Project Category
Mentorship
Mobile App Design
My role
UX Designer
Product Designer
Product
An app that matches volunteers with opportunities tailored to their location and interests
Timeline
8 weeks
Team
Team of 12
6 UX Designers
1 Career Switcher (non-UX)
3 Dialexa Product Designers
2 Dialexa Project Managers
Matching Busy Volunteers With Opportunities
Connecting busy volunteers with opportunities by Smart Scheduling and Volunteering Mapping On-the-Go.
Dialexa is an IBM Company. Since 2019, they've hosted Dialexa EDU, a Mentorship Program, to provide young professionals with hands-on working experience within their tech firm. The program connects college students from various institutions and bring them together to collaborate on solving a common Design Challenge.
In February, 2024, I was selected along with 6 other design students to represent UNT at Dialexa EDU 2024. Within 8 weeks, my team and I collaborated with designers and developers at Dialexa to design a platform that helps busy individuals participate in local volunteering events.
Problem
Dallas residents are raising the need to contribute to the local community through giving, whether monetary, volunteering, or donating physical goods. To streamline this process, people need a centralized resource to help them easily learn about and contribute to local needs while staying on top of their busy schedule.
Our goal was to provide a seamless experience that fosters increased donations and volunteering by creating a comprehensive tool to support community efforts in aiding those in times of need.
Key Results
100+
Initial Unique concepts
09
Collaborative Workshops
06
High-Fidelity Prototypes
02
Interviews with Target Users
In 2020 - 2021
60.7 Million adults volunteered
4.1 Billion hours contributed
$122.9 Billion economic value estimated
2020-2021 statistics, collected by AmeriCorps and the US Census Bureau
https://www.americorps.gov/sites/default/files/document/volunteering-civic-life-america-research-summary.pdf
However
Volunteers are having difficulty finding relevant information and struggling to fit volunteering into their schedule.
According to insights from our user interviews, volunteers prefer local activities but struggle to find nearby events that match their availability. They often have to visit multiple organization websites to gather relevant details, making it difficult to find opportunities that fit into their schedule.
We conducted 2 interviews with 2 volunteers, who represented our target user group, and asked 21 behavioral questions to uncover pain points and motivation.
Alex D., 29
Software Engineer
Caterina C., 27
Software Engineer
The interviews revealed 3 obstacles that kept users from participating in volunteering opportunities
1
Challenges in finding relevant opportunities
Volunteers favor local activities but struggle to find relevant nearby events
2
Difficulty finding necessary information in one place
Volunteers have to visit multiple organization websites for relevant details
3
Struggle to fit volunteering into personal schedule
Users struggle to find events that match their availability and fit into their schedule
Therefore
To design with the user in mind, we established a guiding statement to direct our design process, ensuring that our solution helps users achieve their goals and address the problem
How might we connect potential volunteers with volunteering opportunities that adapt to their changing schedules and interests?
As a Result
We designed an app that allows volunteers to receive tailored opportunities based on their location and interests. The platform features a Smart Scheduler system that integrates with users' personal calendars, helping them easily organize and manage their changing schedules.
An Intuitive Onboarding Process Provides Users with a Personalized Experience.
We onboard users with an intuitive matching quiz to ensures users receive tailored volunteer opportunities.
Location-Based Volunteer Opportunities Seamlessly Integrated into Personal Calendars.
To help users organize and manage their busy schedules, we keep their opportunities and personal calendars in sync. The system will provide users with times that best match their schedules, providing a seamless experience.
What if an opportunity conflicts with the user's schedule?
A built-in Smart Rescheduler will notify users of any conflicts and allow them to easily adjust their schedules, ensuring their availability stays up-to-date in the system.
Impact Tracker offers users greater visibility into their community contributions, encouraging continued participation.
We built a League Hub to help users track their impact and contributions. This feature not only highlights their achievements but also connect them with other volunteers, creating a strong giving community.
