Pets Bring Joy

Website Redesign

↑ 18% estimated adoption application conversion

My Role

UX/UI Designer · Research · Prototyping

Timeline

6 Weeks

Product

A 501(c)(3) cat rescue website serving Northern Virginia / DC metro. 4,396 animals placed since 2013. 331 adoptions in 2025.

Research

Design System

Prototyping

Information Architecture

Usability Testing

4,396

lives saved

🖼 Figma Image Placeholder: Hero mockup of redesigned PBJ homepage (mobile + desktop) — replace with your final comp

Problem & Why It Matters

The website was a brochure, not a conversion engine.

PBJ's site hadn't been meaningfully updated in years. It described what the rescue did — but made it nearly impossible to actually do anything.

No browsable animals

Visitors had to submit an application before seeing a single adoptable cat.

No online donations

The Donate page only showed a PO Box mailing address. No PayPal, no Stripe, no recurring giving.

Not mobile-responsive

Fixed-width layout meant ~60%+ of mobile traffic got a broken, unreadable experience.

No social proof

Raw stats only. No photos of adopted cats, no adopter stories, no embedded Instagram feed.

Goals

Constraints

🖼 Figma Image Placeholder: Screenshot of current homepage + annotated friction points

My Role, Scope & Approach

What I Owned

✓ Full UX audit of existing site

✓ Competitive analysis (3 peer rescues)

✓ Information architecture redesign

✓ User flows and wireframes (mobile-first)

✓ Design system creation (typography, color, components)

✓ High-fidelity prototype (Figma)

✓ Usability testing (5 sessions)

✓ Final design handoff specs

What I Didn't

How I Worked

Audit

Heuristic eval + analytics review

Research

Competitive analysis + user interviews

Define

Personas, journeys, problem statements

Design

IA → flows → wireframes → UI → system

Validate

Usability testing + iteration

🖼 Figma Image Placeholder: Process timeline visual (5 phases, weeks 1-6)