Expanding the volunteer team proved to be an uphill battle.
Despite spreading love in the community, Beauty 2 the Streetz was having a difficult time growing its volunteer team for events.
Currently while out in the community, the team verbally refers aspiring volunteers to, at a later time, visit their website to sign up to participate in events and paper sign-up forms, which would result in a low conversion rate of volunteers.
To uncover their struggles, I ventured into the field.
Engaging directly with volunteers I conducted interviews to uncover their struggles in recruiting new team members. The biggest pain points were clear: online sign-up sheets were often ignored, and paper forms proved cumbersome and error-prone in the fast-paced environment. With just under two minutes to engage potential volunteers, every moment counted.
Drawing inspiration from other nonprofits and their onboarding flows, I found a common thread: connecting volunteer sign-ups directly to upcoming events sparked enthusiasm and boosted conversion rates. Empowered by these insights, I crafted a hypothesis: streamline the sign-up process by empowering volunteers to input data directly into a mobile-accessible dashboard, complete with event reminders.
Crafting a user-friendly flow and functional architecture.
I aimed for efficiency without sacrificing effectiveness.When building the architecture for our dashboard, I felt that in keeping our interactions under our 2-minute window, it would be better for our Home Screen to function as an Events page featuring our upcoming events and their details. This will be helpful for our users to quickly reference and share.
The first flow I came up with saw our user adding the new volunteer into the dashboard and then searching for them in order to send the event reminder from that new volunteer’s profile page.
Improving the User Flow.
Wanting to keep in line with the efficiency of our information architecture, I revised the user flow and trimmed unnecessary steps by 25%, ensuring swift interactions.
Designed for responsiveness.
With mid-fidelity wireframes and a design system tailored to Beauty 2 the Streetz's branding, I brought the prototype to life.
Adding a new volunteer.
The user’s flow to convert a new volunteer and add their information into our database.
Sending an event reminder.
Now the user can send an event reminder to any volunteer that is interested in working that event.
Results were promising.
Testing with real users provided invaluable feedback, guiding refinements aimed at optimizing time on task, reducing errors, and ultimately boosting conversion rates.
Average time spent on the task plummeted to just over a minute, well within the tight timeframe. However, a glaring issue with the "Add New" button hindered progress, leading to a high error rate. Swift revisions addressed this concern without sacrificing completion rates, paving the way for smoother, more efficient volunteer onboarding.
In the end, the journey from challenge to solution was a testament to the power of empathy, innovation, and collaboration in driving positive change for those in need.
