SPRINT:
IHADF
TEAM
SOFIA - UI DESIGNER
MELISSA - UX DESIGNER
MY ROLES
RESEARCH
UX CONTENT DESIGN
USER TESTING
TOOLS
FIGMA
GOOGLE SLIDES
TIME CONSTRAINT
5 DAYS
PROJECT
BACKGROUND
IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM
Myself and two other UX Designers were given the task of increasing the value of an existing non-profit organization, prompted by the How Might We:
"How might we help social impact organizations express their value, and inspire people to take action in order to drive positive change?"
Using the 5-day Google Sprint Method, we chose to help the I Have A Dream Foundation, a leading non-profit in the U.S. that empowers children from under-resourced communities.
Their website contains strong, supportive content surrounding their cause and work but is limited in scope and lacks clarity in the navigation for users particularly on their Donation Page. This page is crucial to the organization but is without a compelling presence or voice, and offers limited donation options.
PROJECT OBJECTIVE:
Provide a digital solution to increase the number of in-kind donors and make users feel more connected to the I Have a Dream Foundation.
CONSTRAINTS:
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Time Frame of 5 days
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Mobile Web Design
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Adherence to existing brand guidelines
SPRINT
TIMELINE
LET'S GO, TEAM!
Rachael Soglin
To gain a broader understanding of the space, we started by collecting secondary online research to better define the issues non-profits face when collecting donations. This also ensured that our design team members were on the same page.
We found that generally charities & foundations have three major issues:
Melissa Thankakone, Sofia Lorenzin
Diving deeper into the statistics behind these problems from the vantage point of the donors, it was clear many people claim lack of financial stability holds them back from donating. However, those who are inspired to donate do so because of some level of personal connection to the organization they choose to support, and those who do not donate monetarily often volunteer their time as an alternate resource.
PROBLEM
SPACE
SECONDARY RESERACH
Sofia Lorenzini
DEFINED
For many, a lack of disposable income puts giving money to even the most transparent and impactful charities out of reach. The desire to take action and give gifts and resources that extend beyond money is still there. With 18,000 young people served nationwide, the “I Have A Dream Foundation” is an impactful resource to many young people (“Dreamers”), changing their futures for the better and increasing their chances of success long-term. However, their website does little to facilitate the online giving of in-kind (non-monetary) donations. This leaves those visiting their website without money to give with little ability to contribute to positive social change.
PROBLEM
SPACE
From our Primary Research of 5 interviews conducted over Zoom, we saw 3 Key Insights emerge. We chose the most commonly expressed & compelling to focus our design: willingness to donate beyond just money.
Thinking divergently to cast a wide net to catch our solutions in, we individually crafted HMW questions and through dot-voting landing on the framework of our design challenge.
KEY
INSIGHTS
ASKING USERS
Sofia Lorenzini
INSIGHTS DISTILLED
Thinking divergently and to cast a wide net to catch our innovative design answers in we individually crafted How Might We questions and through dot-voting tried to land on the framework of our design challenge.
As we struggled to align on next steps, it occurred to me none of these design opportunities accurately captured our problem space.
Through a little more research, I came across the notion of "in-kind giving." This term concisely defined the space we wanted to work within and allowed room to explore designs within our strict timeframe. It would also express the value of our proposed design to the client more clearly and on their terms.
DESIGN
CHALLENGE
How might we help facilitate impactful in-kind donations from adults who want to add value to the lives of youths, in order to take action and drive long-term positive social change?
From our previous interview insights, we collectively developed our persona, Nicholas Ray. A Millennial Marketing Coordinator representing the demographic most likely to feel unable to engage with monetary-only donation platforms. His desire to support social programs beyond money on a digital platform is his (and our users') main goal. However, such opportunities are difficult to find online, and none exist at all within the digital presence of the I Have A Dream Foundation.
PERSONA
NICHOLAS RAY
Sofia Lorenzini, Melissa Thanakone & Rachael Soglin
Photo: Unsplash
To better identify our team's opportunity to assist Nicholas, we generated a Journey Map that examines Nicholas's ideal, future-state donation experience. Our design challenge fed the most opportunity during his selection of either in-kind or monetary digital donation options.
