Mobile App Design
Meowmate
Helping cats find loving homes by streamlining the cat adoption process, one swipe at a time.
Mobile Design
UI/UX Design
UX Research
OVERVIEW
Meowmate is a mobile app that reimagines cat adoption with a fun, swipe-based experience inspired by dating apps. Users can filter by age, breed, and lifestyle compatibility to find their perfect match.
For shelters, AI-generated bios and management tools save time and help boost adoptions. Meowmate aims to make finding a forever friend as easy as swiping right!
ROLE
Mobile Design
UX Research
TEAM
Jessica Liu
Cory Poon
Sahithi Lingampalli
Kaylen Ho
Nate Punya
Jimin Kim
Rohan Akurathi
Daniel Wu
TIMELINE
Los Angeles, CA
Jan. 2025 - Jun. 2025
PROBLEM
You are navigating a cat adoption website, excited to find the perfect furry friend to bring home.
Suddenly, you’re hit with cat profiles with missing photos, vague descriptions, and a frustrating lack of filters to help you narrow down your options. Important details like adoption fees, next steps, or foster contact information are buried, outdated, or missing entirely. What should be a simple and exciting experience quickly becomes overwhelming and discouraging.
Many current adoption platforms are outdated and inefficient, often leaving both adopters and shelters without the necessary tools. This leads to missed opportunities for adoption, longer shelter stays, and an overall disjointed process that doesn't do justice to the cats or the people hoping to adopt them.
SOLUTION
Hinge, for cats!
Meowmate brings the swipe-based, personality-driven experience of modern dating apps to the world of cat adoption. Instead of endless scrolling through unclear, outdated listings, users can easily browse adoptable cats with rich profiles that include photos, personality tags, and detailed descriptions, all curated to help them find the right match.
Swipe through Cats
Swipe through a selection of cat profiles to find your purr-fect match.
Input preferences
Personalize your search by selecting your cat preferences!
Message Shelters
After saving cats of interest, reach out directly to shelters to ask about specific cats.
01. DISCOVER
How do users feel about current cat adoption processes?
RESEARCH
First, we explored and interacted with existing pet adoption sites to identify usability gaps and understand pain points in the current adoption experience.
We noticed several consistent issues with current adoption sites:
Vague Descriptions
Lack of Photos
Limited Filtering Capabilities
Additionally, in order to better understand our users needs and pain points with adoption, we also distributed an online survey.
Have you adopted a pet before?
How would you describe your experience with the adoption process?
What challenges, if any, have you faced, while looking for a pet to adopt?
Are there any features you wish current pet adoption websites or apps had?
Our survey revealed the following statistics:
17 out of 32
found the adoption process to be difficult, ranking it a 1 on a scale from 1-5.
23 out of 32
reported challenges in finding cats that matched their preferences due to limited filtering options.
21 out of 32
emphasized the significance of photos and detailed descriptions in making adoption decisions.
“I would like to see descriptions of animal personalities and recommendations on what type of family or adopter is suitable with the animal”
KEY FINDINGS
Based on our user pain points and survey results, we narrowed our focus to several key findings:
Engaging Interface
Users find adoption platforms to be difficult, unintuitive, and time-consuming to navigate.
We will develop a swipe-based browsing interface to provide an engaging, yet efficient adoption experience.
Enhanced Filtering
Users face the challenge of navigating limited filtering options on current adoption platforms.
We will introduce comprehensive filters that allow users to search for cats based on specified criteria.
Detailed Profiles
Users express frustration with incomplete profiles, hindering them from making an informed adoption decision.
We will implement a streamlined cat listing process that requires high-quality images and comprehensive descriptions.
02. IDEATE
Reimagining the adoption experience from the ground up.
SKETCH
Given that we were on a time constraint, we ran through potential flows and sceneries verbally, and drafted out rough wireframes on paper. From our sketches, we were able to organize our information architecture.
03. PROTOTYPE
Turning concepts into clickable experiences.
LO-FI
With user insights in mind, we produced low-fidelity prototypes, showcasing the core features of our interface.
VISUAL IDENTITY
After exploring different styles, we landed on a lively palette of oranges and greens to create a warm, welcoming feel.
DESIGN SYSTEM
We chose a modern sans-serif typeface and minimalistic components, accented with pops of color to keep the interface fresh, friendly, and easy to navigate. The goal: simplicity without sacrificing personality.
