Making webpage of animal shelter in Krakow more useable (UX/CX)
This case is real. I have came across with a few problems when I was looking for a pet for adoption and once I have found a stray kittens and a dog. I went on a site and found it somehow hard to go through. It is even harder when an animal in need depends on you and you try not to panic but to find help.
Some basic info about shelter:
City's animal shelter is located far away from the centre. You can get there by car or bus, which goes quite rarely. During day there is 2 hours feeding break and the staff working in adoption section (vets, administration) works in limited hours too. The emergency calls works rather 24/7 as they help in catching wild animals.
The shelter is run by KTOZ (Krakow's Society for the Care of Animals) which has office near the Market Square. The society does more than running the shelter, e.g. pets registration, preventing cruelty against animals.
The use cases and why I am doing this:
I am sure that the main touch point - which is shelter's website - needs simple and basic improvements. Whenever you lost your dog, you have been witnessing an accident on road with animal or just want to check how to help, you need to find it quickly.
Main page of the shelter
1. Let's check what we've got!
I have gone through pages and written down many mistakes, cons and all out of date "not so cool ux things". But also I easily spotted good things there - some simple plain language pages written as 'being spoken'.
I put 'bad' things into three categories: technical (e.g. flash plugins, not responsive on mobile), design (e.g. dense text, non coherent elements, too small elements - even on desktop, mission written in Comic sans) and the content. The last one, besides e.g. a little chaos in texts, not working maps, contains information architecture too. To perform better it should be changed from many equal subpages that creates side menu and is uneasy to navigate.
2. Ok, so what other people say about it?
I have not conducted testes to check my thesis, it was impossible for many reasons, but have found source where people can say what do they think about site and not only site. Yup, that's right - I have looked up for opinions about the place in google as people write any kind of wrong or disappointing thing they came across with this place. It's guerilla style, but sometimes it can really broaden your horizon.
Surprisingly no one tell bad word about the site desktop or mobile version.
The issues were about lack of information what was the adopting procedure, opening hours, answering questions by staff members or doctors. That are the topic that can be improved by information architecture.
3. A good hint
There is always one hint on websites, where there is put what is most important for that site. For polish sites it most often English version. Very little words put in translation defines what the site is most commonly used for.
In this case there are few paragraphs all put on one page: about the Shelter, About adoption, Quarantine, Contact, How to help us (with donation link), Dogs and cats for adoption as link to gallery.
4. What can we do with it
Combining all things read on the site and opinions I have set new Information architecture which helped me also to put categories in priority. So I decided to put it like this (numbers are also put on sketch below):
1) urgent info or CTA promo banner depending on situation;
2) pets place: found (quarantine) - lost - adopt;
3) emergency contact 24/7;
4) how to help - donations and volunteers zone;
5) social media icons;
6) visiting shelter - manual, how to get there, what to bring, what to expect, how to behave, can we order Uber pets;
7) about shelter - contact, history, mission and all needed law terms and info;
8) footer.
Main page for mobile (two screens from the left) and side menu
5. It not the all things to be done
Some issues can't be resolved by I.A., usability or design. Additionally, with changes in website, there should be created standardised path for: adoption, information about lost pet and welcoming visitors on site. Staff should be trained how to talk with people to avoid bad experience causing uncomplimentary opinion.
Even best page, app or solution is a bit useless without all needed pieces to be put in place.
Thanks for reading! Drop me a line if you want to share your thoughts :)
