Chasing Dogs

Chasing Dogs is a dog rescue based in LA County whose mission is to end the pet abandonment and homelessness through community outreach, education and advocacy. While Chasing Dogs has a website, the user experience is difficult to navigate and the design was outdated.

The primary business needs:

1. Re-design an experience that will help connect people looking to bring a dog home.

2. Brand refresh

CASE STUDY DETAILS

Project: Chasing Dogs
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My contribution: comparative analysis, wireframing, user flows, brand exploration, brand identity, web design, design systems, brand guidelines
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Timeline: 4 weeks
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Student project

the process

SETTING THE FOUNDATION

The Chasing Dogs website had the basic structure required for the brand refresh so that was the starting point to set the foundation. I kept the main navigation links, just jazzed it up a bit. The original website referenced a different name than the actual site name. I wanted to keep the site name consistent to avoid any confusion once it was up and running.

website (before):

Who let the dogs out?

My vision for the brand refresh was to bust through the puppy gates with something fun and friendly. Chasing Dogs is such a great name - as a pet parent, who ISN’T chasing their dog? The name was an inspiration and it blossomed into a full on playfully cute aesthetic. I kept the colors close to the original site, but added a few others that were influenced by the desert which is where Chasing Dogs, chase dogs.

the brand is barkin’

After brand exploration, I created the brand guidelines to cement the look and feel of the new brand identity. The colors are a great representation of the desert and work well together to showcase these desert pups.I chose Quicksand as my heading typeface beause the rounded sans serif resembles the gentle friendliness of puppy eyes. I needed a typeface that would be welcoming and encouraging on an emotional level. Similar to the natural and organic way dog rescues love and care for these abandoned dogs, the structure of Open Sans as a humanist sans serif evoke a feeling of warmth and personality. The gentle friendliness of Quicksand paired with the warmth of Open Sans speaks to my target audience of future dog moms and dads.

pawfect!

To gain inspiration and identify best practices for the website redesign, I conducted a competitor analysis. I began by looking at the websites of several other pet adoption websites including Best Friends, Downtown Dog Rescue, and Wags and Walks.

One common feature I identified across these websites was the placement of the donate button in order to emphasize it as the main call to action. This was an important design pattern to consider in order to make it easier and more efficient for users to get involved and donate.

I wanted to make the money donation process simple for users that might not have a lot of time to get involved, but still want to contribute. I redesigned the money donation page to include suggested amounts individuals could donate. Additionally, I made sure to provide a compelling and short reason why they should donate and the impact their donation would have.

Once I organized my research and defined the solution, I began to explore potential designs for the website. To start this process, I began wireframing to help translate my thoughts into tangible ideas and better visualize the problem. This allowed me to quickly explore several concepts for the website layout before landing on the final one here.