Dedicated app design for Lite Foot Environmental Foundation

Increasing volunteer efficiency through simple design

Role
UX/UI Designer

Industry
Non-Profit Organization

Skills
Design Ideation, Field Research, Wireframing, Protoyping

Field Research

Understanding the foundation’s issues with volunteer overwhelm, I went to one of their most recent events to see the problems first hand.

Pain points include:

  • Staff overwhelm: excessive time spent looking through email lists and texts, trying to cross reference with a hand written sign up sheet.

  • Volunteer frustration: I spoke with one student who came down to volunteer their time only to be turned away by the exhausted staff. Due to an outmoded single sheet of paper containing all the names of people who had signed up to volunteer by form submission online, the foundation thought they had more volunteers than they needed for the event and were unable to find a spot for the student who wanted to donate their time. However, they list they had was from a system where it logs the name of anyone who signs up on the Lite Foot website with an interest in ever volunteering, not specifically at the event in question. So in actuality they were counting people who were not there and turning away volunteer help that they needed.

  • Event vendor confusion: I spoke with a sponsor for the event who was looking for volunteer help and couldn’t find anyone or get the attention of the staff due to the influx of problems.

  • Donation struggles: event attendees couldn’t easily access the online donation system unless they visited one specific booth that had a simple paper QR code for users to scan to donate.

“I just don’t understand, I came all the way down here to contribute
to a good cause and you don’t need my help?” - Frustrated Volunteer

Research Insights:

  • Users need a way sign up for volunteer events ahead of time and receive confirmation.

  • Data from event sign ups needs to be organized to provide the foundation up-to-date info on number of volunteers scheduled for each event. 

  • There is a hunger for volunteer opportunities and a need to publicize further volunteer events is required.

  • Streamlined app based donation system could increase overall donations.

Design Process

Streamlining volunteer engagement with an innovative app for Lite Foot Environmental Foundation.

After thoroughly analyzing research and engaging in client discussions, I embarked on designing an app to optimize the foundation’s volunteer sign-up process.

Understanding the foundation's need to better engage its dedicated volunteers, I crafted a user-friendly app experience for the Lite Foot Environmental Foundation. The app included features such as:

  • Seamless Volunteer Sign-Up: Simplified the process for users to join and support the foundation’s mission.

  • Donation Management: Enabled users to easily make and track monetary donations.

  • Personalized Profiles: Allowed users to maintain a comprehensive record of their volunteer activities and donations.

  • Visual Milestone Updates: Provided the foundation with a platform to visually communicate their mission's progress and achievements.

The result was a streamlined and engaging app that enhanced user interaction and support for the Lite Foot Environmental Foundation’s goals.

Flow Maps

Optimizing volunteer and donation experience with strategic flow maps.

Leveraging insights from the research phase, I designed detailed flow maps to enhance the user experience for volunteers and donors. These diagrams mapped out intuitive pathways for users to accomplish specific tasks within the app. The flow maps presented below illustrate my strategic approach to ensuring a seamless and user-friendly app experience.

Volunteer Flow

Donation Flow

Early Design Ideation

Quick sketches for visual layout exploration

To jumpstart the creative process and experiment with various screen layouts for the app, I engaged in multiple quick ideation sessions through short, timed sketches.

Design Ideation

Wireframes

I transformed my sketches into wireframes, leveraging a consistent UI design that I had previously implemented on the website.

Insights from testing

Lo-Fi to Hi-Fi journey for refined usability

Early usability testing revealed that users were overwhelmed by the amount of text in certain sections. To address this, I streamlined content with improved information hierarchy and incorporated illustrations to better convey tone and feel. Additionally, recognizing the need for more personalized volunteer event filtering, I introduced a survey into the profile creation process. This survey collects user preferences and provides tailored event recommendations.

Final Designs

Supporting an environmental foundation’s mission through UX design

In support of Lite Foot Environmental Foundation’s mission, I developed intuitive user experiences that not only facilitated volunteer event sign-ups and tracking but also streamlined the donation process. By seamlessly integrating donation and sign-up functionalities, I ensured users could effortlessly contribute to LFEF’s mission without disrupting their primary engagement.

For the future

What comes next?

Initial feedback on the design has been overwhelmingly positive, with users finding it intuitive and confidence-inspiring for their volunteer experiences. As I continued iterating, I recognized the potential for further enhancement through a dedicated backend solution. Moving beyond simple email and spreadsheet integration, a comprehensive internal platform could significantly benefit my client. This backend system would centralize and organize all volunteer and donation data, providing a cohesive and efficient management tool. Future iterations will prioritize implementing this integrated backend to elevate user experience and operational effectiveness.