a rocha volunteers

A web account tool that helps volunteer candidates through a streamlined registration and sign-up process. This tool helps them consistently seek volunteer opportunities, allowing for growth in the company’s global community.

research + process methods

We experimented with various research methods to understand our participant group at a human-experience level: their motivations, struggles, values, and aspirations. We used select interaction design methods most useful to relate to their needs.

ethnography study + interviews

As a group, we prepared and executed an ethnography study to get a better understanding of A Rocha’s culture. Four in-person interviews were conducted with people in different expertises to learn how the organization works as a whole. I was responsible for connecting with the organization and setting up the interviews and making sure we could understand the people and the environment they work in. Some of the key values we learned about the organization are their determination for environmental care, their inviting nature that cultivates the attraction of interested volunteers, and the solid foundation of trust they have for each other.

persona

After interviewing the four individuals, we develop a primary persona for which the main product is for, and two secondary personas that would be involved with the processes of the primary persona. As a group, we decided to choose the head administrator as the primary persona because of how she represents the central point of communication that connects volunteers to different teams at A Rocha.

participatory workshop

After getting a good understanding of the people of A Rocha, I dug deeper into the specific processes of the organization through the participatory workshop. The participatory workshop was incredibly valuable to understand the specific processes of the company and where the pain points occur; this would later serve as the foundation of our digital solution. I took the task to organize, schedule, and facilitate the workshop.

customer journey framework

I built the initial customer journey framework using the participatory workshop framework as the basis of the problem we are solving: finding a way for volunteers to easily participate and keep track of available volunteer opportunities. We split the framework into five main stages- awareness, exploration, registration, post-registration, and advancement. Building this framework helped us view the problem at a higher level before delving into details of wireframing and prototyping.

information architecture

Given the short span of 1 week to execute the prototype, I quickly mapped out the general information architecture of the web application in order to move into the execution phase. This map acted as the foundation for the prototype.

interface + interactions

Working closely with the interface designer in my group, I stitched the prototype together using Flinto and the Sketch plugin. When interface aspects were missing or needed editing (for example, button hover states), I communicated with the interface designer to make the appropriate changes in Sketch.

volunteer account: sign-up

Volunteers would go through a streamlined sign-up process and fill out important information for the administration team to keep track of.

volunteer account: approval

Before allowing volunteers to take part in various opportunities, they would have to go through a series of prerequisites (criminal record check, orientation, pre-screening); this ensures that volunteers are fully eligible to help volunteer for A Rocha.

volunteer account: opportunities

Volunteers will be able to access a list of available opportunities based on their selected areas of interest and be able to easily apply and schedule for these opportunities directly on the application.

volunteer account: notes

Because community and sharing are a big part of A Rocha’s values, we designed a feature that allows volunteers to send notes to other volunteers, allow them to give encouragement and show appreciation for each other. Ideally, this feature would help retain volunteers to continue supporting A Rocha.

administrator account: volunteer profile

The administrator will be able to view who are volunteering for specific opportunities as well as the profile of those volunteers. The administrator will be able to print this information and relay it to the appropriate team, ensuring they are informed of who and how many are helping.

administrator account: volunteer filtering

The administrator will be able to view the list of volunteers and filter results based on their interest, status, and availability. This would help the administrator recommend or assign opportunities to fitting candidates.

reflection

Before this project, I had little exposure to user research and feedback directly from the end user. I found that my previous projects lacked direct validity and user input, making it difficult to support certain design decisions. This project taught me how to work with real qualitative data based on people I’m building the product for, making it that much more rewarding and valuable for the company.