Project Overview
Project Type: Academic - Group
Duration: 1 week (October 15-20, 2023)
Role: UX/UI Designer, UX Researcher
Tools: Figma, Photoshop
Platform: iPhone
Our group of 4 designers were tasked with a 5-day Design Sprint tackling the challenge of increasing monetary donation flow of a nonprofit organization. We selected the largest Women’s shelter in the country, Lotus House, and decided to design a mobile version of the organization’s website.
The Team
How Might We?
Lotus House
We were presented with the task of increasing the monetary donation flow of a nonprofit. Our group selected Lotus House, located in Miami, FL. It is the largest Women’s shelter in the United States. Lotus House opened its doors in 2006 with 34 beds, and today have helped over 10K women and children, with an 88% rate of their guests successfully exiting the shelter system.
How might we help social impact organizations express their value, and inspire people to take action in order to drive positive change?
Current Opportunities
However we noticed their website had some opportunities to improve the donation process on their mobile version.
Some of these were: users having hard time finding the Donate Button, their impact information being lower on the screen and the website being very text heavy especially on the font of the Donate Button.
Current Wins
To brainstorm how we could digitally optimize the flow of donations to Lotus House, we first researched the wins they already have going on their current website. We noticed they have amazing impact statistics as well as personal testimonies from alumni.
Our team of designers decided to create a mobile version of the organization’s website.
To drive more donations to Lotus House's mobile website, we selected Millennials for our Target Demographic. We selected Millennials because they are active on their phones responding, 47% of them gave through an organization’s website, and 40% of Millennial donors are enrolled in a monthly giving program. Since Millennials are the generation most active on their phones, we've decided to enhance the web capabilities and the “Donate” Call to Action features to encourage the millennials to make donations.
Target Demographic
We chose to optimize Lotus House’s mobile browsing site and focus on Miami millennials with disposable income because...
Interview Key Themes & Insights
After speaking with three donors, we determined their common values to be:
To gain a better understanding of our target user group, we conducted interviews where we uncovered three key themes and insights that are important to them when making donation decisions.
Transparency: Donors want to know where their money is going and how its being used
Flexibility: Millennials want to adjust their donations based on their circumstances
Accessibility: They often use their phones instead of desktop computers, so websites should be mobile-friendly for easy navigation
Revised ‘How Might We’?
After conducting research and interviews, we revised our 'How Might We' question to:
How might we simplify the donation process for local millennials, enabling them to easily track and modify their contributions, in order to increase donations for Lotus House?
Persona/Experience Map
Based off our Interviews, we created our Target Persona:
Meet Kate, a 33-year-old female who has been a resident of Miami for over three years. She wants an EASY way to donate to organizations where she can see the actual impact of her contribution. She would like to adjust her donations as her career advances.
Solution Sketches
Next, we came up with solution sketches to optimize Lotus House's website flow here:
Solution Sketches to Wireframes
This is how our solution sketches translated into Wireframes for our Initial Prototype:
User Testing of Initial Prototype
We then tested our grayscale initial prototype in with 5 users. Based on the user testing feedback, we made the following revisions to come up with our final prototype. First, we updated the first screen’s “Login” button phrase to say “Reoccuring Donor”. On the 'Thank You' screen, we added an e-mail confirmation. On the Profile screen, we added a 'History' section. Last, we rearranged and adjusted the information hierarchy on the 'Impact Screen'.
Scenario: Persona (Kate) visiting the new website for the first time.
Kate wants to start a new recurring donation to Lotus House and have the ability to update her donation amount based on her life circumstances. Kate navigates to the Lotus House website and is greeted by the hero image of children playing. Our research showed images with emotional appeal give more incentive to visitors and help to communicate the mission.
She is happy that she sees the donate button and understands how to contribute. She scrolls down and notices the organization’s impact statistics are located in prominent spots, where they are easily visible and digestible. Kate decides she is happy with where the money is going and is aligned with the mission.
She sets up a monthly recurring payment with her saved Apple Pay information, which removes any barriers to having to input any additional information.
She is presented with a ‘Thank You!’ from the organization, the confirmation number, and email. Now has the ability to share the cause.
Kate wants to create a profile so that she can track and modify her donations over time.
6 months later, when Kate receives a promotion and has some additional disposable income, she wants to increase her donations by $5 a month. She updates it and is then able to reflect on where specifically her money is going to work. She sees the chart that shows her money is going to Shelter, Programs, and Food.
Revised Final Prototype
The screen flow is displayed in the order of our Scenario designed for Kate, the Persona of our Target Demographic.
Key Learnings
Individuals care most about knowing HOW their funds are being used by non-profit organizations. They want to have as much transparency as possible about the allocation of funds and the impact of their contribution. We received a lot of positive feedback on the personal donation breakdown on the profile page. Another major takeaway was to remove any barriers to donation. The clearer and easier the donation process is, the more likely the user will follow through with donating. Users also loved the share button. They liked the interactive feature and being able to further the cause in that way.
Next Steps
Expand personal profile page
Program-specific donation options
Second round of testing
Propose our improvements to Lotus House
Share our experience