Pawster is your one-stop resource, offering a seamless experience for fostering, volunteering, and adoption of stray cats in NYC!

Problem

Thousands of stray cats are born in NYC and live in dangerous and unsanitary conditions. Local shelters often find themselves grappling with overwhelming numbers, constrained resources, and a shortage of fosters and volunteers. Dedicated individuals who work or volunteer with shelters, find themselves navigating a landscape where the availability of resources remains limited, posing substantial obstacles to their mission.

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Implications

Increase Community Engagement
- Community engagement is important in neighborhoods where there are many stray cats. If people are aware and willing to help, shelters have more people to rely on.
Increase Awareness
- By using social media and having in person events, shelters can raise awareness on what they are doing.

Solution

All-in-one

Research

How Might We?

How might we encourage community engagement and participation to address the issue of stray cats in NYC?

How might we design a comprehensive education and awareness campaign to inform the public about the importance of adopting, fostering, and volunteering for stray cat shelters in NYC?
How might we establish a network of community-driven support systems, including local volunteers and foster homes, to provide temporary care for stray cats until shelter space becomes available in NYC?

Task Flow

Lo-Fi Wireframes

“I wish we could have more visibility because having a social media page may not always reach our target audience.”

“Running a rescue is like a full time job. You have to make sure all the cats are fed, there is enough supplies, checking applications, and more.”

Shelters don’t have to rely on social media algorithm in hopes that people will see their post asking for volunteers or fosters.

SWOT Analysis

I did a SWOT analysis on other pet apps to determine what features they have or don’t have. While most apps provide an adoption feature, they lack features such as being able to volunteer. These apps don’t partner with local shelters or have limited amount of shelters shown on their app.

Empathy Map

Using the research gathered through user interviews, I created an empathy map. The interviewees biggest worries were outreach and costs of helping stray cats in NYC.

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Ease of use

Users can find any cat shelter in NYC without having to waste time trying to find their social media or website.

Hi-Fi Wireframes

Final wireframes of Pawster designed on Figma.

View Prototype

Conclusion

Researching and designing this app has been a rewarding experience. It taught me how important community outreach is and how much shelter rely on social media. There were challenges that set me back such as interviewees having time to speak with me about the issues they face or the amount of audience they would reach on social media compared to an app. I’m grateful for the information and feedback that was given to me while designing Pawster.