Animal shelter - redesign

I led the UX/UI design of a pro bono website project for an animal shelter, from concept to high-fidelity designs. My work focused on improving clarity, trust, and accessibility of the experience, making it easier for users to learn about the shelter, explore available information, and take meaningful action, while supporting a socially impactful mission through thoughtful, user-centered design.

About this project

This project focused on designing a pro bono website for an animal shelter, where fragmented information, unclear content structure, and low emotional engagement were limiting the website’s effectiveness. The goal was to create a clear, trustworthy, and accessible digital experience that would better communicate the shelter’s mission, improve content discoverability, and support users in engaging with the organization in a more intuitive way.

I worked on this project as a UX/UI Designer, shaping the experience from early concept to high-fidelity designs. The process involved defining the website structure, improving content clarity, designing user-friendly flows, and creating a visual direction that balanced warmth, trust, and usability.
As a social impact initiative, the project required a thoughtful approach that combined functional clarity with emotional sensitivity.

Click here to see a live prototype

Animal shelter website

Context & Team

The Problem

The Goal

🏢 Organization: Animal shelter / non-profit initiative
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Team: Pro bono / social impact project
⏳ Timeline: Concept-to-design phase
🧩 Role: UX/UI Designer
💡 Scope: Information architecture, UX strategy, content structure, UI design, responsive layouts, prototyping

When approaching the project, it was clear that the website needed more than just a visual refresh. The main challenge was to create a structure that would support both the emotional and practical needs of users.

At that stage, the digital experience risked being less effective because of:

unclear or fragmented information architecture
limited content hierarchy, making key information harder to find
lack of a strong trust-building structure
insufficient emotional connection between the organization’s mission and the user experience
risk of overwhelming users with too much undifferentiated content
lack of accessibility-focused thinking in how content and interface elements were presented

The goal of this project was to design a clear, empathetic, and accessible website that would better communicate the shelter’s mission and make information easier to explore. The experience needed to support trust, improve usability, and encourage meaningful engagement through better structure, stronger visual storytelling, and more intuitive navigation.

My Contributions

🧭 User Journeys & Decision Logic

organized the website structure around user needs and key content priorities
defined clearer navigation and content grouping
designed the experience to reduce confusion and make important information easier to access

📝 Content
restructured content to improve readability and understanding
helped shape a clearer narrative around the shelter’s mission and activities
focused on content hierarchy that supports both emotional engagement and practical decision-making

🎨 UI Design & Responsive Experience
Figma link
created a warm, trustworthy, and approachable visual language
designed layouts that support clarity, scanning, and emotional resonance
balanced social impact storytelling with functional usability

📱 Responsive & Accessible Experience
designed with responsiveness in mind across key breakpoints
focused on readability, spacing, contrast, and clear interaction patterns
considered accessibility as part of the core design approach, not as an afterthought

🔗 Prototyping & Iteration
translated ideas into high-fidelity screens and interactive concepts
used prototyping to shape page flow, pacing, and content presentation
refined the design direction to support both usability and credibility

Outcomes & Impact

delivered a clear UX/UI concept for a pro bono website supporting a social impact mission
created a stronger digital foundation for communicating the shelter’s values and activities
improved content structure and discoverability through better hierarchy and navigation
designed a more accessible and emotionally engaging experience
helped shape a digital presence that feels more trustworthy, organized, and user-centered

What I Learned

how to design for a socially meaningful project where empathy and clarity are equally important
how to balance emotional storytelling with practical usability needs
how strong information architecture can directly improve trust and comprehension
how to create a warm visual direction without sacrificing clarity or accessibility
how UX/UI can support not only business goals, but also social missions and community impact

🚀 What’s Next

I’m looking to join a product team where I can:

Design clear, user-centered experiences in complex or regulated domains
Apply decision-driven UX to simplify complex logic and reduce cognitive load
Contribute to visual direction and branding that builds trust and consistency across products
Help evolve scalable UX patterns and systems used across teams
Collaborate closely with product, engineering, research, and marketing throughout the product lifecycle
Validate and iterate solutions through research and usability testing