OkVolunteer
About OkVolunteer
OkVolunteer is an app design and idea developed by my team and me. For this project, we had to design an app to help out a local community. We chose to help the University of Michigan Student body with volunteering events that may interest them and had to research and develop two main parts of the project, which are UX Design and Information Analysis. My role in this project was the UX Designer, so I helped come up with the design to address the problem the Umich student body has with finding volunteering opportunities.
Timeline
Oct 2022 - Dec 2022
Role
UX Designer
Team
Cristina Costin
Siddharth Nagisetty
Cindy Tan
Shakira Woods
What I did
Brainstorm project idea and design
Develop (Sketches, Wireframes)
Deliver (Canva Prototype, Google Presentation)
Community
College marks when students begin thinking about careers, and one of the biggest things students look for is to make an impact.
Students are notoriously busy and don’t have the time to analyze the different organizations in Ann Arbor, based on their interests
Students often lack work experience and look to grow professionally; nonprofit volunteering is a great way to grow their resume.
An app involving swiping is intuitive and user-friendly, as opposed to long, wordy, lists difficult to navigate that are the current norm.
The Problems We are Addressing
Students want to make a direct impact but have trouble finding local organizations to volunteer for
More than 75% of college students want to volunteer but only 26% actually do
Amid juggling living on their own, having greater responsibilities, and tough classes, they don’t have time to research impactful nonprofits.
2. Nonprofits either can’t find volunteers or are overwhelmed in trying to find them
Over 80% of nonprofits rely on volunteers but struggle to hire and retain them.
Our Proposed Solution
Our platform will match volunteers with nonprofits looking for work.
Specific elements of the app:
In a format similar to a dating app, users are given personalized recommendations on local nonprofits to volunteer and work with
Filters and classification systems are used to identify what each user is hoping to get out of their volunteer experience.
The app contains ready, easy-to-access data on a platform that is frequently updated, interactive, and easy to navigate.
Full App Developmental Plan (the UX Design)
The app prototype was designed on Canva. My teammate and I kept Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design in mind so we can make the most user-friendly app.
When the user first enters the app, they will get see the log in/signup page, where they can select whether they are a volunteer or a non-profit. When creating an account for the first time, the user will be prompted with the Terms and Conditions to read and understand the privacy terms. There will also be an option to opt-in for a screen reading feature for better accessibility for those who may need hearing assistance. We followed Nielsen’s UX Heuristic #4: Consistency and standards: The login and the terms and conditions follow most online formats that are easily accessible and understood by most users. There is also a screen reading feature for users that need it for accessibility reasons or just prefer to use it.
Since this app is intended for both volunteers and non-profits to participate, we created two profile interfaces for users. For these screens, we followed Nieslen’s UX Heuristics #2 and #4.
We created a user questionnaire which can be found on the profile page. A personalized algorithm to show the most relevant non-profit organizations for the users once this questionnaire is filled out. We kept Nielsen’s UX Heuristics #3 and #8 in mind as we created this page.
A breakdown and demonstration of how the home page works are shown here. Volunteer users will be able to see a non-profit organization one at a time, and decide whether or not they want to volunteer with them. They can also click the information icon to see more information about the non-profit organization. We kept Nielsen’s UX Heuristic #6 in mind while creating these screens.
We created two match pages, one for the volunteer and one for the non-profit organization. Here, volunteers will see which non-profit organization they were interested in has reached out to them. Non-profit organizations can see who is interested in volunteering for their organization and reach out to the individuals. We kept Nielsen’s UX Heuristics #3 and #8 in mind while creating these screens.
Information Analysis
How we planned to collect data
First, we are going to reach out to several nonprofit organizations in Ann Arbor and collect the following information from them:
Type of organization
Volunteer work needed
Expected age range of volunteers—select from 14-16, 16-18, 18-21, 21+
Expected time commitment
Expected capabilities from volunteer
Then, once we have a large database of organizations from a variety of nonprofits, the student users who download our app will input the following information about themselves:
Name
Age
Hobbies and interests
Past volunteer experiences and if they’ve liked it
Expected time commitment
Contact information (phone number, email, etc.)
Upon opening the app, users are asked to read and agree to the Terms and Conditions of our Data Collection approach. We believe that transparency and informed consent are integral to ethical data collection. Collected data will be used to improve user experience, and provide personalized matches with various local nonprofits. Data will not be sold or distributed to third-party vendors to protect user privacy.
Data Storage and Analysis
For Data Storage:
To store our data, we are going to download a SQL server and create two databases on it. These databases will be a series of tables that each store a different piece of data. One database will be information from UM students, the other will be information from the organizations.
We are going to use an algorithm that directly sends the information that a user gives in their initial questionnaire directly into the databases.
We will then use an encryption algorithm that will convert the data into unreadable characters to ensure the users’ information is safe and protected. In addition, efforts to maintain transparency on how and where data is being stored will be a priority.
For Data Analysis:
Users will be asked to select their top three favorite industries they are interested in volunteering in. An algorithm will use a keyword match and ensure the numerical qualifications given by the organizations are met by the user.
The data collected is used for content-based analytics. It comes from the types of volunteering users engage in (industry, time commitment, nonprofit size, etc) which helps us understand students’ interests.
A/B Testing: The app will be developed in multiple interactions. Users will be asked for feedback on the nonprofit matching features which will help us make changes to the algorithm and improve customer satisfaction
Why Ok Volunteer is Different?
OkVolunteer systematically matches our potential volunteers and non-profit organization users using a curated algorithm.
There is a screen reading feature built into Ok Volunteer to allow our app to be accessible to users who may be visually impaired or have neurodivergent tendencies. This allows OkVolunteer to be more accessible to users.
Because our app includes users swiping to find matches, it incorporates gaming elements that are more intuitive, familiar, and quick for busy high school and college students who still want to find volunteer opportunities that interest them. While also enabling non-profits to find more volunteers.
Next Steps
This is the first UX project I have ever had, and there are definitely a lot of changes that I would make now if I were to redesign this app. I would also utilize Figma for easier wire-framing and prototyping of the app. There may also be some other factors I could consider, such as user research and usability tests that we did not work on for this project. Overall, OkVolunteer is an app idea that would hopefully help students gain volunteering experience and for non-profit organizations to find the volunteers they need.