Voluntize!

The Problem & Solution:

The Problem

There is an overall downward trend in the number of volunteers, leading to nonprofit organizations struggling.

Post-pandemic, the decline in volunteerism poses significant challenges for nonprofit organizations, exacerbating existing strains and placing insurmountable stress on their operations. Nonprofit organizations rely heavily on volunteers to fulfill their missions and deliver essential services to communities. When volunteer numbers dwindle, nonprofit organizations may struggle to meet the needs of their constituents and provide essential services, leading to increased workload and stress on staff members who must fill the gaps left by volunteers. This strain on staff can result in decreased morale, productivity, and job satisfaction, impacting the organization's overall effectiveness and sustainability.

The reason for the dwindling number of volunteers as Mark Snyder, director of the Study of the Individual and Society at the University of Minnesota, stems from a lack of free time to commit:

“Younger generations today are much more likely to work several jobs, more likely to have to share places to live long past the college roommate stage of life,” said Mark Snyder, director of the Center for the Study of the Individual and Society at the University of Minnesota. “These are barriers to getting involved. They are not all blessed to have the discretionary time to go out and volunteer.”

The COVID-19 pandemic also played a role, as closures and fears about getting sick led some people to break their volunteering habit. Some did not return, instead putting their attention on their families or, as local United Ways report, their own needs for help with food, rent, utilities and health care.”

The Solution

To be revitalized, volunteerism needs to have its pain points removed and operate similarly to how gigs in the gig economy work. Through the implementation of a user-friendly volunteer board that focuses on connecting users to volunteer opportunities both short-term and long-term, users are given a flexible and accessible opportunity to contribute to their communities.

Introducing Voluntize!: an efficient and user-friendly platform that connects users to a wide array of volunteering opportunities under the belief that even short-term volunteering can have a meaningful and positive impact on local communities.

Competitive Analysis

The Competition is Missing a Key Element: Mobile

I conducted a competitive analysis to understand how competitors bring forward volunteering opportunities. I focused on the existing capabilities, successes, and limitations to determine how Voluntize! can innovate the field and increase volunteerism.

The major insight I discovered was that the competitors have seemingly overlooked the crucial value of a mobile app. Since Voluntize! functions as a volunteer board, it can be compared to LinkedIn, a popular job board. Notably, LinkedIn receives 43.1% of its traffic from mobile devices, with 48.5% of its app users active on a monthly basis. These statistics underscore the importance of a mobile-first design for Voluntize!, as mobile app usage trends continue to rise. This approach ensures a familiar and convenient pathway to volunteering, which is crucial for encouraging ongoing app usage and sustained volunteer engagement.

Brief Overview of Competitors’ Advantages and Disadvantages

USER Personas

Voluntize!’s Target Audience

Using personas helps in focusing on a specific target audience. The fictional personas below were created to give a solid general feeling about the lives of Voluntize!’s potential users, and to see how Voluntize! can help alleviate their problems.

Emily, 28 Years Old | Marketing Manager

Emily is a 28-year-old marketing manager working at a mid-sized tech company in the city. She lives in a bustling urban area and juggles a chaotic work schedule alongside her personal life. Emily has previous volunteering experience from when she wanted her college application to stand out. She volunteered at an elderly care facility and ended up loving it because she enjoyed hearing people’s stories about tackling adulthood. However, once she began college, she couldn’t manage the time commitment while maintaining perfect grades. Now, with frequent business trips and an active social life, Emily would love to volunteer occasionally but struggles to find opportunities that fit her schedule.

Jake, 62 Years Old | Firefighter

Jake is a 62-year-old firefighter working in a suburban fire department. He has been in this career for over three decades and is deeply committed to serving his community. As being a firefighter is taxing on his body, he wants to retire soon and take up something new to occupy his free time. An important and well-connected member of the community, Jake is familiar with most of the popular volunteering organizations in his town. However, he prefers driving to the next town to help out, due to the added benefit of meeting new people. Jake’s problem is that he is unsure about what opportunities are available in other towns and doesn’t know how to go about finding them.

USER INTERVIEWS

Understanding Former Volunteers

As a former volunteer at multiple organizations both at school and outside of school, I couldn’t base the project on my own experiences. Instead, I gathered individual students to ask them questions about volunteering.

These questions were broken down into three categories:

• Interviewee’s volunteer experience and preferences

  • Inquires about past volunteer experiences, preferred types of volunteer work, and areas where they believe volunteer opportunities are lacking

• Interviewee’s motivation and awareness

  • Inquires about the motivations for volunteering, how to discover volunteer opportunities, and the factors that could drive engagement and awareness.

• Technology & Access

  • Inquires about using technology to find opportunities, challenges in using technology, and preferences for possible features in a volunteer board platform.

