How Might We Encourage Community Contribution?
Redesigning | Willing Hearts Website
Our team identified challenges and opportunities within Willing Hearts. Through immersive user research, including interviews and a site visit, we gained valuable insights. We then redesigned the website to streamline the volunteering process and inspire donors to take action.
The UX Team | Tyfeng Studios
As part of our 3rd project at General Assembly, we were assigned, as a group, to find a small social enterprise and non-profit organisation to work on where we can identify a customer need that has not been met. In the team we have Alex a former fashion designer, Leanna a former marketing executive and Seow Wei a former architect. As a team of UX designers, we strive for the good of the user. At Tyfeng Studios, the name of our group, we believe in the power of empathy-driven research to truly understand user needs and behaviours. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies, we delve deep into user insights, uncovering valuable perspectives that inform the design process.
About the Client | Willing Hearts
Willing Hearts is a volunteer-run charity in Singapore apart from a handful of employees. They operate a soup kitchen, providing 7,000 meals daily to various beneficiaries including the elderly, disabled, low-income families, children from single-parent households, and migrant workers. Willing Hearts also offers additional services like dental care and bereavement support. We aim to enhance their user experience to better serve the community.
The Assumptions
Willing Hearts may face challenges with their current volunteer processes, including registration and logistical organization. Volunteers might find the existing processes cumbersome or unclear, leading to potential inefficiencies. Additionally, volunteers prefer to schedule their work together. Donors are uncertain about the payment methods for making donations on the website and need a better, more secure way to do so.
The Objective
Enhance the volunteer registration process to make it more user-friendly and efficient. Improve the organization and coordination of volunteering tasks to ensure smoother operations. Increase volunteer engagement and retention by addressing any pain points in the volunteering experience. Enhance the efficiency of volunteer scheduling by implementing user-friendly systems or tools within the volunteer network. Measure the effectiveness of these changes through feedback mechanisms and performance metrics.
The Challenge
How might we encourage community contribution?
We looked at other charities by studying their strengths and weaknesses.
Competitive Analysis
Competitive analysis focuses specifically on evaluating th organisation in relation to 'competitors' within the same market. The goal was to understand identify opportunities, and find ways to differentiate the existing website.
Willing Hearts
Willing Hearts uses the give.asia API for credit card donations, ensuring a straightforward and reliable donation process. However. The website's call-to-action buttons are unclear, and their pages contains a lot of information, making navigation difficult. Additionally, the design is outdated, with a confusing layout, untrustworthy-looking payment options, unclear instructions, and broken links.
Giving.sg
Giving.sg compiles various organizations’ volunteer projects and provides clear navigation to find suitable opportunities. It offers easy sign-ups using SingPass, clear descriptions of volunteer requirements, and displays under-served campaigns and vacancies. Additionally, it shows fundraising progress bars, clearly labels cause categories, and uses the Stripe API for payments. However, The site lacks clickable links to organizations' webpages for more information on the project description pages, and it does not allow users to contribute to multiple projects simultaneously.
Food Bank Singapore
The organisation clearly labels categories and subcategories, provides articles detailing past achievements, and offers quantitative data to support their causes. Financial statements and annual reports are easily accessible, the homepage is visually appealing with clear call-to-action buttons, and various payment modes are available, along with informative videos for first-time volunteers. However. Different volunteer roles require different sign-up processes, links to sign up for other roles are not clickable, and the payment gateway used for donations is not indicated. Additionally, users are required to enter personal data to make donations.
Free Food For All (FFFA)
The organisation uses the HitPay API for donations, encourages regular donations and specific campaigns, and accepts non-monetary donations like food items. The organisation offers easy online sign-ups for volunteer opportunities and actively promotes community involvement, encouraging volunteers to initiate their own food drives. However, the platform does not allow users to choose a donation amount, only offering fixed amounts for donations.
We made comparisons.
Comparative Analysis
This research method involves evaluating and comparing different aspects of charity websites to understand how they perform relative to each other. This can include comparing usability, features, and design elements. The goal was to compare navigation expereince, volunteering registration and donation process.