USER
JOUNREY MAP
OPPORTUNITY FOR DESIGN
Melissa Thanakone & Rachael Soglin
How might we help facilitate impactful in-kind donations from adults who want to add value to the lives of youths, in order to take action and drive long-term positive social change?
To provide more context for our team, we collectively defined design and usability decisions to remain mindful of user base as well as our client's needs. We decided that mobile web was the shortest point between the current user base, prospective users, and expanding the donation capacity of the foundation. We also wanted to keep the existing branding intact while adding an in-kind option within the existing donation platform.
Melissa Thankakone
We then individually sketched storyboards to provide the framework for the donation experience from the users' perspective. Combining the strongest elements we were able to craft the final storyboard that served as our user flow. We chose to focus on the foundation's existing yet difficult-to-access mentorship positions. This not only satisfied the wants of the user base but was also an existing opportunity that the foundation is in need of filling. Because we wanted to gain new users, we focused on the onboarding process. For the first point of contact between our relatively young persona of Nicholas, we created a scenario in which he was prompted by an Instagram ad for the IHADF in-kind donation option.
The black text in the storyboard below signifies group work, while the sketches and purple text are my own.
DESIGN DECISIONS +
STORYBOARD
Rachael Soglin
RACHAEL'S STORYBOARD - VERSION 1
TEAM STORYBOARD -
FINAL VERSION
Our individual roles took over at this point to divide and conquer: Melissa and Sofia created the design library and wireframes using our individual sketches. I took the task of writing the copy for what would be our high-fidelity prototype. It was important to me to maintain the compelling yet positive voice already present on the IHADF page, so I continually referenced their existing webpage and other written materials. Sofia and Melissa knocked it out of the park with the UI as you can see below.
VERSION 1 PROTOTYPE
At this point, we were ready to test our design with 5 users as this is the preferred minimum from which accurate data can be obtained. I performed 2 of the usability tests via zoom. We found issues of visibility and clarity primarily on our home screen within the mentorship option buttons, wording, and icons, as well as issues with unclear copy on our CTA on screen 2.
Rachael Soglin, Melissa Thankakone, Sofia Lorenzin
USER
TESTING
With only three design elements to improve upon, we quickly prioritized them based on the necessity of the change to the user versus the level of effort on the UX team. All three were manageable within our time frame. I took the role of redesigning our confusing CTA and adding additional instructional copy. We thought "make a dream real" was a call to action that made sense in the context of the brand. And we thought it was cute. However, users were unclear that this was the button that would take them to the application to become a mentor.
It was also important to make a clearer delineation between the categories "Career Readiness" and "Interviews & Resumes." We changed the latter to "Support Networks" which offered a broader style of support outside of career help.
Lastly, the three diamonds housing the "Steps to Become a Mentor" looked like buttons, so we altered the design to feel more like instructions rather than small buttons.
DESIGN
CHANGES
VERSION 1
HIGH-FIDELITY
PROTOTYPE
ALL TOGETHER NOW
KEY
LEARNINGS
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The power of well-defined roles makes all the difference in productivity level. Particularly when there is a narrow timeline and there are multiple design tasks running at once. My team of three found ways to back-track and make new discoveries in our own roles while moving forward as a whole - these moments were key to uncovering valuable information that guided the nature of our design.
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Designing for an existing brand within their established guidelines can be a challenge. Especially because we were not handed any branding guidelines and had to establish our own. This was true not only for the UI and visual branding but the voice of the copy as well.
NEXT
STEPS
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See take up in the mentorship program. If we see this, we will know we've found success in our design.
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Donor vetting and training. For the safety of the staff and the kids, we would love to help design a screening and training platform for new potential donors.
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Increased accessibility. Many of the color combinations and font sizes are native to the IHADF website, but we know from experience that many of them don't pass WCAG AA standards. It would be great to revamp the whole digital IHADF experience and make it more accessible to all.