Helping the NGO Kurumins to improve the organization and adherence of volunteers
Challenge
Our team was challenged by the "Support an NGO" volunteer project, organized by the Jovens UX&UI and VagasUX communities, to create a solution for some of the problems presented by the NGO Kurumins. Our goal as UX Designers was to enable better organization for the NGO and its volunteers, helping to manage their activities, improving communication between them, and encouraging their participation.
To achieve this, we proposed a project capable of being implemented by the NGO. This project would solve the problem of organization and management of activities by the Institution, increasing the offer and retention of volunteers.
Context
Since the beginning of the pandemic, in 2020, the adversities faced by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have been accentuated. According to the research carried out by Datafolha in partnership with Ambev, the challenges faced by NGOs were accentuated with the current scenario and outlined a still uncertain future for organizations.
Among the main difficulties highlighted for the post-pandemic in the Third Sector are: the lack of financial supporters (41%), donations of materials and equipment (13%), and volunteers to help the organization rebuild (11%).
Another challenge was rising expenses. The need to buy products related to the prevention of COVID-19 (20%), food (14%), and investments in structure for remote work (10%) entered the routine of organizations, which needed to reinvent themselves in this period. Even so, Brazilians' interest in the Third Sector increased during the pandemic.
Project's goal
Support NGOs that need people engaged in helping, with proposals for design and user experience solutions, based on the scenario of each Institution, in order to deal with their main pain points.
Understanding the problem
The first stage of the project was to look for data and sources on volunteering and NGOs to define what else we needed to find out about the segment and the Kurumins Project itself. We used the Canvas Business Model to discover the problems and objectives of the business and the needs of users and to arrive at possible ideas for solutions.
The CSD matrix helped us document what we had discovered and prioritize solutions: what were our certainties, doubts, and assumptions about the challenge? What should we prioritize? What were the hypotheses to be validated?
After completing the desk research stage, we began creating our proto-personas. These were idealized representations of the NGO's users, based on their context analysis. We considered who they are, their likes, behavior patterns, their journey, and how they feel throughout it.
We arrived at two profiles: a volunteer with face-to-face activities and another with remote participation.
Users Research
To identify the problems to be solved, we conducted research. We began with a quantitative survey to measure the demographics and behavior patterns of users who have volunteered and those who have not.
Following the quantitative research, we selected some people for qualitative interviews to better understand and analyze each individual's profile and potential pain points.
Quantitative research
Quantitative research yielded positive results and provided direction for the project to proceed.
Qualitative Research
The qualitative research was also quite enlightening. Below are some insights we gained from the interviews:
After we gathered the research results, we created our persona.
Users
We identified three user personas based on our qualitative research interviews: those who have never done volunteer work, those who have done volunteer work in the past, and those who have done and continue to do volunteer work.
Solution development
To start our solution we used the “crazy 8” method, in which each member of the group made 8 sketches of how they thought about the product. From there, we put together our best ideas and created wireframes.
With the wireframes in hand and a prototype created, we began testing. We conducted five tests in which users had to complete tasks as defined by us. With the results, we were able to refine our app and create a high-fidelity prototype.
Style guide and language guide
We used NGO's existing style guide and improved it as needed during the project's progress. This helped us standardize elements, typography, and colors throughout the visual production. We also created a language guide to make the texts more inclusive and to capture the essence of NGO in words and appropriate emojis.
Creating High Fidelity
At this stage we didn't have many impasses, we knew exactly how we wanted the application, so we created the high fidelity, refined the details and put it to the test.
Usability Test
After five more tests, we identified additional user difficulties, mostly related to the text. We revised it again and were ready to present the Vagas UX and Jovem UX & UI to the team.
Presentation
The presentation dates were set with the groups, NGO representatives, and project mentors. Each work and experience was given 20 minutes to be exposed. This was a very important moment for us, filled with personal satisfaction and gratitude for our achievements. Although we were apprehensive, we were certain that we had given our best. We received many compliments about the work presented and feedback from the mentors. With the NGO representatives' perceptions, we were alerted about some points of improvement for the project's evolution:
• The app is very complete and robust for the proposal;
• We try to solve many pains;
• How would the NGO get resources to invest in the product?;
• The UI is perfect, but the UX would need some refinement to better fit the NGO scenario.
Product adjustment
We refined our project with the intention of keeping the focus on bringing effective and viable solutions, taking into account the feedback we received. To redesign the product, we prioritized features to make the solution simpler and better address the user's main pain points.
We analyzed user needs (volunteers, NGOs and children assisted) and business objectives to prioritize. We adjusted the application for a simpler, cleaner website that met the main needs of those involved, generating value for users and meeting Kurumins' goals.
The feedback and lessons learned helped us reach improvements and refine the product interaction process, resulting in an executable and scalable version, with conditions to be sustained in the long term by both the NGO and the volunteers.
New Usability Tests
After improving the product based on the feedback received, we conducted 6 new usability tests:
• 3 tests with the mobile prototype;
• 3 tests with the web prototype.
Next Steps
After finalizing and testing our prototype, we found some more details to be adjusted, some of the text, others of the layout, such as finding the NGO’s “activities calendar” and “be a volunteer”, so that the functions are even clearer within the website.
We also have plans for the future of the NGO website, we would like to implement an internal system to be used by the volunteers where the whatsapp groups would be gathered and updated information and content of interest to the volunteering in addition to a newslatter to always keep up to date with all the news .