After the general interview, I also conducted usability testing on the previously noted competitors through my interviewees. Interviewees were given a competitor and had the task of using the given platform, discovering an opportunity that spoke to them, and imitating the registration process.

Affinity Diagram

Creating Affinity Maps for Both Interviews to Focus on Key Insights

The Main Insights

Personalization and Convenience: The information highlights the importance of personalizing the volunteer experience by offering location-based filters, time-based filters, easy applications, and remote options. This approach makes it easier for individuals to find volunteer opportunities that align with their interests and schedules, ultimately increasing their likelihood of participation.

Engagement and Socialization: The insights suggest that actively engaging volunteers and fostering social connections are key factors in retaining their interest and commitment. Implementing incentive-based systems, public leveling, group chats, and networking options can create a sense of community, encourage ongoing participation, and facilitate the formation of meaningful connections among volunteers.

Non-Intrusive and Streamlined Sign-Up: Users appreciate a volunteer sign-up process that is not tedious or invasive. Avoiding requests for sensitive information helps alleviate concerns and ensures a smoother onboarding experience.

Internal Sign-Up for Seamless Engagement: External sign-up processes, such as redirecting users to other platforms as seen on LinkedIn or Handshake, can discourage potential volunteers. A seamless user experience is important, and requiring external sign-ups may lead users to question the purpose of the app. Allowing users to browse opportunities without pressure to create an account or join a newsletter can encourage engagement and foster a sense of control.

Comfortable and Informative Layout: A friendly and visually appealing layout enhances user comfort while navigating the website. Providing essential details like distance and start date of opportunities helps users make informed decisions about their participation.

Broad Range of Engaging Opportunities: Showcasing a wide variety of causes and volunteer opportunities that users may not have been aware of fosters a sense of involvement. By presenting opportunities that evoke curiosity and sympathy, the platform can attract users' attention and inspire them to contribute their time and efforts.

wireframe

Designing the Platform

After the test users reviewed competitor platforms, we discussed what the ideal solution for Voluntize! should look like. The competitors primarily focused on listing opportunities, but we discovered that simply listing opportunities was insufficient to encourage ongoing volunteer engagement and community connection. To effectively increase volunteer participation, a platform has to be created that provides something of value to the user, something worthy of giving up their time.

High fidelity prototype

After conducting multiple interviews and usability studies on both competitors and Voluntize!, three key features emerged that would significantly encourage test users to volunteer more frequently.

Results

A Glance at Test User’s Response to Voluntize!

Task: You want to find a volunteer opportunity that fits into your busy schedule. You are available this Saturday from 10 AM to 2 PM and are particularly interested in environmental conservation activities. Your task is to use the Voluntize! app to find a suitable volunteer opportunity in your area, ensure that it is within your availability window, and sign up for it.

Task Completion Rate: 100%

Average Time to Complete Task: 1 minute and 56 seconds

Average User Rating on a Scale From 1 to 10: 9.4/10

How do you feel about using Voluntize! as your primary method of enrolling for volunteer opportunities?

“…be super content with it! It’s like Linkedin, but for volunteering… I think what stands out the most is the incentives to continue volunteering and the rewards you get. I like how the rewards range greatly and even the rewards can give back to the community.” - Test User #1

CONCLUSION + REFLECTION

What I Learned

This was my first-ever solo UX project. I was able to walk through the general UX process to get a feel for how UX designers work. As a result, I compiled a couple of things I have learned:

1. Focus on the user. In the beginning stages, I had an idea of what Voluntize! would look like. I found that a lot of the early concept I had revolved around what looked “cool” versus being functional. As a result, I had a clutter of visual elements that I did not need. Conducting interviews helped me reign in my focus on what the user cares about.

2. Iterate!!! No design will be perfect from the get-go. I learned to put aside my biases and preferences and let peer feedback and suggestions take center stage. As a result, Voluntize! is not an app perfectly tailored to me, but an app that is well tailored to anyone!

3. Gather information. You need information to guide your project. From justifying the existence of a project to highlighting key features, information that I can refer back to allows me to create with a focus. Also, it is important to keep your information organized. Many times I found myself stuck, and it was only when I returned to my information that I was able to overcome my block. Specifically, I returned to the affinity diagram countless times for inspiration.

Next Steps

• Build in a map. While Voluntize! does focus mostly on volunteer opportunities nearby, test users indicated that it would still be nice for them to have a quick way to check the directions to the location. Not every user will be familiar with their neighborhood, i.e. people who just moved.

• Work with big established organizations AND smaller organizations to ensure clean guidelines. Test users indicated that looking at the competitors, there was no format for volunteer postings. As a result, users would have a harder time finding information as there was no consistency across postings from different organizations. It is important to establish a relationship with both big and small organizations to create a consistent format that will help create a sense of credibility and eliminate frustrations.

Contact me

For more inquiries about this project, or to chat feel free to email me at kyagar@fordham.edu

Thank you for reading!