OVERVIEW
An appealing donation landing page for PAWS, a Toronto non-profit animal organization, to support their mission and causes.
🎉 Voila! The following project is a part of my Visual Design & Rhetoric school assignments, and it’s currently got an honorable mention from the 2023 RGD student award for web design — Canadian Registered Graphic Designer.
Role
Visual Design
Brand Design
UX Research
Duration
May 2023
(4 Weeks)
Team
Solo Project
Tool
Figma
THE CONTEXT
What is PAWS?
PAWS is an animal non-profit organization founded in 1972 in Canada, with a no-kill policy dedicated to helping homeless, abused, and abandoned animals. It is run by a group of animal lovers who want to assist animals in need. Since then, they have made considerable efforts to rescue animals and provide exceptional care. They have three primary services: animal rescue, adoption, and care such as veterinary, vaccination, food, and shelter.
THE PROBLEM
The organization struggles to raise funds from the public.
PAWS is currently in a tight situation where they need more budget to provide their animals with quality services. Therefore, they are going to conduct a fundraising campaign to raise a significant portion of their operating budget.
DESIGN CHALLENGE
How might we help engage and motivate more animal lovers to donate
while providing them with trust and reliable information about the charity?
THE SOLUTION
Playful PAWS donation landing page using rhetorical tropes to enhance
animal rights, appealing to animal lovers.
It ultimately aims to persuade the main type of donors to fund by clicking a Call to Action button, increasing awareness about animal welfare even among the public.
DESKTOP RESEARCH
PAWS only relies on donations from individuals.
My desktop research process began with browsing the organization's website to find out its values, history, goals, missions, and target audience. I tried looking into other forums and media to collect as much information as possible to know more about the organization. The main goal was not only to understand the organization but hear genuine opinions on how people think of the community) and general information on how people feel when they donate and what campaigns people are interested in or persuaded to donate to. This helped me create a persuasive and appealing landing page for the charity.
01/
To enforce a strict no-kill policy while providing a unique free-roam shelter where homeless, abandoned, and abused animals are given safe haven.
03/
To raise awareness of animal matters and funding for their animal care, and gather more volunteers, most importantly, providing a better life for those animals.
02/
Rescue animals in need and provide quality care service and adoption for them.
04/
Animal lovers who are deeply passionate about animal rights and are driven by empathy and a sense of responsibility to help animals in need.
Mission & Values
Main Practice
Goals & Needs
Target Audience
VISUAL RESEARCH
Look at the current charity landing page trend for my design direction.
I found that many charities tend to use pity or happy photographs to elicit people’s sympathy appeal, which spurs more donations. However, nowadays, some charities refrain from the use of images because of ethical issues or stereotypes, even negative appeals reflecting the weakness among those in need.
Source from Bay County Animal Services and Freepik
VISUAL CONCEPT
Incorporating these themes, the PAWS landing page can evoke emotions and tell compelling stories about animals, ultimately inspiring support for their funds from the target audience.
INFORMATION STRUCTURE
Content that can trigger empathy, making users understand the PAWS current situation.
After grasping the landing page trends, I looked into the PAWS’s original website to gather information that should be prioritized. I decided to focus more on the urgent need for donations, inspired to create a call to action button, 'Donate Today,'. It’s designed to encourage users to click more. I planned it to be placed on the first page, and the rest of the pages were intended to support the information, such as what the organization is about and what they take action on.
IDEATION
Brainstorm ideas for visual components for the landing page.
I conducted a mind map starting from the keyword based on the PAWS goals — Abandoned animals, Safe shelter, Animal care, and Donation. I conceptualize various visual ideas such as animals' paws, money, canned food, animals in cages, animals raising hands (like human freedom), and broken dog leashes.
I then came up with
2 versions of rough sketches.
In the first idea, where I focused on the visual of "Companionship with Animals," I imagined putting two cut-out images of a human and an animal face together to describe the strong bond between the owner and dog. The second idea illustrates "Animal Rights" that they deserve welfare and respect. I played with the shape of the letter PAWS to remind users again about the organization's name and the shape of the dog's paws to evoke a feeling of sympathy or deliver the fact that they're in need.
Version #2 was selected for the animal rights concept aligned with the PAWS identity and digitalized for testing.
To enhance further, I explored images of dogs with the gesture of raising their hands for a sense of rhetorical tropes. For example, an image of a person and dog handshaking illustrates a strong bond between them, and texts like "small action makes a huge difference" could connote the meaning of 'hyperbole'. Similarly, the name of the organization, 'PAWS', can be visually described as an animal paw image. With these ideas, I finally digitalized the concept into live.
DESIGN IMPROVEMENT
Peers' feedback using 6 thinking design hats to refine the design.
I gathered many constructive feedback based on the criteria from 3 of my friends to modify the concept. This was one of the crucial process for seeing the visual design from multiple perspectives, such as about the ton of images, icon choices, component arrangements, positions and layouts.
IMPROVED DESIGN CONCEPT
How has the design improved based on the feedback?
These are key revisions to the design: 1) Added additional information to provide a thorough explanation on the reasons for PAWS donation, 2) Better text alignment with images for each section to enhance readability, 3) Border lines on images removed to reduce visual distractions, and 4) Added a photo gallery with positive images to stimulate users’ emotions to be positive for a better community identity.
REFLECTION
What I learned
The power of photographs.
I utilized many information-carrying images relevant to the context and concept of the design to enhance messages. I learned that good use of photography has the power to emotionally connect with users and make design more appealing, even persuasive.
Prioritizing and implementing feedback.
While gathering many feedback based on the different types of context, I realized it’s essential to take them selectively that are aligned with the design direction. This allowed me to not be overwhelmed by a high volume of feedback, focus on the critical point, and make efficient use of my time and resources within the timeframe.
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