On December 7 and 8, designers, coders, and pet lovers gathered at GOOD’s Los Angeles office for the Karma Rescue Redesign event. Over two days, participants gathered to brainstorm, prototype, and redesign a new website for Karma Rescue—a Los Angeles-based animal rescue group—to improve the organization’s ability to find homes for pets, reach new supporters, and engage with their community.
The event kicked off on Saturday morning, when participants gathered to learn more about Karma Rescue’s work and how redesigning its website can help solve some of the very real challenges the organization faces. Rather than use the site mainly just to talk about itself, participants devised a digital experience that was more focused on showing people in the community ways to get actively involved. Could the website be a meeting place for volunteer sign ups, could it play a bigger role in the adoption process, could it engage visitors more with its education and community programs?
Working collaboratively on one wireframe design idea, participants got busy with whiteboards, sticky notes, and storyboards into the wee hours of Sunday morning. The rest of Sunday was spent busily coding and working out design kinks before the final presentation to the judges, which included Karma Rescue founder Rande Levine; Karma Rescue marketing director Jessica Gary; GOOD co-founder Casey Caplowe; and GOOD director of product design Aldo Puicon.
The final wireframe design (see below) was considered a great success, thanks to all the time, effort, expertise, and passion that participants gave for a meaningful cause. “The thought that went into the design was just amazing,” says Levine, who brought along for inspiration Bowie, a foster dog looking for a home. "I think everyone who saw that from our team was blown away.”
The judges selected five superstar participants who each received coupons for a year’s supply of Purina ONE dog food, a GOOD swag bag, and a share of a $1,000 prize. Congratulations to Lisa Rochetti, Zack Dennis, Chris Morales, Robert Parker, and Trong Nguyen!
With its user-friendly navigation and large format pictures, the site redesign is the first step in a brand new design direction that will help Karma Rescue continue their great work. Stay tuned as we continue to work to get the site completed and up and running next year.
Photos courtesy of Mindy Nguyen
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