Designing Hope

UX/UI Group Project – 4 Weeks
Redesigning the adoption journey for a nonprofit serving homeless pets.

Project Overview

Second Chance for Homeless Pets is a nonprofit in Salt Lake City, Utah focused on rescuing and rehoming animals. Their website had become outdated, hard to navigate, and lacked emotional resonance. Our goal was to design a smoother, more trustworthy, mobile first adoption process that resonated with both logic and heart.

  • Client: Conceptual redesign for Second Chance for Homeless Pets

  • Role: Branding & Visual Design Lead, Interactive Prototype Designer, Research Contributor

  • Tools: Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Google Forms, Slack, Google Docs, Zoom

  • Team: 4 Designers

  • My Focus: Logo creation, high-fidelity interaction design, survey distribution & analysis

Screenshot of a website for Second Chance, a pet adoption agency for homeless pets in Salt Lake City, Utah, featuring a dog image, hours, and contact information.
Screenshot of a mobile website for a pet rescue organization called Second Chance. The page features a photo of five diverse people with a dog, and text overlay that says, "Find Love, Save Lives, Adopt Today. Over 13 Years." Below, there are icons labeled Saved Pets, Location, and Rehome, followed by a section about the organization's mission emphasizing compassion and commitment.

The Challenge

The original site presented key usability and branding issues:

  • Poor mobile responsiveness and confusing navigation structures

  • Incomplete pet bios and vague adoption process information

  • Clunky donation flow and outdated design visuals

We needed to create a mobile-first site with emotionally engaging visuals, improved accessibility, and user flows that streamlined pet discovery, adoption, and donation.

A website page titled 'Second Chance for Homeless Pets' showing available dogs for adoption with their photos and details, including names like May, Julie, Bennie, Emerson, Adley, and Roger, on a light blue background with paw print patterns and a logo in the top right corner.

My Role & Responsibilities

In this collaborative project, I led or directly contributed to:

  • Logo Design and Brand Identity: Created a warm, approachable visual system using soft colors and friendly typography

  • Prototype Interaction Design: Built interactive mid- and high-fidelity prototypes using Figma

  • User Research Distribution: Led survey outreach that collected 70+ responses to inform design priorities

Pink text reading 'Second Chance' with a design of cherries forming the 'oo' in 'Good', set against a black background.

User Persona & Journey

Persona: Sarah Thompson – a 28-year-old marketing coordinator from Salt Lake City. Tech-savvy and compassionate, Sarah wants an intuitive adoption experience that helps her find a pet that fits her busy lifestyle.

Journey Highlights:

  1. Searches for pet adoption options and finds Second Chance

  2. Uses filters to view profiles and discovers a pet named Julie

  3. Reads a detailed pet profile but is unsure about compatibility

  4. Completes an online application and schedules a meet-and-greet

  5. Confidently completes the adoption, feeling supported throughout

A four-panel illustration of a woman adopting a dog. In the first panel, she is sitting at a desk working on a laptop. The second panel shows a search for second chance dog adoption online. The third panel displays the dog's profile on a computer screen with the name Julie. The fourth panel depicts her meeting the dog and shaking hands with a shelter worker outdoors.

Design Strategy

Our brand identity aimed to build immediate emotional trust:

  • Color Palette: Warm blues, pinks, and oranges to create comfort and warmth

  • Typography: Friendly, modern typefaces (Quicksand, Sen, Gabarito) for clarity and accessibility

  • Tone & Imagery: Expressive pet photos, encouraging messaging, and simplified calls to action

The logo was designed to reflect hope, companionship, and second chances through shape and composition.

Brand identity style guide for Second Chance featuring logo, color palette, typography, button styles, icons, components, and website mockups with color and layout variations.

The Process

Our team followed a human-centered UX design framework, moving from research through to refined interactive prototypes:

  • Discover

    • We kicked off the project by distributing a targeted survey to potential adopters, collecting over 70 responses. From this data, we uncovered pain points related to mobile usability, lack of transparency in pet bios, and a confusing overall structure.

  • Define

    • With insights from our research, we crafted a proto-persona and user journey to guide decision-making. We aligned around core priorities like simplified navigation, mobile responsiveness, and emotionally supportive adoption flows.

  • Design

    • Working collaboratively, we sketched and built low- and mid-fidelity wireframes that laid the foundation for our solution. I developed a warm brand identity and created the mobile-first, high-fidelity interactive prototype using Figma.

  • Test

    • We tested three visual variations in an A/B format, leading to clear preferences from users. Based on this feedback, we iterated our layout, refined the navigation, and adjusted typography and visual hierarchy for better clarity and warmth.

Wireframes of a pet adoption website with sections for adoption information, pet profiles, scheduling appointments, and navigation menu.
Wireframe of a pet adoption website with five main pages showing a logo, navigation menu, pet profiles, and contact forms, connected with annotation lines.

The Solution

The redesigned experience included:

  • A simplified, mobile-friendly adoption portal

  • Transparent and engaging pet profiles

  • A warm, trust-building visual identity

  • Clear, actionable navigation for adoptions

Two smartphones displaying a pet adoption website called Second Chance, featuring a group of people with dogs in the background and a photo of a dog named Julie.
See the Prototype

Outcome & Reflection

While the redesign was conceptual, this project demonstrated how strategic design can support real-world causes and drive clarity, trust, and engagement.

  • User Testing Feedback: Described as "emotionally engaging" and "easy to navigate"

  • Visual Identity Reception: Testers praised the brand for being more representative of the nonprofit’s mission

  • Design Takeaways: I learned how to translate user research into actionable branding, and how to use emotional design to deepen user connection

Cute pink and black illustration of a butterfly with heart-shaped body and rounded wings, featuring button-like details.
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