Columbus House Rabbit Society
Responsive Site
Project Background
Columbus House Rabbit Society (CHRS) is a local non-profit dedicated to rescuing and rehoming pet rabbits. They recognized that their site needed a brush-up, and graciously gave me permission to explore a redesign.
Spoiler Alert
The main goal was to communicate CHRS's main mission: educate the public about proper rabbit care and behavior.

I concluded that the designs successfully supported that goal, as all test participants understood the navigation and presented information with little issue.

During this time, I understood the value of asking for feedback and keeping the project goals aligned with the business (or client) mission.
Addressing Misconceptions
Common Stereotypes
Every Easter, you'll see ads with cute baby bunnies munching on carrots, surrounded by children. You might think they are the perfect pet for kids with little maintenance needed.

However, these are misconceptions about rabbit ownership that can lead to unfortunate, even fatal, consequences.

Columbus House Rabbit Society (CHRS) seeks to reverse these stereotypes to give companion rabbits in need a chance to find forever homes.
Main Objectives
Framing the Main Problem
Reasons for Abandonment & Neglect
With some background research, I found that rehoming and neglect cases occur because people didn’t realize how much commitment is needed for rabbit ownership.
Who am I Solving For?
By making assumptions about users' motives in coming to the site and CHRS's goals, I centered the main problem around guiding people to the right rabbit care information:
What can be done to direct people, especially those unfamiliar with rabbits, to information that helps them understand proper care?
How might I direct people in other situations requiring CHRS’s help, like rehoming and catching a stray?
Studying the Site & Users
Current Site
Concerns with the current site* were on information organization and visual hierarchy, where the important information was often hard to distinguish from other content.

*Note: As of now, the site has been updated
Interviews
By talking to the Adoption Care Coordinator and Facilitator at CHRS, and non-rabbit adopters, I found out more about people's typical expectations and behaviors:
  • “Their rabbits didn’t meet their expectations of what a good pet should be…cuddly, snuggly, pick-up-able…the vast majority don’t want to be picked up...”
  • “A lot of our adopters don’t really seem to know what questions they should be asking.”
  • Information for every potential adopter to know: diet, exercise, housing, socialization and behavior, destructive chewing, and expensive vet care costs.
Compiling User Goals & Motivations
Based on what I learned in the interviews and recalling CHRS's goal to educate, here is what a theoretical site visitor wanting to know more about rabbit care might have in mind:
Card Sorts & Site Map
Open & Closed Card Sorts
I ran an open and card sort test to understand how users process, find, and categorize information.

I felt this was especially important for rabbit care, which contains terms very specific to their upkeep.
‍
This required some careful thought since wording was important, and I focused on making terms for volunteer work actionable ("Become a Foster Home" vs. "Fostering").
Results
View Detailed Findings
Site Map
Using the card sorts for reference, I created a site map to figure out where each category will go, and the related information the category should contain.
Full-Size Site Map
Visualizing User Interactions
Task Flows: When Things Work Out Well
I put together two task flows and a user flow to show how a user can interact with proposed site content.

*This was before I became aware that I was deviating from the main project scope – which is why the task flow mentions adoptions.
Full-Size Task Flow
User Flow: Decision-Making
Because things aren't always as straight-forward as we imagine, I had our user move through various paths based on their decision-making process: what if they couldn't find something? Where else can they look? How will they decide if their goal was successfully accomplished?
Full-Size User Flow
Wireframing
Home Page
For this page, I needed to prioritize what a user should see first.
‍
Though it could be argued that donations and volunteering come first, CHRS's ultimate purpose is to help those who need it so they can help the rabbits; a workaround was making Donate and Volunteer into call-to-action buttons at the top of the page.
Rabbit Care TOC
I split the rabbit care section into two pages – a Table of Contents (TOC) page that lays out all the relevant information for easy scanning; each link in the TOC leads to the appropriate, related page.
Diet & Nutrition
Because there is a lot of material to cover for these cute animals' care, I decided to incorporate the TOC into this page.

This way, a visitor can simply scan for the next link to read, rather than having to go back and forth between each link's page and the Rabbit Care TOC page.

I made sure to note that the TOC is a sticky side bar, which helps users easily access the other links, especially on very long pages.
Full-Size Wireframes
Cohesive Layout: The UI
Version 1 UI
Once I began applying typography, images, and colors, I tweaked my original wireframes drafts and came away with the first iteration of UI design: 
View All Layouts
Testing Prototypes
Putting Test Tasks to the Prototype
To see how users will interact with the hi-fi prototype, I set up three tasks modeled after a user's search for information; or someone in need of other types of information:
View Prototype
Usability Test Results: The Rabbits Are Saved
I gathered four participants, none of whom has had experience with rabbit ownership or care.

For the most part, all tasks were accomplished to completion with few hurdles.

However, there were certainly issues, which mostly concerned prominence of information and scannability.
Post-Test Revisions
Making the Necessary Changes
Lessons Learned
The End Result
After gathering the results of the usability tests, I concluded that I was able to successfully address the problem.

Although every participant was not familiar with rabbits, they were able, in a short amount of time and little confusion, to find the sections detailing ways in which they could get help under different circumstances.  
Align With Goals & Users
When I started the project, I was too focused on merely redesigning the site and adding features rather than paying attention to the goals of CHRS and how their goals fit with their users’.

By the time I got to roughly the middle of the project and had that little revelation, I was a bit shaken that I had strayed from the site and user mission – without the input of other designers, I likely wouldn’t have caught on as quickly.

This served as an important reminder to take time to truly realize the goals of the site and users, by keeping the problem statement in plain view at all times.
Ask for Feedback, Looking Ahead
I was a little shy about asking for help and feedback on my work, but learned that it's ok to ask - and am glad I did.

In the future, asking for feedback is something I aim to do frequently, because the input of others in this project helped me move forward and find areas to improve on.

As for CHRS, because the organization was so receptive to my project and aware that their site could use some help, I have a very positive outlook for their site's future and am excited to see how their site evolves.
< Vinylist iOS AppBorderlands 3 Storage Menu >