Type
Responsive Web App
Work
Research, Design
Role
Lead UX Designer
When
Aug 2022
Improving the Browse Opportunities Experience
Taproot Foundation
Background
Taproot is a nonprofit organization that connects nonprofits with volunteers. The top concern amongst Nonprofits is a lack of resources and Taproot is committed to help fill this gap. Taproot gets funding from corporations or grantmakers to facilitate programs where volunteers use their skillset to help Nonprofits in a particular area. This led to the development of Taproot’s very own online platform that provides a space for Nonprofits and volunteers to connect on their own.
Project Summary
In an effort to attract and retain more Volunteer users on the Taproot platform, this project aimed to improve the browsing interface to reduce the friction in our Volunteers finding suitable volunteer projects.
My Role
I facilitated an internal evaluation of the existing Browse Opportunities as well as external user testing to get validation and clarity on what the pain points were. With clear goals for improvement and freedom to freshen up the UI, I began design iterations and feedback sessions until landing on the final designs.
What was the problem?
User Feedback
I conducted structured User Interviews with 5 Volunteer Users to evaluate the Browse Opportunity experience.
"It would be nice to not have to click into each card to see if I'm a good fit" - Volunteer Feedback
"I can't tell which ones I have already read so I waste time clicking into the same ones" -Volunteer Feedback
"I have to keep checking what I'm filtered to because the website doesn't give any indication" - Volunteer Feedback
Overall the interviews validated the weaknesses in the filters and cards.
(Message me for full user research case study)
Design Solution / Filters
During the ideation phase I explored the possibility of switching to an open sidebar filter menu, but ultimately landed on sticking with the top side filters. After researching many similar platforms, I found that most were using the top side filters and after looking into the latest research, I learned this is becoming more popular because users’ eyes tended to notice the top center area more as they are focused on the centered card content. With this information as well as reasoning that once we fixed our ‘Most Relevant’ sorting, people’s preferences would mostly be remembered by our system and filter use should not be so prevalent if we got that right.
Design Solution / Card Detail Page
I made the experience of clicking into a card for more detail more convenient as well, instead of being taken to a new page, you can browse the full details in an overlay.
Responsive Design
Prototype Preview
Additional Work
In an effort to improve the image quality on the cards, we went back and improved how we ask Nonprofits to upload an image for their posting, giving them more guiadance to help them upload the most effective image possible.
Nonprofit Image Uploading Experience
Additional Work
In order to make it easier for the team to edit the hero banner and marketing speedbump without needing to ask dev, we added the functionality to control these in the admin interface.
Admin Control
Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed working on this project because I used direct user feedback to inform my design decisions and the launch of this project was to be the premiere of a new and improved brand refresh and more delightful UI components.