Engaging millennials
in micro-volunteering

Exploratory Research

I enjoyed working on this to learn about the trends in volunteering, which then became the inspiration for my design solution.

• Training and orientation will become more necessary as the virtual volunteer can contribute from anywhere across the globe

• Millennials are dedicated to causes they care about and because of their technical savviness, are on trend to volunteer more, especially in fields related to their careers

Evaluating and Converging Ideas

As a team, we did a Priority Matrix and a Rose, Bud, and Thorn Diagram together. Using these methods helped us prepare for affinity diagramming and synthesizing our data.

• To understand what the top user-preferred designs had in common
  

• To determine what design elements were higher impact and easier to implement going forward

INSIGHTS

I enjoyed taking the Affinity Diagram and using that as a basis to write the summary, since it allowed me to really understand what we got out of doing the user interviews.

• Users prefer designs that are professional, current, and fun

• Expectations: Easy discoverability, sense of community, and gamification elements

How does it work, so far?

With this round of testing, we focused on desirability and early usability of our team’s high-fidelity app screens, and we got a sense of what’s working in regards to information architecture, navigation, consistency, and visual clarity.  

HOME SCREEN

• Users preferred a realistic feel over a gamey one, for the map illustrations
  
  

• Users crave relatability in imagery and simplicity in layout
  
  

• Users need clearer context and labeling to know what to do on all key screens. The clarity still wasn’t there for the navigation.
  
  

How is the user completing
specific tasks?

With this round of user interviewing, we focused on the usability of each one of our prototypes, so we got feedback on one prototype, per user.  

FRIENDS SCREEN

• Wireframes were provided by our stakeholders
  

• I changed the layout of the Friends screen because the eight circles limit the amount of friends the user can have
  

• I also ended up going with a tab for a Leaderboard, to add a gamification element to the Friends section

Friendly, Uplifting,
Inviting, Inclusive

Volunteers are the biggest financial supporters of a non-profit organization, so creating an app that feels friendly and warm could be essential to the organization’s future, and also offers some comfort in their busy lives.

I thought the user would relate to seeing photographs of people doing various volunteering activities, since this communicates a friendly and inviting feeling, along with the rounded corners of the buttons and icons, and the soft, uplifting color palette.

Features

The badges really fill me with pride, because the users liked that they provide a playful element for each category, while hinting at the scouts’ inspiration.

• Users liked the artwork on the home screen, since it has a realistic and relatable feel, and also a bright, but not overwhelming, color palette

• Users responded well to the professional nature of the design, and the readable sans-serif fonts

• Users liked to be guided step-by-step

• Users seemed to really like the onboarding process and found the prototype to be simple to use
  
  

• Users enjoyed the friends screen and commented that it was “clean”, “simple”, and overall easy to use and look at
  
  

• They enjoyed the thank you message at the end, which gave them a sense of accomplishment
  

My goal was to create an app that is modern, professional, fun, and also lets the user see their impact on the community. This product design achieves both the business goals and user needs.