Digital Tools for Charity
Interned abroad and collaborated with 2 designers and a researcher on a digital civic project to research and design a digital tool for VCSE practitioners, aimed at bridging the digital divide in Northeast England.
Project Overview
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Challenge- As Northeastern England progresses into a more digitalized society, it is crucial that citizens become digitally literate to keep up with society's standards. Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprises otherwise known as VCSE’s are focused on reducing “the digital divide" which is the gap between people in society who have full access to digital technologies (such as the internet and computers) and those who do not. However, it is challenging for organizations to connect and communicate with one another to create change collectively. This poses the problem of how can we design a platform to spark communication and collaboration between VCSE's.
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Solution- To design a platform that would provide the affordance for charity organizations to work collectively rather than individually.
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Role- UX Design Intern​​​
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Duration
Tools
Skills
May 2023 - Jun 2023
Figma, Miro, Google Docs
Storyboarding, Sketching, Comparative Analysis, Prototyping, Interviews
User Group
Final Deliverable
VCSE practitioners who provide resources for the less digitally literate citizens in the Northeast region of England.​
We handed off prototyped design suggestions for what a tool VCSE practitioners would utilize based off of pain points in their experience.
Process
We first curated a few personas to empathize with our users. We built these personas from data we gathered from our sponsor who helped us understand the project space through his research. He provided us a synthesized document of his research to help us understand the space we are working within. This led us to our main how might we statement which led our team to begin personas. How might we connect local organizations and charities in Northeast England to provide digital access for those in their community?
How Did We Connect With Our Users?
Personas
Bio & Motive
Jack
James
The Organization Jack works for wants to donate lots of computers that are no longer being used
Pain Points
Works at a charity that teaches elderly citizens how to properly use e-mail
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Doesn't know how to find charites to donate to
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Wants to donate to a legitamite charity
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Doesn't have the funds to purchase new tech. Has to rely on donations
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Wants to communicate with other organizations to get resources
These personas helped raise a few design questions within our team which came from our pain points.
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What does the current communication look like?
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Is there any current collaboration between VCSE's?
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We took these questions and curated an interview protocol. We interviewed three different current practitioners with the main goal of understanding how they currently connect and collaborate with other organizations. We really valued the qualitative data we gathered from these sessions.
User Interviews
We affinitied our interviews into four main headings. Connection & Communication, Recommendations, Problems, and other information valuable to our team.
This synthesized information led us to lots of ideas. With all of these ideas in mind, we started ideating how a digital tool would look like on paper.
How Did we Ideate Our Collected Data?
Sketching Round 1
Our initial sketches contain a lot about how an interactive map may play out within the interface design. Location is a huge motivating factor in motivating VCSE's to collaborate with each other. Thus, the interactive map idea came to life.
​Main Takeaways
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1) Color coding indicators could indicate different goods/services such as devices, instructors, or workshops
2) Many filters would need to be included to reduce ambiguity for users
Comparative Analysis
We then conducted a comparative analysis over three different mapping interfaces. We looked at the interactive map within Alltrails, Secluded App, and Sentier. We then went around noting down what we liked and didn't like about each map to influence our next round of sketches. Below is an example of one of the analyzed interactive map sites (Secluded App).
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Main Takeaways From the Activity ​
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1) Photos on a pop-up would add credibility to the VCSE
2) How would we visualize organizations that cover different things?
3) Icons do indicate what organizations do
4) Show a community feed page and an organization page
Sketching Round 2
In our next round of sketching we focused on implementing the interactive map into an interface design as well as ideating how a community page would look like and the home page. We focused on how our final deliverable will be shaped. We used all of the previous activities to help influence our sketches.
We then again, analyzed everyone's sketches noting down what we thought to be key elements in our design and what we could leave out of our design. With a lot of our ideas down on paper, it was now time to start prototyping and making our ideas come to life.
Rationalized Final Designs
Below are a handful of the prototypes we curated for our sponsor with rationale from all of our activities for all of the designs.
Explore Page
This is the homepage of VCSE Connect which serves as a hub for all VCSE’s in the user’s regional area. We designed this page to provide visibility and promote collaboration within an organization’s county. Practitioners and leaders of organizations are able to view other institutions' activities and work in the community from project grants, community projects, and VCSE’s in their proximity.
Organization Profile
Key data- “Organizations within such a project ecosystem should remain in close contact, to mitigate issues brought about by siloed working." -Interviewee
The organization profile page can be viewed by users to get an understanding of their VCSE. On this page, users can read about the institution's initiatives such as projects, as well as missions to learn about their purpose and objective. Additionally, they can view the services the organization provides, services or tools they may need assistance with, and send a chat to the institution internally.
Community Page
Key data- "Organizations could design, seek funding for, develop, and deliver programs of work collectively, distributing responsibilities according to the capabilities of each organization." -Interviewee
The chat rooms would be used for VCSE’s to talk about any help or assistance they may need, as well as help or assistance they can provide to others. This encourages collaboration between VCSE’s. There would be different chat rooms that pertain to different topics such as assistance, projects, discussion, grants, and more. Having separate rooms for different topics ensures that it will be easy for users to find what they’re looking for easily.
We learned through our research that there is not a one-size-fits-all design. There was a heavy emphasis on having multiple ways to access the same information within the tool. This map complements our explore page showcasing all the local VCSE’s. We also found through our research that a map would be a fantastic way of showcasing smaller VCSE’s that are up-and-coming or just have limited credibility in their organization. Moreover, if one of the pinpoints is clicked, it brings up a side panel of what they do and their objective along with what they may provide or may be in need of. This is a great way to influence collaboration if another practitioner agrees with their goal and wants to work with them. If there is a want/need to collaborate, the internal messaging system is available to send a chat.
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Map Page
Impact Statement
This experience is really what opened my eyes to the world of design and how it can impact others. I got to see a side of the world that I was not familiar with. Digital literacy is a huge problem in the Northeast region of England and I got hands on experience of helping solve that problem. Solving for user needs and really making an impactful design is why I want to be a UX Designer. This experience helped me realize how I can change the world and be an impact on someones life through design.
My Learnings
This project involved various UX methods that helped me grow as a designer. Here are my key takeaways from the experience:
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Enhanced UX Methods – I sharpened key UX methods, including interviewing, storyboarding, prototyping, data analysis, and sketching.
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Cultural Immersion – The most significant aspect was the cultural diversity. I was immersed in a completely new culture, which helped me grow both as a designer and a person.
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Intercultural Communication and Adaptability – In this case, I was the foreign. I developed my intercultural communication and adaptability skills naturally through the course of the project.
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Global Perspective on Digital Literacy – This experience opened my eyes to the importance of digital literacy, not only for the Northeast region of England but globally.
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Impactful Design – I would highly recommend engaging in a digital civics project. It’s a powerful way to drive a positive change through design.