There is estimated to exist today in Ireland a population of 250,000 stray cats, while as many as 30 dogs are abandoned each day country-wide. Finding homes for animals is a highly uncertain and time-consuming process, and neutering and rehoming needs have risen annually, it is hypothesised as a result of economic and social factors.

This emotionally-demanding work requires shelters to track each animal, document interventions and costs, locate suitable adopters, and ensure that animals, especially those who have experienced trauma or neglect, enter safe and caring environments. To address these challenges, animal shelters operate under different models. Traditional shelters rely on centralised facilities with professional staff although often face space and resource limitations, which can lead to overcrowding and increased risks of disease.

Foster programs, in contrast, employ volunteer networks to temporarily accommodate pets in private homes, in the aspiration of offering safer, enriched environments while supporting community engagement and successful adoption outcomes. Laois SPCA, for example, run a foster-based shelter model, rescuing stray and abandoned animals, providing urgent veterinary care, running foster programs, and educating the community on responsible pet ownership. This is a model which can yet prove limited by volunteer availability — as lead volunteers continue to face heavier workloads and struggle to recruit additional support.

To manage these complex workflows, the Laois SPCA team draws on a mix of digital tools, including messaging apps, spreadsheets, websites, social media, and an information management system. Decentralised operations and diverse volunteer schedules can however make avoiding duplicated information, tracking outcomes, supporting fosters, and inter-organisational collaboration, time-consuming activities. Recent HCI research has suggested that computing technologies might yet foster human-animal empathy, simulate animal needs, and support equitable human-animal ecosystems, in part by streamlining workflows.

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It is this challenge that Prasad Krishna Murthi, Arikaa Panda, Manesha Ramesh and Xiyun Xie embraced through their HCI Design Project as part of their MSc in Human-Computer Interaction at University College Dublin. Adopting a participatory design approach, the team conducted observations at Laois SPCA, while also volunteering and accompanying members on daily activities.

Through a diary study, demographic surveys, and interviews with volunteers, the team highlighted priorities for design including the frequent need for volunteers to rely on memory, differing attitudes toward digital tools across age groups, how fragmented data can limit opportunities for task delegation and coordination, and the emotional strain of this work.

Examining existing bespoke platforms, the team found that many shelter manager tools assume animals are located within a central shelter rather than in foster homes. The team furthermore mapped existing users’ journeys as means to empathise with stakeholders and identify collaborative workflow needs. Following this analysis, the team led an ideation process targeting these painpoints, followed by a participatory design workshop with Laois SPCA members fulfilling diverse volunteer roles. This, to inform the design of the bespoke foster management tool: Whiskers.

Devised for Laois SPCA, Whiskers caters to both fosterers and other volunteers, by enabling dissemination of information across the network. Features include an admin interface for managing animal data, a foster diary for note-taking, task tracking with real-time updates, and a task posting page for assigning responsibilities and streamlining coordination among stakeholders. A usability test with four participants was conducted to validate the app and inform future development.