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The Gathering Place

A community-based volunteer hub.

Both Volunteers and Non-profits expressed their need for a place to easily reach out to one another while building upon their specific non-profit community with new volunteer opportunities, specialized volunteer merchandise, and one-to-one communication. 

My Role

After primary research about non-profits was conducted with myself and 4 peers, I branched off to continue the design process. 

The Research

To gain a thorough understanding of user needs and concerns, I conducted more research involving interviews and surveys. I analyzed existing systems through competitive research. This process led to the creation of the following:

research summary.png
research summary.png
research summary.png
research summary.png
research summary.png

The Problem

How might we... increase volunteerism at all levels for local non-profits in the interest of delegating activities for a more even distribution of participation?

What does this mean?

Non-profits need more volunteers that at all levels of their organization. So, how can we increase volunteerism?

Meet the Stakeholders

The Archetype

the Non-Profit

This archetype helps define the non-profit in a way that can be recalled and reflected upon throughout the design process.

The Empathy Map

the Volunteer

This empathy map is one of the deliverables gleaned from the user interviews that helped connect me to the volunteers.

Their User Stories

To gain a clearer understanding of my primary stakeholders' needs and concerns, I next developed User Stories.

User stories.png
User stories.png
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The Competitors

Of the competitors, Copalana is most closely related to the type of volunteer-to-nonprofit that I found.

Compt Analysis.png
Compt Analysis.png
Compt Analysis.png

The Hightlights

Categorized by the many ways to volunteer or donate.

Sourcing volunteerism using "for the greater good" value.

Spans across many countries and multiple languages. Language feature does not always work.

Side navigation is useful but needs decluttering.

Stories are an interesting concept for sharing personal info but where do they go? Who can see them?

Creating the Flow

Now that my research deliverables are built out and available for me to look back on as I design, I created a flow chart to map out what the volunteers would see and do when interacting with a digital product.

Flowchart.png

Ideating

Here I began the ideation stage. I sketched wireframes and ideated them into mid-fi digital screens to test with my users.

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Home.png
Store.png
Community.png

Testing it Out

User testing and additional looks at insights pulled from research gave new direction for navigation, card layout, and more.

Three people tested in-person:

Frame 59537.png

Competitive analysis highlights:

Copalana uses "intrinsic kindness" to gain volunteers while I am looking to build connections through instant interaction as well as long-lasting community building with the collectibles

Volunteer cards include:
   Tags
   Time/duration
   Author
   Capacity
   Type

Side bar includes:
   Volunteering
   Fundraising
   Profile
   Help center
   Settings
   Logout

The Final Iteration

The final design is aptly named The Gathering Place. It's a place for volunteers to sign in and be verified by their non-profits as verified volunteers to access special community benefits.

 

They can engage directly with each non-profit community, be the first to exclusive volunteer merchandise, free and for purchase, at the discretion of the non-profit, and sign up for the newest volunteer openings. 

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