Goodsend App Design
the direct - giving app to help your local community's students
mobile | ux/ui | onboarding | gamification | client project
TIMELINE
1 month
SECTOR
Non-Profit, Fin-Tech, Social Impact
ROLE
UI design, User Testing, Branding
✽ Introduction
I collaborated with two other designers and closely engaged with the CEO and stakeholders to enhance the design for the upcoming launch.
Goodsend is a Chicago-based Non-Profit Organization dedicated to assisting students and vulnerable families in local communities facing financial hardship. Through its online giving platform, users can securely donate to pre-vetted campaigns supporting local causes.
✽ The Challenge
To incentivize users to join the app and make frequent donations via a subscription through ‘gamifying’ the user’s in-app experience, thus increasing user retention.
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Optimize Onboarding
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Implement Gamification
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Promote Recurring Donations
✽ Research
Audit of the Current State Goodsend app
We began by conducting a heuristic evaluation of the app. This included evaluating the app's layout, navigation, and accessibility, as well as assessing the app's overall performance and user experience. Simultaneously, we also conducted current-state usability tests to acquire valuable insights into the usability of the app and can highlight any issues or problems users are facing.
Findings
1. App Navigation
2. Visual Design
3. Sign Up & Onboarding
Users wanted to see more visual elements that reflected the brand's purpose more accurately
All users expressed difficulty navigating the app and got confused when exploring the features
Users liked having a variety of sign-up options and the information provided in the onboarding flow
Comparative Anaylsis
We redirected our efforts toward studying successful companies and platforms with effective gamification strategies and straightforward onboarding processes for users.
User Persona
Meet the Generous Gen-Z, our persona. We crafted the persona after culminating all the data from our user reaserch, market research and stakeholder feedback.
Problem Statement
Users are struggling with motivation to make donations due to the lack of trust and awareness of causes in their local community.
✽ Design
Sitemap
We developed a sitemap to identify any gaps or redundancies in the content and structure and highlight improvement areas based on our research's insights. We simplified the primary navigation and created a community gamification feature highlighting the activity feed.
Low-Fidelity Wirefarmes
We created low-fidelity wireframes and prototypes to focus on the overall structure and layout of the design, as we implemented many new features such as profiles, badges, and success story cards.
Usability Testing Findings
To get feedback on the design, we conducted usability testing on a variety of potential users.
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60% of Users expressed they would like the option to donate anonymously.
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All participants expressed confusion with the community activity page icon in the home navigation.
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All users liked the interactive social features such as the 'community' and 'leaderboard' concept.
Client Feedback and Considerations
We spoke with the client when we had the usability test results to finalize the design before moving on to the hi-fi prototype. Some key considerations that came up were:
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Remove the referral functionality for now, as that isn't a feature the development team will be able to accomplish by the target launch date.
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Introduce the ability to choose a username at signup so donors can remain anonymous but can still interact with the new gamification features on the platform.
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Create a community leaderboard and points system for donations.
Visual Design
Based on user and client feedback, we decided to give the app a visual refresh. We designed and implemented a new branding strategy by creating a new color-coded donation category system and adding visual elements such as badges, points, photos, and incorporating handwritten notes by previous student recipents.
✽ The Brief
The current onboarding flow fails to sufficiently convert users into active donors on the app. Additionally, both new and recurring users on the platform are not engaging in recurring donations as desired.
The challenge is to develop a UI/UX solution that not only encourages new users to donate but also incentivizes both new and existing users to establish recurring donations. This solution should leverage gamification principles, emotional appeals, incentives, and other strategies to enhance user engagement and drive recurring donations.
✽ Hi-Fi Wireframes
Main design iterations:
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simplified design to make it easier to implement.
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updated icons to make it easier to navigate
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updated visual design and changed the visual hierarchy to make it easier to understand the information.
User Interviews
We incorporated qualitative insights gathered from interviews with individuals aged late 20s to early 30s, who have made or currently make monetary donations, to inform our design ideation process. Focusing on cities targeted for expansion, namely New York and Chicago, we interviewed seven users to tailor our approach to Goodsend's location-specific app.
1. How do donors choose which organizations or charities to give to?
2. What motivates users to donate frequently, and which factors influence their decisions?
3. How do donors keep track of their donations and the impact it has had?
Research Findings
After collecting all of this data pertaining to our users and market landscape, we used the affinity mapping process to identify key themes and insights to narrow the scope. We created "I"- statements to help us narrow down the key user concerns and wants.
Screen Comparisons
I have highlighted a few screens with some notable changes
Design Impact
With new gamification features, users are now engaged for longer periods and are encouraged to compete with each other in a healthy manner, enhancing the social aspect of the app as per the client's requirements. The updated onboarding flow provides a clear and concise understanding of the app's functionality and its benefits to users. As a result, the redesign is expected to increase monthly donations, with the placement and color of the frequent donation option carefully chosen to highlight it as the preferred choice, in line with the client's goal to increase regular donations.
