UX Design | 1 week | General Assembly Capstone Project
Comit is a volunteer sign-up and management app that I created with group-mate Goyo Amaro during the UX design bootcamp at General Assembly.
The Problem
How do people with busy schedules find volunteer opportunities in their local area?
Assumptions
Non-profit groups will find you
Your work and personal schedule is flexible
All volunteers are alike
Research Goals
Learn about what motivates people to volunteer
Learn about the challenges volunteers face
Learn about the primary needs of a volunteer
What users are saying…
We interviewed the 20 classmates in our GA group and highlighted their common concerns. These individuals all lived worked in the city and lived within an hour of commuting time to work.
“Volunteering helps me fulfill a part of my life that is missing. There is instant gratification knowing that my contribution as big or small is paying dividends going forward.” —Leslie, 59, Chicago, Illinois
“I like volunteering with friends together. A team oriented project that impacts people directly is the best. But it’s tough to coordinate my time.” —Nicole, 35, Lebanon, New Hampshire
“I stopped going because of my work schedule. I don’t want a one-time experience.” —Sarah, 30, New York, New York
Our User
We believe that by matching needs and schedules of Sarah and volunteer organizations, Sarah will have a fast way to evaluate the best potential opportunities, and allow her desire to incorporate volunteer work into her busy life.
OUR GOAL
Offer people the opportunity to do rewarding volunteer work that dovetails with their active lives and ever-changing schedules.
While building our product, we asked the questions of how might we:
balance work and volunteer time?
bring volunteer opportunities to your finger tips and make them more accessible?
make larger commitments less burdensome?
help reduce guilt when we cannot dedicate time to causes we love?
make scheduling volunteer work less stressful?
Working with our research findings, Goyo and I brainstormed ideas for features of our app based on our user research and wrote each down on sticky notes. We then took our sticky notes and created a prioritization matrix to zoom in on essential features we needed to have in our app. We chose this method because it helped us quickly put down ideas to filter later on in detail.
Our user flow chart was drawn with the task for the user to sign up for a volunteer opportunity. During this process, we reiterated many times, trying to figure out the most efficient way to guide users through the process. Using the user flow chart and prioritization matrix as guides, we then moved onto creating wireframes for each screen.
Sketches- Phase 1
Together with Goyo, we developed our initial wireframes and each asked 3 students to give user feedbacks that we noted for each frame.
Categorization selection not clear enough
Calendar integration confusion
Result filter clarity
Importance and “what happens next?”
Sketches- Phase 2
Based on initial feedback, we quickly sketched a revision to share on the class whiteboard.
Included a sync to existing calendar pop-up
Added titles for each category to avoid confusion
Updated the location filtering page to include 3 different selection options, including distance bar
Added confirmation page
Final Design
After revising our first two sketches, Goyo and I created our first high fidelity prototypes while looking at our phase 2 sketches using Sketch and InVision.
After the user selects a volunteer work, they will see a page with details about the job.
Reflections
Comit is the first complete UX project that I have completed from beginning to end. Throughout the process, I learned the importance of creating a user-centered product through performing user interviews and testings. Upon finishing our hi-fidelity prototype, Goyo and I performed a last round of usability testing and concluded on a few features that could be further explored to optimize this product.
Further explore categories for filtering options
Progress tracking bar across bottom
Social media features for building communities
Setting up a user profile page
Allow users to easily make changes and manage activities
Create a check-in tracker to help reach personal volunteer goals
UI design improvement