Design: Turning Insights into Action
Each usability insight became a clear design decision:
Finding | Design Response |
|---|---|
Users couldn’t filter or sort adoptable pets | Added intuitive filters |
The homepage felt overwhelming | Simplified layout with clear, scannable sections |
Contact info was buried | Added a persistent contact bar across pages |
Users couldn’t tell what was clickable | Introduced consistent visual hierarchy for buttons and links |
Pages felt outdated and cold | Adopted colors, white space, and real pet imagery |
💡 Design Principle: Create an experience that’s clear, kind, and emotionally connected.
Hi-Fidelity Prototype: Focusing on What Matters Most
The final prototype brought the top design priorities to life:
Simplified top navigation.
Redesigned the Adoptable Pets page with visible filters and an intuitive grid layout.
Added a persistent contact panel for quick outreach.
Updated tone and visuals to reflect empathy and warmth.
💡 Outcome: The redesigned flow reduced search effort and made interactions feel effortless, friendly, and emotionally rewarding.
Impact & Reflection
✅ Improved clarity and discoverability for key site actions.
✅ Reduced browsing time for adoption tasks.
✅ Strengthened trust and emotional connection with the shelter’s mission.
What I learned:
Each UX method adds a unique lens - combining them reveals the full picture.
Emotional design is as vital as functional design in community projects.
Even small UI tweaks can significantly reduce user effort.
If I were to take this project further, I would:
Conduct another round of usability testing with the hi-fi prototype.
Partner with the shelter to test real adoption and volunteer conversion metrics post-redesign.