How we build Empathy
Besides user interviews, we conducted an Empathy Mapping Workshop to better understand and empathize with users. The workshop not only helped us understand the Why behind users' thoughts but also allow us to anticipate their future actions.
In a group, we did a 7-step brainstorming session to define WHO we are empathizing with and WHAT they think and feel. We spent 5 minutes for each step to answer 23 questions that focused on users' thoughts, behaviors, and potential actions. After the session is done, we categorized the sticky notes and populated them on the Empathy Map, where we explored the Who, Do, See, Say, Hear, Think, and Feel
Empathy Map
Empathy Mapping 7-Step Brainstorming (Step #7 contains 2 sub steps)
Study the Market through Competitive Analysis
We analyzed 6 competitors in the industry to evaluate their existing products, comparing their unique features, strengths, and weaknesses. The analysis helped us identify best practices and gaps in the industry.
We were assessing 6 competitors and ranked their capabilities on 4 categories: Capability Not Available, Capability Not Included, Capability Included, Capability is a Main Feature.
The 6 competitors included:
Community partners of Dallas
VolunteerMatch
United Way
Dallas Doing Good
Volunteer Now
Meetup
From the analysis, we identified 5 key takeaways
1
Lack of Clear Branding and Credibility
Many platforms lack strong branding and recognizable logos, making them appear untrustworthy or less established to potential users.
2
Inefficient Scheduling Process
The volunteer scheduling process is often lengthy and involves too many steps, leading to frustration and potential drop-off
3
No Impact Tracking
There is a lack of tools for volunteers to track their contributions and see the impact of their work, which could reduce long-term engagement.
4
Unclear Registration Process
The volunteer sign-up process is confusing, with unclear instructions and requirements, creating barriers to entry.
5
Outdated Event Listings
Many platforms fail to keep their event listings updated, leading to missed opportunities and decreased user trust in the platform's reliability.
Driving Innovation by Rapid Ideation
Building on the opportunities we identified from the Competitor Analysis, we brainstormed 64 ideas in 15 minutes. By diverging our thoughts, we can concept on a wide range of ideas and explore all possible opportunities.
After exploring all possible concepts, we began narrowing them down into a more focused narrative. Each team member quickly presented their ideas and discussed the concepts with the group. In the end, we used Dot Voting to identify the ideas that would provide the most value to users
Crazy 8s
Identifying
Quick Wins
We used the Prioritization Matrix to identify the most valuable and feasible features. Working with developers helped us more accurately prioritize the feasibility of our ideas.
Prioritization Matrix
Reflecting on our Guiding Statement, we prioritized 2 main features
1
Smart Rescheduler Integration with Personal Calendar
Syncs with personal calendar apps and suggests volunteer opportunities when events are canceled.
2
Bite-Sized & Location-Based Volunteering
Uses geolocation to suggest nearby, real-time volunteer opportunities based on urgency and availability.
BusyBee helps Alex quickly find volunteer opportunities.
To ensure our final solution effectively addresses user pain points, we mapped out user flows to highlight the need for a seamless onboarding process and quick rewards tailored to Alex’s busy lifestyle.
What if Alex had a sudden schedule change? Our team kept in mind undesired user flows and designed for them, too.
Alex D., 29
Software Engineer
What I've learned
Working with the team at Dialexa has exposed me to Agile Methodology and a solid design process that focuses on collaboration and innovation.
Within 8 weeks, we completed 4 design sprints, each focused on a specific task. I learned that breaking the process into smaller chunks helped the team stay focused, adapt to feedbacks, and improved the overall design outcome. If we had more time, we would have conducted user testing to validate our design decisions and scheduled additional meetings with developers to explore high-value features in the Feasibility Matrix
Key takeaways
1
Working with developers helped us more accurately prioritize the feasibility of our ideas.
2
Breaking the design process into smaller chunks helped the team stay focused, adapt to feedback, and improve the overall design outcome.
3
Communicating blockers early is crucial for team collaboration, ensuring obstacles are resolved before they pile up.
Eagle Team and Dialexa Mentors
Presentation Day