Phillip Spaulding
Phillip Spaulding
KLIFE CS Top.png
 

CONNECTING DATA WITH DOLLARS

Web and mobile app for event scheduling and data tracking for local nonprofit

 

DESIGN CHALLENGE

 
 

Nonprofits run on the generosity and donations of others. Without the consistent financial support of donors, many life changing services would cease to exist. For 3 years I was the director of a local nonprofit, KLIFE. We were a mid size organization with 5 staff and 100 volunteer leaders. Together we served over 450 junior and high school students through youth mentorship small groups and events.

With an organization of our size, we desperately needed a way to track our data in order to continue fundraising efforts and keep a consistent flow of financial resources. Thus, with the backing of our generous Nonprofit Board, we gathered resources and embarked on an endeavor to build a solution of our own.

 
 

My Role
Designer, Nonprofit Director, & Stakeholder

Team & Duration
For the last year as Nonprofit Director, I worked with developers on creating the KLIFE app.

My Contributions
User Interviews
Persona Development
Creating Scope of Problem
User Flows
Scenarios
Usability Testing

Methods Involved
User Interviews
User Journey
Task Analysis
Scenarios/User Flows
Prototype

 

Research

 
 
 

PREVIOUS RESOURCES

When we started talking about what we needed in the app, I was finishing up my second year as Director. For my first two years we were using a program called MaxPro to collect our data. MaxPro was largely outdated and the user experience for all the stakeholders was poor.

 
 

MaxPro Strengths

  • Database for information
  • Ability to record attendance for meetings
  • Searchable using filters
  • Monthly reports

MaxPro Weaknesses

  • Not accessible on mobile
  • Only accessible to volunteers and staff, not externally facing
  • Included too many features and categories
  • Difficult to navigate
  • Clunky, not user friendly
 
 
 
 

Main Pain Point: Not Accessible on Mobile
As crazy as it sounds, even in 2016 when we began building our new app, MaxPro was totally unusable on mobile. The database had been built before smart phones and did not have responsive design. This was a major pain point as our volunteer leaders used their mobile phones for everything and more specifically, did not have their computers at their youth meetings. So they had no way of taking attendance on the spot and so often would forget to record the data when they got access to a computer again.

Without correct attendance data or contact information for students who participated in our organization, we had no way of knowing who to contact to ask for fundraising donations. This one weakness, the inaccessibility on mobile, was a pain point felt by every stakeholder in the organization.

 
 
 
 
“I know I should remember to record the attendance when I get back to my dorm, but I almost never do. Having an app for my phone would be a TOTAL game changer.”
— Alex, college student & volunteer leader
 
 
 
 
 
 

STAKEHOLDERS

One of the main challenges in beginning to research and design this new app was identifying and analyzing all of the different pain points experienced by each stakeholder. For this app, I had five distinct stakeholders, each with different goals and pain points.

 
 
 

Student
Population: 450+ people
Age: 5th grade to 12th grade
Interaction with Schedule and Database: Zero to Low

College Volunteer Leader
Population: 100 people
Age: 18 to 22 years old
Occupation: Full-time students
Interaction with Schedule and Database: Medium to High

Paid Staff
Population: 5 people
Age: 23 to 28 years old
Occupation: Full-time Staff
Interaction with Schedule and Database: High

Nonprofit Board Member
Population: 30 people
Age: 35 to 55 years old
Occupation: Full-time Work or Stay-at-home Parent
Interaction with Schedule and Database: Medium

Parent
Population: 800+ people
Age: 35 to 55 years old
Occupation: Full-time Work or Stay-at-home Parent
Interaction with Schedule and Database: Low to Medium

 
 
 
 

USER INTERVIEWS

Over the course of a couple months, I took time to meet with 2-3 people within each of my stakeholder groups and asked them questions about their needs and pain points surrounding data tracking and scheduling.

Example Questions

  1. What do you think of the current database, MaxPro? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the program?
  2. If there was a database app you could access on your phone, what would you expect the app to be able to do?
  3. What are obstacles that inhibit your use of the current database?

Based on the insights gained from the time spent with each of my stakeholders, I was able to gain a sense of the needs of each set of users and how I may design an app that could meet those needs as holistically as possible.

 

Strategy & SKETCHING

 
 

In identifying the direction I would take for the app it was imperative that I defined the main problem for each stakeholder. Because the app would directly impact each user, I needed to have a clear idea of what problems we were solving for across the board.

 
 
 

STUDENT PROBLEM
Students need a way to see their meeting schedule on their mobile devices so that they can have put to date information and attend more meetings.

