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In 2023, I joined a volunteer-driven digital initiative created in response to the humanitarian and animal welfare crisis in Ukraine.
The platform aimed to connect volunteers who found abandoned animals during the war with people willing to adopt pets from shelters or temporary homes.
The project operated with limited resources but a strong mission: make rescue, fostering, and adoption faster, safer, and easier. As a Product Designer, I led the early discovery, UX strategy, and high-fidelity wireframe development to define the platform’s foundation and shape the MVP
Project
Animal Rescue Platform
The work helped bring clarity to an urgent social-impact initiative and set the groundwork for a scalable digital product capable of helping hundreds of animals reach safe homes.
Role: Product Designer
Scope of work:
Studied all available input documentation and existing materials
Interviewed stakeholders and volunteers to define the product vision, user needs, and real-world constraints
Collaborated with a Business Analyst to collect and document functional requirements
Conducted competitor and analogous-product research (pet shelters, rescue platforms, adoption apps)
Identified and prioritised must-have features for MVP
Created the information architecture, wireframes, and interactive prototype
Facilitated decision-making by running discussions and aligning the team around user need
Lean Discovery
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UX Research
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Rapid Prototyping
01
Discovery & Interviews
To understand the mission and the real-world workflows of both volunteers and adopters, I conducted a series of interviews. The Ukrainian context also introduced additional cultural and procedural specifics - adoption steps are less formalised than in European systems, and many decisions must be made quickly due to wartime conditions.
We clarified painful points:
lack of a unified space for rescued animals
difficulty verifying volunteers
fragmented communication between finders, rescuers, and adopters
no structured adoption process
This helped define the overarching product goal: to connect volunteers and adopters efficiently and safely through a simple, transparent platform
02
Requirements Gathering
Together with the Business Analyst, we:
mapped user types (registered/unregistered user / volunteer / moderator / admin)
documented functional requirements
outlined constraints (limited resources, urgency, scalability needs)
created a feature list and prioritised it using Moscow MVP framework
03
Competitor & Analogy Research
I analysed adoption platforms, shelter websites, and crisis-coordination tools to identify:
best practices in onboarding
effective ways to structure animal profiles
trust-building UI patterns (verification, transparency, reviews)
pitfalls seen in rescue communities (information overload, inconsistent quality)
Research insights shaped the IA and user flows, helping avoid UX bottlenecks from the start
04
Information Architecture
I developed a clear and minimal IA optimised for MVP needs, including:
Home & discovery
Submit a found animal
Browse animals for adoption
Messaging / contact
User profile
Basic admin panel
The approach balanced simplicity, speed, and scalability for later versions.
05
Wireframes & Prototype
I designed the complete set of high-fidelity wireframes for key use cases:
Submit a found animal
View animal details
Apply for adoption
User onboarding
Profile settings
Basic moderation workflows
The prototype helped the team visualise the product early and align engineering decisions before development.
Working Information Architecture created during the discovery phase to structure the MVP and highlight areas for stakeholder clarification
Role–Feature Matrix created during discovery and used as a working session artifact in team workshops to align user permissions, validate functional assumptions, and identify open questions for discussion
High-fidelity wireframes designed to define the pet discovery and adoption flow, including preview cards, homepage listings, and the detailed pet profile
High-fidelity filtering components designed to refine search results and support efficient pet discovery
• Clear requirements early on save significant time later.
Lean discovery is essential in volunteer and resource-limited projects.
MVP focus helps maintain momentum and avoid feature creep.
Simple, transparent UX builds trust in sensitive workflows like rescue and adoption
