Idaho Humane Society
The Idaho Humane Society is the Treasure Valley’s largest animal shelter — but it’s so much more than that. It’s a veterinary hospital, a food pantry, a community partner, a training center, and so much more. Eight years after we designed their site, we revamped it to better reflect the breadth of its programs and to make it easier than ever for its army of volunteers to update.
The Idaho Humane Society is the Treasure Valley’s largest animal shelter — but it’s so much more than that. It’s a veterinary hospital, a food pantry, a community partner, a training center, and so much more. Eight years after we designed their site, we revamped it to better reflect the breadth of its programs and to make it easier than ever for its army of volunteers to update.
“IHS has tons of services, events, and outreach to the community,” Thomas says. “A lot of that information was getting lost. Their main focus is — and should be — adoption, but I was completely blown away by the programs and services they offer. Their work includes education outreach to summer camps and schools, dog training classes, fostering and training programs with local prisoners, and so much more. They have always done a wonderful job using social media to get their message across, so we wanted to use those platforms and incorporate them into the new site. As a non-profit, anything we can do to minimize the amount of repetitive work, the better.”
A new menu categorizes all of IHS’s services into buckets (adopt, support, veterinary, etc.) — each of which might have more than a dozen options within those buckets. The menu has the added bonus of seamlessly drawing the viewer’s eye from adoption to services to outreach, so previously hard-to-find programs are within sight. Now, a user might visit the page to look for a new dog to add to the family, but also browse through the foster program, ways to donate pet food to families in need, or upcoming community events.
The color scheme also received a refresh. Instead of the serviceable beiges that dominated the site before, Thomas chose a punch of auxiliary colors like a gradient red/orange and black (which also happens to be the color scheme of the new IHS building). Large, simple shots of animals draw the eye in and complement the simple text. Thomas also wanted to do more than display pets, but bridge the gap between those that need to be adopted and the people who adopt them. For example, every time you roll over an image of a pet, you’ll see an image of a family or a person with a pet.