Alara Acar
PawCO.
Mobile app design for pet adoption, community engagement, and animal welfare support.
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Patico aims to create a centralized, intuitive platform where animal lovers can discover adoptable pets, join community groups, support shelters, help animals, and shop to support animal help organizations or make donations in a safe and secure way — all in one place.
Tools​
Figma, Fig jam, Zoom, Jotform
My Role​
UX+UI Design, Visual Design, Branding, User flow, UX Research, Prototyping+Testing
Timeframe​
1 month
Challenge
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Animal lovers face fragmented and frustrating experiences:
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They need to use multiple platforms for adoption, donations, volunteering, and community interactions, which makes every type of help a separate, disjointed process.
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It is difficult to find trustworthy, verified organizations and confidently make donations or support causes.
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Many users want to help each other and animals or volunteer, but they don’t know where or how to start.
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Tracking local events, shelters, or community activities is challenging.
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There is no comprehensive, user-friendly mobile experience that centralizes all these opportunities in one place.
How might we help animal lovers discover pets, support verified organizations, volunteer, donate safely, and engage with communities — all in one app?
Objective​
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Centralize all pet-related activities in one app — adoption, donations, volunteering, community, and events.
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Provide a trustworthy platform where users can find verified organizations and safely make donations.
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Facilitate community engagement so users can help each other, share knowledge, and join discussions.
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Make adoption, donations, and volunteering easy and intuitive, even for first-time users.
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Design Process​​
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User Interviews​
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I conducted 6 interviews via phone and video calls with active and aspiring volunteers and donors from different parts of the world.
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Most participants regularly volunteer or donate and often rely on social media as their primary source of information.
​​Competitive Market Analysis
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The project began with an analysis of existing pet adoption, community, and animal welfare platforms. I reviewed four competitors, each addressing different needs such as adoption, donations, or social interaction.
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While these platforms offer useful features, they focus on single-use cases rather than a unified experience. This revealed a clear gap in the market for an all-in-one, user-friendly platform that brings adoption, verified organizations, safe donations, volunteering, and community together in one place.
​​Key Questions:​​
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What motivates you personally to help animals or get involved in animal welfare?
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How do you currently find information about NGOs, shelters, or rescue cases?
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What challenges do you face when deciding where to donate or which organizations to trust?
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How important is interacting with other volunteers or animal lovers in your journey?
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What would stop you from taking action when you want to help, even if you care deeply?
Affinity Mapping​
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These interviews revealed key insights that informed the design decisions:
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Research Findings​
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Persona Development
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Based on patterns from user research, I developed two primary personas to represent both highly engaged users and those who want to help quickly with minimal effort.
Since PatiCO. aims to make animal welfare more accessible and intuitive, the experience was designed primarily for users who want to help but don’t know where to start.
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Persona #1
“I can do more for animals if I have one clear, organized app to help me track cases and work with volunteers.”
Persona #2
“I want to help, but I don’t know where to start or who to trust. I just wish someone could guide me.”
Project Goals
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After analyzing research findings through affinity mapping and defining the personas, I mapped out the business objectives, user needs, and technical constraints to guide the ideation process.
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Information Architecture​
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Before starting the wireframing phase, I defined the core functionalities of the app by creating an information architecture. This helped me structure the content and features in a clear and logical way.
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User Flow​
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I then mapped out the user flow, with a particular focus on the sign-up process for new users, to ensure a smooth and intuitive onboarding experience.
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Lo-fi Wireframes​
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I started with low to mid-fidelity wireframes to explore different layout and navigation options for Pawco. At this stage, the focus was on the onboarding experience and the sign-up process. The goal was to quickly test ideas, understand user needs, and ensure a clear and intuitive first-time experience before moving into detailed design.
