CAT SANCTUARY DIRECTORY

How do you keep track of hundreds of cats? At RAPS, volunteers and staff care for over 500 felines. I designed a directory to make it easier for them to identify that many cats.

Client: Richmond Animal Protection Society

My Role: UX Researcher, UX/UI Designer

Timeline: Oct 2025 - present

Tools Used: Figma, Figjam, Adobe CC, Typeform

THE CHALLENGE

Even the most dedicated volunteers can struggle to remember hundreds of cats

RAPS Cat Sanctuary is the largest no-kill shelter of its kind in North America, home to over 500 cats who are cared for by a team of staff and over 100 volunteers. Taking care of that many animals is no small feat in itself. Remembering each cat's name, needs, and temperament is an even greater challenge.

To design a solution, I needed to understand:

How do volunteers currently identify a cat?

Which features make identification faster or more accurate?

Which cats are hardest to identify, and why?

RESEARCH

With no existing reference point, I turned to adjacent apps for inspiration

Pet Adoption sites helped me understand how cats are grouped and presented

Bird Identification apps gave me inspiration on how to narrow down possibilities and distinguish one species from a list of many:

ObsIdentify allows users to upload a photo of a bird and an algorithm determines its species
iNaturalist also uses photo uploads but also allows side-by-side comparisons of the uploaded photo with photos of potential species
Merlin also uses photo uploads and has a step-by-step search feature. Users enter five details and the process returns 10 possible matches

USER INTERVIEWS

I conducted interviews with four different volunteers, discussing (1) their familiarity with the cats, (2) how they currently identify cats, and (3) which cats are hardest to identify.

Long-time volunteer for 16 years

Familiar with most cats, maintains a personal list and photo gallery

Tries to keep up with new arrivals

Volunteering for almost 4 years

Likes the reference sheets in each section

Familiar with cats in their volunteer area, but not in other sections

Volunteering for 8 years

Familiar with most cats, checks the blog if unsure

Has trouble identifying black cats and look-a-likes

Volunteering for under a year

Knows a few favourites and some cats in their volunteer area

Asks other volunteers or staff for help with identifying cats

USER SURVEY

I received 35 survey responses — 30 from volunteers, 4 from staff, and 1 from a guest.

Now that I had some insight on volunteer behaviours and challenges, I created a Typeform survey to better understand the scope of these needs and identify the most common pain points.

View Survey Results