MID-FI
At the mid-fi stage, we refined our layouts and began integrating our design system, introducing typography, color, and illustration to bring more personality and clarity to the experience.
USER TESTING
We used Maze to conduct user testing, helping us gather feedback on usability, clarity, and overall experience. Insights from real users helped us identify pain points and refine our designs for a smoother adoption journey!
Pain Points
1.
Two ways to “like” a cat’s profile is confusing and seeing how many likes a cat has would be useful.
2.
Liked cards lack key preview information.
3.
Limited organizational tools on the Likes page makes it difficult to manage liked cats.
IMPLEMENTING FEEDBACK
Using the feedback we received from our usability tests, we iterated on our designs!
BEFORE
AFTER
The heart in the top right corner was removed to avoid confusion and was replaced with a ‘like’ count to provide insight on which cats are generating the most interest and encourage faster matches.
BEFORE
AFTER
Cat breed and age was added to the preview of liked cards to allow users to recall and compare favorites more easily.
BEFORE
AFTER
A Sort By menu and Select option were added to the Likes page to help users more efficiently browse liked cats. Additionally, instead of removing adopted cats entirely, which can be jarring, we introduced a greyed-out ‘Adopted’ state to gently notify users when a cat is no longer available.
04. FINAL SOLUTION
See Meowmate in motion!
ADOPTER POV
From the adopter’s perspective, Meowmate makes finding the right cat simple and enjoyable! With swipe-based browsing, helpful filters, and detailed profiles, the experience is fun, engaging, and stress-free.
Onboarding
During onboarding, users choose between the adopter or shelter view. Adopters can quickly create an account by entering basic informatio, then jump right into swiping to find their perfect match!
Discover Cats
Adopters can browse detailed cat profiles with descriptions, tags, and photos! Swiping makes it easy to explore different cats, while filter settings help narrow the search to find the perfect match.
Manage Liked Cats
From the Likes page, adopters can sort and manage their saved cats, view full profiles and associated shelters, and remove cats that have already been adopted.
Message Center
In the Message Center, adopters can view ongoing conversations and easily start new messages by selecting cats from their Likes.
ADOPTEE POV
From the shelter’s perspective, Meowmate makes it easy to post and manage cat profiles, track engagement, and communicate with adopters through an intuitive and streamlined interface!
Add a Cat
To add a cat, shelters simply upload photos, complete guided prompts with key details, and preview the profile before posting.
Managing Listings
In All Cat Listings, shelters can mark cats as adopted and use tools like List View and Sort by to efficiently organize and find cats.
Editing Profiles
Shelters can also edit their cats’ profiles in All Cat Listings, previewing their listing before saving the changes.
Message Center
In the Message Center, shelters can easily communicate with potential adopters.
05. DEMO DAY
The day we all prepared for!
On Demo Day, my team and I showcased Meowmate to an audience of over 50 peers and 5 other teams! We presented our project idea, walked through our design and development process, and shared key takeaways from building the app, from initial research to working prototypes!
06. REFLECTION
Key takeaways from our journey.
WHAT I LEARNED
User Testing is Key
Reviewing our usability test results highlighted just how crucial it is to test designs with real users. When you're too close to a design, it’s easy to overlook flaws or make biased assumptions. Testing with fresh eyes uncovered usability issues and areas for improvement that we hadn’t noticed, helping us make more informed, user-centered design decisions.
Working Within a Cross-Functional Team
This was my first time working closely with both developers and project managers! It taught me how to communicate effectively across different roles. I learned to align my designs with both user needs and technical constraints, ensuring they were thoughtful, feasible, and team-aligned.
Working Under Tight Deadlines
With only 8 weeks to deliver an MVP for Demo Day, I learned how to manage my time and prioritize tasks efficiently in a fast-paced environment. This project challenged me to balance design work, team collaboration, and iteration cycles, while also keeping up with my academic workload.
NEXT STEPS
Our development team is currently working on building out all core functionalities of the app. Once development is complete, we plan to create a launch presentation and begin reaching out to shelters to onboard them and help populate Meowmate with real adoption data!
Our ultimate goal is to launch Meowmate on the App Store once development is finished and we have a strong base of adoptable cats in the system!