Type
Responsive Web App
Work
Research, Design
Role
Lead UX Designer
When
Jul 2023
Improving Scheduling Issues in the Taproot Platform
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
After we found several usability issues with the scheduling system on the Taproot Platform, we investigated possible improvements. We started with some quick fixes to alleviate some severe issues, followed by a complete overhaul of the scheduling interface.
My Role
Based on feedback I gathered from interviewing Taproot Plus volunteer and nonprofit users, I was able to determine the biggest pain points for users on the platform, the top of them being scheduling meetings on the platform. I was then tasked with investigating the scheduling system to see where the problems lie and proposing various levels of solutions ranging from low lift to large lift solutions. After deliberating with the product team and stakeholders, we chose a plan on action and I executed the designs.
What was the problem?
The timezone was not adjusted based on current IP address, but rather the IP address of when the user first created their account. This lead to missed calls and frustrated users.
Volunteers cannot edit or update their availability after they send application.
When volunteers send multiple applications they can’t keep track of which time slot they reserved for one application vs another, and can’t rely on the system to avoid overlapping meeting times.
Complicated timeslot requirement (5-10 times required, spread across at least 3 days, starting 24hrs from now, after 7am US time - hard for international folks to apply)
First Improvement
My first recommendation for an immediate fix was to add this timezone visibility at every scheduling interaction and have it actually reflect current IP address location. Adding this drop down to the page provided direct visibility to the user of the timezone they were selecting their time slots in, leaving less room for timezone errors.
Second Improvement
How did we reach this decision?
The project manager asked me to to explore different potential solutions first, ranging from the lowest lift solution to any unbounded solutions I could think of. I was also asked to be detailed in which pages and sections of the platform would need to be affected in order for us and engineering to get a sense of how much time and effort it would cost to build the changes.
Design Solution
I didn’t reinvent the wheel here, I looked at how common schedulers functioned such as Calendly and SuperPeer and Upwork and adapted it to suit Taproot’s platform.
I insisted we have the Override Dates feature otherwise this tool might become tedious to maintain and update especially since we were not going to have a calendar integration for users yet.
Final Thoughts
Overall I loved that this project had basis in direct user feedback. The real exercise in this project was in digging deep into the scheduling experience to truly identify the issues and coming up with various potential solutions to weigh before commencing design.