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:
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.
The Competitors
Of the competitors, Copalana is most closely related to the type of volunteer-to-nonprofit that I found.
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.
Ideating
Here I began the ideation stage. I sketched wireframes and ideated them into mid-fi digital screens to test with my users.
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:
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.
