Mobile App & Responsive Website Design Concept
Community. is a multi-platform tool to get adults involved in local community service
PROJECT DURATION
2 weeks
MY ROLE
Independent UX designer involved in all stages of the mobile app and responsive website design
RESPONSIBILITIES
- User research & interviews
- Ideation
- Information architecture
- Paper & digital wireframing
- Creation of design mockups
- Prototyping
- Conducting usability studies
- Accounting for accessibility
TOOLS
- Figma
- Notion
- Photoshop
- Google Suite
THE CHALLENGE
India ranks 57th out of 119 countries in volunteerism, donations, and helping strangers, according to the 2022 World Giving Index. The global pandemic has led to an increase in people participating in community service in India, but lack of time, awareness, and resources remain the top reasons why Indian adults do not volunteer regularly pre and post the COVID-19 pandemic.
Community., an initiative for social good, wants to target adults in India and get more of them involved and actively engaged in doing social good through local community service.
THE GOAL
Design an inclusive multi-platform solution to make it easy and convenient for adults to discover and participate in volunteering focused community service opportunities near them.
To keep this project focused, I narrowed the scope to target adults in Goa, India.
UNDERSTANDING THE USER
I started the project by conducting online research, surveys and interviews to empathize and better understand the target users I was designing for.
What are the motivations of adults volunteering in community service?
What are the obstacles that prevent adults from volunteering?
What are the needs of adult volunteers?
How can we get more adults to volunteer in their community?
Through the interviews, I learned that a majority of users want to participate in community service but do not have the time. Many users also find it difficult to find short-term volunteer opportunities that meet their interests. Most users also mentioned that they get personal fulfillment from giving back to the less fortunate and helping bring some joy to those in need.
I identified 4 key insights that I used to guide the project.
1
A multi-lingual approach is necessary to ensure inclusivity and accessibility to meet the diverse language needs of Indian users.
2
Volunteering flexibility is of utmost importance for working adults and caregivers to meet their interests and time constraints.
3
Proximity based opportunities make it easier and more convenient for adults to volunteer in their free time.
4
Highlighting volunteering impact creates a greater sense of personal fulfillment and promotes user action.
Creating user personas helped me empathize with the users and prioritize their needs.
Problem statement: Stacey is a busy digital marketeer who needs a quick way to find volunteering opportunities that meet her interests and time constraints because she wants to be able to give back to her community in her free time.
Problem statement: Parab is a retired accountant who needs a way to find volunteering opportunities close to his house or find opportunities to volunteer his time online because he has physical limitations that prevent him from travelling far.
UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET
An audit of a few competitor’s products provided direction on gaps and opportunities to address with the Community. app and website.
1. ConnectFor - a website connecting volunteers with NGO’s
2. Youth For Seva - a youth focused volunteer movement with chapters in major cities
3. Act for Goa - not for profit informational site about social issues in Goa
IDEATING A SOLUTION
I did a quick ideation exercise to come up with ideas for how to address gaps identified in the competitive audit. My focus was specifically on making it easy for users to find volunteer opportunities that meet their individual needs.
Crazy Eights Exercise
STARTING THE DESIGN PROCESS
After sketching out the screens for the main user flow, I proceeded to create digital wireframes and a low-fi prototype which I could test with potential users.
View the Community low-fidelity prototype
USABILITY TESTING
I conducted an unmoderated usability study with 5 participants across Goa to determine how easy/difficult it was for users to complete the main user flow - finding volunteer opportunities near them that meet their needs.
These were the main usability study findings.
1
Location & Proximity
-
Iconography for ‘location settings’ needs to be more obvious for users to find it easily
-
Proximity/radius based search is important to influence more user participation
2
App Navigation
-
Global navigation category names need to be simplified for better user understanding
-
Horizontal swipe functionality to navigate between volunteering cards can be removed as users prefer the navigation buttons
3
Accessibility Filter
-
Users want to be able to filter volunteer opportunities based on their varying accessibility needs
HI-FIDELITY DESIGNS
(Interactive)
The high-fidelity prototype followed the same user flow as the low-fidelity prototype, including design changes made after the usability study.
Click the above image to interact with the prototype
Research indicated that a multilingual approach is critical for a community service app in India. With 22 major languages and approximately 20,000 dialects spoken in the country, an app with multilingual capabilities will increase accessibility, inclusivity, user engagement, reach, and understanding of users' needs.
Clear information hierarchy on the details page to help users find the most important information faster.
Based on the insights from the usability studies, users were hesitant to give the app location access. The insight gained was that users should be given the added option to self select their location.
Research also indicated a need for proximity/radius based search.
The usability study revealed that users with varying physical and cognitive abilities needed a way to filter volunteer opportunities basis their accessibility needs. Based on this insight, an additional filter named ‘accessibility features’ was added. Organisers would have to indicate accessibility features when creating volunteer opportunities.
In order to create a more inclusive solution, I optimized the designs to fit the user needs of different devices.
LESSONS LEARNED
Through this project, I learned that there is a very real need for an easy to use and flexible community service solution that focuses on the community of users first, as opposed to focusing on organisations who needs volunteers.
The insight gained was that if adults had an easy way to find flexible community service opportunities that meet their personal needs, they are more likely to get involved in giving back to their local communities.
POSSIBLE NEXT STEPS
1. Explore and research ways to add gamification elements/rewards to the app to encourage continuing community service
2. Design app screens for remaining user flows and conduct further usability studies
3. Empathize, Ideate, Design, Prototype and Test the ‘Create Opportunities’ flow for the responsive website targeting NGOs, groups and individuals