Tierheim Berlin

A website redesign and companion mobile app making pet adoption and donation simpler for Berlin’s official animal welfare organisation.

Website redesign and mobile app key screens

Case Study Summary

Overview

Tierheim Berlin is the official association for animal welfare in Berlin, rescuing and rehabilitating stray and abandoned animals. Funded mainly through adoptions and donations, the project brief was to update and simplify the visual design of the existing website and develop a companion mobile app to make pet adoption and donation easier.

The problem

Tierheim Berlin had no mobile app, and its existing website was dense with information and difficult to navigate. User research confirmed that while people trusted the organisation, they struggled to find pets or complete donations efficiently. A simpler, mobile-first experience was identified as a high-value addition.

Research and discovery

Three users were interviewed: a family wanting to adopt a cat, a user looking to adopt a dog, and a user wanting to donate. All said they searched online first — through local shelters, social media, or eBay Kleinanzeigen — before visiting in person. All found the existing Tierheim Berlin website dense and hard to navigate, and all felt a mobile app focused on adoption and donation would be a valuable addition.

Design process

The project followed a full UX process: user research and interviews, competitive analysis, user flow mapping for two key journeys (account creation and pet search; monthly donation setup), low and mid-fidelity wireframes for the mobile app, and user preference testing. The design changed substantially from first wireframes to final, driven by user feedback. Preference testing showed 65% of users preferred all pet categories visible on the home screen, and flagged that 35% were uncomfortable with horizontal scrolling.

Key screens

The mobile app covers home, cats category, individual pet listing, and donation flow. The website redesign includes a simplified home page, cats category page, individual pet listing, and donation screen — all designed to reduce information density and improve navigation clarity.

Retrospective

The redesign process was rewarding — analysing the existing website clarified what features mattered most to the shelter and where improvements were possible. Simplifying a full website into a focused mobile app was the main challenge, but user feedback throughout the process made the design stronger at each iteration.

Splash screen photos by Alec Favale & Noelle Rebekah on Unsplash. Other imagery courtesy of Tierheim Berlin.