Feeding Pets of the Homeless

UX Design Case Study

Context

Feeding Pets of the Homeless (FPH) is a non-profit organization in Nevada that provides pet food, other items, and emergency veterinary care to pets of people experiencing homelessness.

 

FPH has over 100+ donation sites nationwide, has collected over 2 million pounds of pet food, and given over 5 million dollars in veterinary care and pet crates.

 

During my time with Commit the Change, I was able to design a portal that would ease FPH's workflow, ensuring that more furry companions received the support they require.

Role

UI/UX Designer - User Experience, User Journeys, User Flows, User Personas, Competitive Analysis. Worked specifically on the Business (donation site) Dashboard.

Team

Minh N. (Design Lead), Christine N. (Designer), Michelle P. (Designer), Kaitlyn T. (Designer)

 

Josh L. (Tech Lead), Madhu S. (Tech Lead), and 14 other developers.

Duration

November 2023 to May 2024

Tools

Figma, FigJam, Slack, Zoom, Google Docs

~~~

The Problem

At Feeding Pets of the Homeless (FPH), the current process of gathering information from donation sites across the nation relies heavily on manual reporting. This manual approach proves inefficient and opens the door to miscommunication. Additionally, the burden of reminding these donation sites about submitting their forms falls on FPH, often requiring manually written emails to prompt action.

 

So, the problem we wanted to solve was:

How might we build a functional, efficient portal that keeps track of donation amounts in order to showcase donation impact, manage donations, and provide FPH with up-to-date information on donation sites?

Solution

We developed a dashboard to streamline onboarding and donation reporting for donation sites. FPH would now be able to oversee all sites, monitor onboarding, and review or remind sites to submit donation forms through the platform.

 

Our primary users were to be FPH (AKA the non-profit organization), and our secondary users were to be donation sites (AKA stores that would accept donations and report donation amounts).

Research

We wanted to make sure we thoroughly understood the problem we were addressing before we started designing, so we partook in:

 

User Interviews, User Personas, User Journeys, and Competitive Analysis.

User Interviews

I was able to interview our primary users directly during a meeting early in our design process. We were able to discuss things such as:

 

  • The demographics of the employees
  • Their typical workday and use of technology
  • Common frustrations with the current system in place

 

Through our interviews, we uncovered valuable insights into the challenges faced by donation site managers, including time constraints, administrative burdens, and the need for simplified donation reporting processes.

 

Knowing this, I was able to prioritize features such as intuitive reporting interfaces, automated reminders, and streamlined communication channels to enhance efficiency and usability.

 

User Personas and User Journey

I created a user persona and user journey to better understand who would be using our website. This was especially helpful in brainstorming our website's functionality, as we laid out our user's pain points. I was able to identify possible opportunities to solve them, such as urgent notifications to help businesses remember to upload donation forms.

To gain a comprehensive understanding of donation websites, we began by identifying existing websites operating within the space of donation management and support for homeless pets. Our research involved a diverse range of organizations, platforms, and initiatives with similar missions or offerings.

 

Our main find was that while many competitors offered donation functionalities, we found that some lacked flexibility in donation options or had cumbersome processes for donors to navigate. So, in our designs we ensured that users were able to make donations seamlessly through various channels.

Competitive Analysis

Last subheader, for good measure

Finally you arrive at the ending of the article. This is a good place to wrap things up and conclude with takeaways. If you’re writing something for a more traditional publication, it can be nice to end on an anecdote that mirrors the theme of the piece. If you’re putting together some content for a company blog, you’ll probably just want to close out in a tidy way and include a CTA of some kind. Writers should take note: Usually, when you write a draft, you finally get to the main point at the end. An old editing trick is to take that idea and put it at the top of the piece. Consider whether that would work for you in this case.

~~~

What we Delivered

After research, it was finally time to start designing. I created the donation sites' interface, while the rest of my team worked on FPH's dashboard and onboarding.The donation sites' interface consisted of the following:

 

Home, Supply Request, Settings, Notification Center, and FPH's Contact Information.