Willing Hearts
Willing Hearts faces challenges with unclear call-to-action buttons and a lot of information that is difficult to sift through. Their donation process includes options like bank transfer and PayNow but suffers from a broken Giving.sg link and does not solicit cash donations directly (door-to-door, face-to-face). The volunteer registration page is text-heavy with multiple links and unclear sign-up instructions, making it cumbersome for volunteers to register.
World Vision Singapore
The organisation's website features numerous photos of volunteer work, though some may appear overly staged and wordy. Their donation process is flexible, allowing for donations to multiple causes, one-time or repeated, and the purchase of gifts for specific people, with a requirement to sign up for an account. They use the Mastercard API for payment gateways, and volunteer registration is handled via email with a detailed list of volunteer needs available on their website.
Esplanade
Esplanade provides clear information on volunteer types, and the information is well-organized and easy to navigate. Donation options include PayNow QR code, Giving.sg, and bank transfer, with clear instructions on where the donations go. Sponsorship opportunities are available through email or direct calls, with a list of sponsors prominently displayed on the site. Volunteer registration is straightforward and conducted through email.
Singapore Red Cross Society
The Singapore Red Cross Society website offers a clean and user-friendly experience with well-defined sections for services, volunteer opportunities, courses, and news. Navigation is intuitive, emphasizing how individuals and organizations can donate or get involved. Their online donation form supports various payment methods, including regular monthly or one-off contributions and blood donations. The volunteer registration form details different roles and opportunities, including community service, first aid, and fundraising activities, with a focus on youth engagement.
Lions Befrienders
The organisation features a user-friendly website with clear sections on their services, events, and ways to get involved. The site focuses on providing easy access to information about their senior care programs, volunteer opportunities, and donation methods. They facilitate online donations through various payment options and encourage both regular and one-off donations, especially for supporting elderly clients. The organization offers straightforward volunteer sign-up processes, emphasizing community engagement and personal connections in supporting the elderly.
We checked best-in-class outside Singapore.
World Food Program
The World Food Program website is well-structured with clear calls to action and intuitive navigation segmented for donations, learning, and volunteer information. They offer options for monthly or one-time donations and support fundraising campaigns and gifts in kind. Volunteer opportunities are typically through partners on the ground, UN Volunteers, or internships, as the WFP does not generally recruit volunteers in the conventional sense.
Heifer International
Heifer International provides clear navigation with easy-to-locate sections for donations, project information, and success stories. The site has a user-friendly design with impactful visuals showcasing their work. They support online donations via credit/debit card, PayPal, or electronic funds transfer, with a gift catalog available for symbolic giving. Heifer focuses on training and empowering local individuals in program countries, with limited traditional volunteer opportunities, but offers educational experiences at Heifer farms and learning centers in the U.S.
Action Against Hunger
The organisation offers a user-friendly interface with straightforward navigation and prominent donation and advocacy action buttons for easy engagement. Their secure online donation options include credit/debit cards and PayPal, supporting monthly giving, tributes, and legacy gifts. They engage volunteers primarily for awareness campaigns and fundraising events and provide opportunities for digital advocacy and community fundraising. Internship and employment opportunities are listed for those interested in more involved roles.
After an extensive round of research, we looked deeper at Willing Heart's existing website.
Content Audit
A content audit is a comprehensive review and analysis of the content on a website. The primary purpose of a content audit is to evaluate the quality, effectiveness, and performance of the existing content
We went to Willing Hearts to learn more.
On-Site Observation
We immersed ourselves in the environment at Willing Hearts by visiting their address. We spoke to a few volunteers to learn more about their experience. We wanted to volunteer to understand the process as a whole but due to time constraint, we decided to contribute by making an act of donation for charity.
We also spoke to connections who have volunteered before.
User Research Interview
In addition to our research, we also reached out to 15 individuals who have volunteered or made a donation before in other organisations so that we have a good understanding who they are, what they do and what they struggle with. We have listed down some key insights we have gotten from them.