Pet space
- UX/UI design
- User flow
- Information architecture
- Yes/No Map
The shortest path from “my pet is lost” to a notice that people nearby will see.
Overview
Pet space is a free, volunteer-run service for finding lost and found animals. Its Telegram bot was already running and sending notifications to people nearby. The website was to become its other half: a place for notices, a map and animal profiles.
The biggest challenge
The team’s hypothesis: people register when they are calm, then return to the website at the worst moment, when they have lost a pet or found an animal on the street. They are stressed, often on a phone, and every extra action takes time that is critical for the animal. The “lost” and “found” flows therefore needed to be as short and clear as possible, and the website had to work with the bot rather than duplicate it.
Process
To narrow the visual direction at the concept stage, we created a Yes/No map: the clients chose six references close to their vision and six that definitely did not fit, explaining their choices with adjectives. This turned taste into specific rules: pastel yet saturated colours, rounded cards and buttons, and real photos instead of illustrations. We then mapped the “lost / found” user flow and saw that the longest part, entering the animal’s details, could move earlier, immediately after registration.
Solutions
Two buttons instead of a menu
The first screen of the homepage has two large photo cards: “My pet is lost” and “I found an animal”. Someone in a panic does not have to look for the right section: they choose their situation with one tap.
A notice in one click
The pet’s profile, with a photo, breed, age and Pet ID, is filled in ahead of time, in a calm moment. When the animal goes missing, only the place and time remain to be entered.
Website and bot as one system
The Telegram bot was already working, so we designed the website around it rather than repeating its functions. The bot sends instant notifications, the website provides a map, notices and profiles, and locations with a radius determine which animals people hear about in Telegram.
Insights
Design for the worst moment. When people use a product under stress, calm steps such as registration and entering animal details should happen earlier. Only a minimum of actions should remain at the critical moment.
Do not duplicate a channel that already works. The bot was good at sending notifications, so the website got what the bot lacked: a map, profiles and full notices.
Relevance matters more than reach. Notifications about every animal in the city quickly become noise. Locations with a radius leave only the animals people might actually encounter.
