UX/UI DESIGN | USER RESEARCH | iOS APP

Kindness

Helping Busy Professionals Find Volunteering Opportunities

Kindness is an iOS app that follows a busy user’s mental model to organize information in ways best suited for them to find volunteering opportunities and make informed decisions.

Overview

MOTIVATION

I have always struggled to find opportunities to give back to the community, even though I strongly want to. And this was a similar case for many others I spoke to. With a busy career, many consider it difficult to find time and the right opportunities when it comes to volunteering.

So, the project started with wanting to understand what motivated people to help others, and what challenges they faced in achieving that goal.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

How can we design a volunteering app to meet the needs of busy professionals? 

INTRODUCING ‘KINDNESS’

The kindness app supports busy individuals in finding relatable volunteering opportunities faster through a few key features -

Problem Discovery

UNDERSTANDING THE TARGET USER

To understand the need for a tool that might support motivated users to help others, I conducted primary research. A screener survey was used to select 5 participants to talk further about challenges, needs, and wishes, regarding their motivations to help others.

Some of the questions that the initial user research addressed were -

1. What motivates people to help others?

2. What factors inhibit people from helping others?

3. What challenges do people face when trying to find a cause?

4. What do people feel when they successfully help others?

Insights from the User Interviews -

5 out of 5 participants said that -

• finding the right opportunities was difficult, i.e, too time-consuming and requiring too much effort

• finding time in their busy schedules was a big challenge even though they wanted to volunteer, realistically it would be once a month or reduce a month

• they prefer hands-on volunteering in comparison to just donating money

USER PERSONAS

Two target user personas emerged from the primary research - one who is empathetically motivated to help another, and the other who is looking to help others for their own happiness. Both these personas are highly motivated to volunteer their time but unfortunately are busy professionals with little to no time on their hands. Their key pain points are listed below -

PAIN POINTS

Design Approach

PRODUCT GOALS

Bringing together the 5 user interviews and the 2 personas developed, I began to ideate on potential solutions to the user needs and pain points. The product goals were established as below -

PRODUCT FEATURES

To narrow down on the established product goals, I created User Stories to define the MVP, and User Flows to define the task completion flow.

INITIAL IDEAS

Keeping the target user in focus, I brainstormed ideas for elements that might help a busy individual achieve their goal of finding volunteering opportunities faster. Some of those are shown below -

CONCEPT TESTING

I conducted a Guerilla Usability Test with 5 users to validate the initial concept - 3 of whom had characteristics of the target personas, and the other 2 out of the 5 users were seniors and helped to point out some accessibility flaws of the app.

The outcomes from the test, shown below, were used to iterate the design towards the high fidelity screens.

VISUAL DESIGN

After wireframing the red routes, I defined the look and feel of the app. Using a clean, minimal visual design, the app uses color to gather the user's attention and provide them with important information. Blue on white is used as the primary color palette, with neutrals to provide information hierarchy. Pink is selected as the accent color due to its bold contrast with blue to highlight to the user, relevant information. The fonts selected are soft on the eye, and typography is established with a clear hierarchy.

HIGH FIDELITY MOCKUPS

Using the Style Guide, I designed the primary screens, empty states and alternate screens towards the upcoming usability tests.

Usability Tests & Design Evolution

KPIs

In addition to qualitative feedback, the two Key Performance Indictors identified for this project, to evaluate Usability Test outcomes are -

• Task success rate

• User error rate

USABILITY TESTS

I conducted two rounds of moderated tests with pre-screened users to understand if the product is successful.

5 users tested the first app prototype -

Key Findings from Usability Test 01

1. All users had difficulty finding the search and filter function

2. 4 out of 5 users insisted that they would sign up for the app only after viewing the available events near them

3. The design did not account for event start & end timing, which would be important for users to know.

4. 3 out of 5 users wanted to see more information regarding expectations by signing up, and a way to contact the organizer.

After incorporating the critical findings from the first test, 5 other users tested the product again. The Time on Task and Error Rates from the first test reduced significantly, however, a few new issues were uncovered -

Key Findings from Usability Test 02

1. 3 out of 5 users were confused when the “Sign up to volunteer” CTA button appeared again after the Account Creation flow.

2. 2 out of 5 users were overwhelmed by the information displayed on the detail page

3. 2 out of 5 users wondered if the cards on the homepage were Category buckets or actual events they could sign up for.

DESIGN EVOLUTION

Incorporating comments from both usability tests, the 3rd design iteration was completed with the following improvements -

Home Page

During the first test, all users had difficulty finding the search and filter function. I incorporated a search feature into the home page and made the filter button more visible & intuitive to use. Also, the preferences set by the user during the initial onboarding flow are made visible on the home page, to set context for the user.

Account Creation Flow

During the first test, 4 out of 5 participants insisted that they would create an account only after viewing the available events near them, due to the fear of spam emails and not being able to find relatable events. The account creation flow is moved after once the user picks an event to volunteer with, reducing the risk of users abandoning the app.

Event Details Page

Users thought that the details page was not setting the right expectations for them if they were to sign up for an event. I revised the design by incorporating a snapshot view with the most important information, followed by secondary information including organizer contact information, how to prepare & cancellation policy, to set better expectations for the user.

USER FEEDBACK

PROTOTYPE

View Prototype

REFLECTIONS

This project helped me realize that one of the important tasks as a product designer is to strategize what gets prioritized in every iteration by listening to the user carefully.

Design is never completely over - every testing session revealed issues that I had not fully worked out. Understanding the key user needs and asking - “What user pain point does this solve?”, “What are we achieving by this?” and “How can we measure success” helped me prioritize certain issues over others, and not over-designing.

NEXT STEPS

• Improve emotional/motivational wording throughout the app.

• Set an appropriate vibe for the users through the use of imagery.

• Improve the functionality of the app by including a calendar view.

As an app focussing on working professionals, the Kindness App has potential to scale & integrate into the market as a benefit offered by employers.

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