Paw Connected- for pet lover
Designed a pet adoption platform that reached 1,300+ design views and simplified volunteer and adoption journeys
Overview
Paw Connected is a responsive website designed for a fictional animal shelter, built to make pet adoption and volunteering feel simple, warm, and approachable. I led the end-to-end design — from user research through visual design and a reusable component system — across six pages
Challenge
How might I reduce the friction adopters face when searching for pets, while making it just as easy for visitors to discover volunteer opportunities?
Interview
Interviewed 5–8 potential adopters.
Key findings:
🐾 Users wanted larger pet photos.
🐾 Users wanted volunteering to be easier to find.
Synthesis
Across the interviews, one pattern stood out: adopters weren't struggling to find a pet, they were struggling to find the right pet quickly, and volunteers were struggling to find an entry point at all. That distinction shaped every decision that followed — the site needed to help people filter down fast, and volunteering needed its own clear front door instead of living inside a general "About" page.
How I responded
Users wanted larger pet photos → I redesigned pet cards across the site to feature full-width, high-quality images so animals feel like the focal point of every screen, not a small thumbnail.
Users wanted volunteering to be easier to find → I gave Volunteer its own dedicated page in the main navigation, with a clear call-to-action and real team photos, so it's no longer buried inside a general "About" or "Get Involved" section.
Home
Designed a warm, welcoming home screen that highlights the pet shelter's services and presents key information to help users quickly understand the website and navigate its features.
About
Introduces Paw Connect's mission and helps visitors quickly understand how the shelter supports pet adoption, fostering, volunteering, and donations.
Adoption
Browse and match with pets that fit your preferences, making it easier to find your perfect companion
Volunteer
Learn about volunteer opportunities and meet the team you'll be working with.
Typography
Colors
#FFFFFF
#F8F8F8
#242424
#62CDAB
During my initial user research, interviewees mentioned they expected an animal shelter website to feel warm, trustworthy, and welcoming, making it easy to explore available pets and feel confident about adoption.
This color palette was chosen to create a sense of warmth, trust, and compassion. The soft greens communicate reliability, safety, and care, while warm accent colors add friendliness and optimism, reflecting the joyful experience of finding a forever home.
Outcome
1300+
+17%
Next steps
I'd continue refining the UI based on user feedback from my friends and others— starting with usability testing on the new filtering system — and expand the design system to support new features. I'd also prioritize WCAG accessibility improvements and additional responsive breakpoints to ensure a consistent experience across all devices.
What I learn
My mentor taught me how much a design system can shape day-to-day design decisions, not just visual consistency. Building 20+ reusable components early on meant that later changes — like reorganizing the Adoption page based on user feedback about filtering — were fast to implement instead of requiring rework across every page.
I also shared this project on Dribbble, where it received 1,300+ design views — a small but encouraging signal that the work resonated beyond just my interviewees. That said, based on my interviews, I couldn't fully validate whether the changes actually made adoption or volunteering easier in practice, only that they addressed the specific pain points people described.
Next time, I'd want to run a lightweight usability test on the final designs, even informally, so the case study could speak to actual behavior rather than only design intent.