VOLUNTEER LEADER PROBLEM
Volunteer leaders need a way to add student information and attendance that is quick and easy so that they can input accurate information for students, parents, staff, and board members to benefit from.

STAFF PROBLEM
Staff need a way to access the database from their mobile devices so that they can accurately keep track of students and volunteer leaders and provide thorough reports to board members.

BOARD MEMBER PROBLEM
Board members need a way to have the most accurate and up to date information from the database so that they can target the right people for donations and support.

PARENT PORBLEM
Parents need a way to access their student's meeting schedule that is quick and easy so that they can make efficient plans to take care of the daily needs of their busy families.

 
 
 

I concluded that by creating a database that is both accessible on web and mobile, all users will have greater access to information and in turn, be able to better build relationships and fundraise donor support more effectively.

 
 
 
 
 
 

WEB & MOBILE

I needed to design a database that was accessible both on web and mobile. The greatest need was certainly for a mobile experience for scheduling and quick data, but the backend database for large fundraising effort and mass communications would surely be accessed on laptops and desktop computers. This kept my design decisions to ones that would be more responsive than simply just app or just web.

 
 
 
 
 
 

FEATURE PRIORITIZATION

Each stakeholder had unique needs for the app. I summarized their responses into one main feature per stakeholder.

Students
Access to meeting schedule on their phone

Volunteer Leaders
Ability to track weekly attendance on their phone

Staff
Quick access to the database on the go

Board Members
Accurate data tracking and reports

Parents
Access to group meetings schedule and leader information

 
 
 

USER JOURNEY

With five distinct stakeholders, thinking through user journeys was highly complex. Knowing that each user would come to the app with different motivations and goals, I was easily able to come up with 10+ user flows per stakeholder. And within each user flow it seemed like more and more questions and complications would surface.

Questions and Pain Points

  1. What if a student puts in wrong information? How will we catch that before wasting money on wrong mail-outs and donor outreach? Should we have parents put in the information instead?
  2. How do we connect multiple students to one set of parents in our system? Is there a way to automatically connect them or will a staff person need to comb through and make those connections?
  3. What if someone outside of the organization wants to access the app for malicious reasons? What authentication factors or approval system will be put in place? How will that indirectly hinder the right people from signing up and slow down the overall on-boarding process?
  4. In the backend database for staff and board members, how will we filter information? What criteria will we use? Will there be a tagging system? Will that be self-selected at sign up or will it later be assigned manually by a staff member?

These questions and pain points along with the overall functionality needs of the users created major slow downs in the design and continued to push our launch date further and further out.

 

USABILITY TESTING

 
 
 

TESTING

The time between my first meeting with the developer to the actual launch date was about 16 months. At every usability test along the way, different bugs or functionality mishaps would arise. I led the efforts for the app throughout my third and final year as the director of the nonprofit and because the launch date continued to be pushed farther out, my time with KLIFE ended before I got to see the app fully launch.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

NEXT STEPS

A little less than a year after it's launch, I reached out to a former coworker and current staff member of the nonprofit. Her and I spoke about the new app, it's strengths and weaknesses, and ways it could continue to improve.

Main Takeaways

  • The app is super simple and is much easier to use than the former database, MaxPro
  • Have about 2/3's of the organization registered on the app
  • Still experiencing bugs and technical difficulties with onboarding
  • Volunteers are more likely to accurately track attendance, but there are still many who fail to track attendance due to forgetfulness or laziness
  • Board Members have shared enthusiasm for more accurate data and up to date reports
  • Staff are able to access group data on the go and during meetings to better oversee and support volunteer leaders

The new director is continuing to work with the developer to improve the app. Functionality they are looking forward to developing:

  • Ability to track donations with student attendance
  • Mass communication through the app to database members
  • More efficient sign-in processes for large events
  • Ability to link eventbrite or ticketing service to mass communications
 

RETROSPECTIVE

 

I embarked on this endeavor with no idea what designing an app looked like. All I knew was that there was a large need and I was in a position to help solve it. Looking back with the knowledge and skills I have know, there are many things I would do differently if given the chance. I would have used different tools and design methods, defined more user flows and functionality for our developer, and had a greater had in the actual visual design of the app.

This was my first step into the world of User Experience Design. I look back and see how this experience was a real turning point in my desire to find a career that allowed me to continue to serve people as I had done for years, but also would provide a creative space for me to flex my problem solving muscles and design solutions that put my critical thinking to the test. This app allowed me to marry both of those parts of me for that last year and I believe both the organization and I are better off because of it.

 

SEE MORE WORK