Feeding Pets of the Homeless

UX Design Case Study

Context

Feeding Pets of the Homeless (FPH) is a non-profit organization in Nevada that provides pet food, other items, and emergency veterinary care to pets of people experiencing homelessness.

 

FPH has over 100+ donation sites nationwide, has collected over 2 million pounds of pet food, and given over 5 million dollars in veterinary care and pet crates.

 

During my time with Commit the Change, I was able to design a portal that would ease FPH's workflow, ensuring that more furry companions received the support they require.

Role

UI/UX Designer - User Experience, User Journeys, User Flows, User Personas, Competitive Analysis. Worked specifically on the Business (donation site) Dashboard.

Team

Minh N. (Design Lead), Christine N. (Designer), Michelle P. (Designer), Kaitlyn T. (Designer)

 

Josh L. (Tech Lead), Madhu S. (Tech Lead), and 14 other developers.

Duration

November 2023 to May 2024

Tools

Figma, FigJam, Slack, Zoom, Google Docs

~~~

The Problem

At Feeding Pets of the Homeless (FPH), the current process of gathering information from donation sites across the nation relies heavily on manual reporting. This manual approach proves inefficient and opens the door to miscommunication. Additionally, the burden of reminding these donation sites about submitting their forms falls on FPH, often requiring manually written emails to prompt action.

 

So, the problem we wanted to solve was:

How might we build a functional, efficient portal that keeps track of donation amounts in order to showcase donation impact, manage donations, and provide FPH with up-to-date information on donation sites?

Solution

We developed a dashboard to streamline onboarding and donation reporting for donation sites. FPH would now be able to oversee all sites, monitor onboarding, and review or remind sites to submit donation forms through the platform.

 

Our primary users were to be FPH (AKA the non-profit organization), and our secondary users were to be donation sites (AKA stores that would accept donations and report donation amounts).

Research

We wanted to make sure we thoroughly understood the problem we were addressing before we started designing, so we partook in:

 

User Interviews, User Personas, User Journeys, and Competitive Analysis.

User Interviews

I was able to interview our primary users directly during a meeting early in our design process. We were able to discuss things such as:

 

  • The demographics of the employees
  • Their typical workday and use of technology
  • Common frustrations with the current system in place

 

Through our interviews, we uncovered valuable insights into the challenges faced by donation site managers, including time constraints, administrative burdens, and the need for simplified donation reporting processes.

 

Knowing this, I was able to prioritize features such as intuitive reporting interfaces, automated reminders, and streamlined communication channels to enhance efficiency and usability.

 

User Personas and User Journey

I created a user persona and user journey to better understand who would be using our website. This was especially helpful in brainstorming our website's functionality, as we laid out our user's pain points. I was able to identify possible opportunities to solve them, such as urgent notifications to help businesses remember to upload donation forms.

Competitive Analysis

To gain a comprehensive understanding of donation websites, we began by identifying existing websites operating within the space of donation management and support for homeless pets. Our research involved a diverse range of organizations, platforms, and initiatives with similar missions or offerings.

 

Our main find was that while many competitors offered donation functionalities, we found that some lacked flexibility in donation options or had cumbersome processes for donors to navigate. So, in our designs we ensured that users were able to make donations seamlessly through various channels.

Last subheader, for good measure

Finally you arrive at the ending of the article. This is a good place to wrap things up and conclude with takeaways. If you’re writing something for a more traditional publication, it can be nice to end on an anecdote that mirrors the theme of the piece. If you’re putting together some content for a company blog, you’ll probably just want to close out in a tidy way and include a CTA of some kind. Writers should take note: Usually, when you write a draft, you finally get to the main point at the end. An old editing trick is to take that idea and put it at the top of the piece. Consider whether that would work for you in this case.

~~~

What we Delivered

After research, it was finally time to start designing. I created the donation sites' interface, while the rest of my team worked on FPH's dashboard and onboarding.The donation sites' interface consisted of the following:

 

Home, Supply Request, Settings, Notification Center, and FPH's Contact Information.

Final hi-fi design

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