ItsRainingRaincoats
Streamlining Donation and Volunteering Process to Better Involve Benefactors
Background
ItsRainingRaincoats(IRR), as one of the Singapore local social initiatives dedicating to the welfare and integration of migrant workers in Singapore, has been pioneering in developing programs that support worker brothers from the ground up.
Currently, ItsRainingRaincoat serves three distinct user groups: donors, volunteers, and migrant workers. The organization also runs a variety of charitable initiatives, each with different focuses and processes.
My Role
This is a group project.
UX Designer
User Research, UX Design, Prototyping & testing
Project Manager
Project Management
Project Duration
3 Weeks (July - August 2024)
Platform
Mobile
Challenges
Since IRR's objective is to engage volunteers and donors to participate in their initiatives while organizing support activities for migrant workers.
Due to the diversity of target audience types, varying user purposes, the large number of organized activities, and the complexity of the its operation, IRR needs to display extensive text and images to convey event information and spark user interest.
Currently, the IRR website fails to prioritize essential information and instead overpopulates the homepage and main touchpoints with content that is not relevant to the user.
This, in turn, causes user confusion and even frustration, especially for first-time users, as they struggle to quickly find relevant information or complete intended actions on the IRR homepage.
Missions
Our missions here are:
Understand potential contributors’ behaviours when interacting with social initiatives online;
Revamp the existing IRR website and create a unified and simplified design that delivers a streamlined, cohesive experience for all relevant user types;
Help IRR better convince and convert potential contributors to partake in the initiatives.
User Interview
Our design aims to address target users’ needs and goals when engaging with a charitable organization’s site, ultimately enhancing the user experience. To gain in-depth insights and uncover hidden needs and pain points, we conducted user interviews.
From the outset, we anticipated challenges in gathering insights from three distinct target groups, making recruitment and screening essential to high-quality interviews.
By leveraging social networks and engaging existing participants to help recruit others, we successfully conducted interviews across all target groups.
Key Insights
Knowledge of the Organisation
Contributors need a clear understanding of the NGO’s mission and values to determine if it resonates with them and inspires further commitment.
Program Details
Potential contributors prefer to commit only after knowing program-specific details, such as required commitment hours, event venue and expected outcomes.
Communication Platform
When seeking support, migrant workers prefer—and typically only—contact organizations directly via mobile, either by calling or messaging.
Usability Test on Existing Website
After an initial evaluation of the current website, we identified several issues that could hinder user interaction with IRR. To validate these findings and uncover potential pain points, we conducted usability tests to gather targeted insights.
Key Insights
Key Insight 1: The program-specific information is scattered around on multiple pages, which fatigued users.
Program Page
FAQ Page
Essential information, like program entry criteria and commitment hours, can only be found on a few different pages.
During usability tests, we observed that all users struggled to access essential program details, such as event location and date. They noted that this lack of information delayed their decision on whether to enroll.
Program Information Sheet
What makes the information-retrieving process even more prolonged is that some of these pages are buried so deep within the site that they are virtually inaccessible to new users unfamiliar with the website.
Another reason that led to users's failure in retrieving all necessary information is that some of the information is documented on a separate Google Sheet and the navigation to this sheet involved easily 4 to 5 clicks meanwhile the CTAs led to the next page
Key Insight 2: The homepage is over-populated with content in a wordy writing style, which easily depletes users' (particularly first time users) patience during browsing.
Users tended to stop scrolling or couldn't pay attention to information that they were supposed to find during the seemingly-endless scrolling.
Key Insight 3: Duplicate information appears across multiple pages, while content of related topics is unnecessarily divided across menu sections.
Users found it confusing to see identical information about volunteer and donation programs across multiple pages (brown box in the image on the left).
Similarly, they expected organization-related details, such as stories and testimonials (green boxes), to appear in one section, with media like photos, videos, and press coverage grouped together (cream-colored boxes).
After completing user research and synthesizing research results, we set these extracted key insights as the cornerstone and from here, began exploring potential design ideas.
Reducing Target Groups
After conducting user interviews with migrant workers, we learned that, due to limited internet access and technology literacy, these users are entirely unfamiliar with the websites operated by organizations offering them support.
They also stated that even if they were aware of such sites, they would not use them to seek social support or advice. Further conversations revealed that this group typically only reaches out for help in urgent situations, and in these cases, they prefer to contact organizations directly through WhatsApp messages or phone calls.
Meanwhile, the research into the behaviors of Donor and Volunteer users revealed that both user types are receptive to learning about the charity organization and participating in charitable activities through the website.
Therefore, we confirmed on our decision that the redesigned web App would would not focus on the migrant worker user group.
Developing with Design Thinking
The research clearly showed that different user groups engage with the app in distinct ways. To address this, we created two user profiles, each based on specific goals and tasks and explore possible problem solving angles for design solutions.
Well-Oriented Homepage
The homepage is over-populated with content in a wordy writing style, which easily depletes users' (particularly first time users) patience during browsing.
Based on user interviews and usability testing, we revamped the website's look and feel to create a modern, simple, and welcoming vibe while keeping the brand colours for consistency.
We also streamlined the homepage by removing unnecessary content that made scrolling tedious and refined the UX writing into more concise copy in digestable chunks.
Global Navigation
Duplicate information appears across multiple pages, while content of related topics is unnecessarily divided across menu sections.
Noticing varying user expectations around the way content is organised and displayed, we redesigned the global navigation to provide a more streamlined and oriented navigation experience.
Primary Information to Build Trust
Knowledge of the Organisation: Contributors need a clear understanding of the NGO’s mission and values to determine if it resonates with them and inspires further commitment.
To facilitate new users' understanding of the organization and foster trust, we prominently featured the organization’s missions and goals, media coverage, and program photos on the homepage, without overcrowding it.
Users who want to learn more are guided to designated pages for further exploration.
Homepage - About Us
Our Missions and Goals Page
Consolidated Workflows
Program Details: Potential contributors prefer to commit only after knowing program-specific details, such as required commitment hours and expected outcomes.
The program-specific information is scattered around on multiple pages, which fatigued users.
To optimize both volunteer and donor user flows, we streamlined access to initiative details based on user feedback about the tedious effort of navigating multiple pages to collect necessary program information.
Now, all relevant information, (including commitment hour, event location, event date, and more program-specific requirements), is consolidated into one or two pages, reducing clicks and improving accessibility.
Usability Test
After completing the prototype, we conducted usability tests to validate its ease of use and overall satisfaction.
While all users successfully navigated the app, completed tasks with minimal errors and happy with their experience with the prototype, two key friction points emerged that disrupted the flow and extended task completion time.
Friction Point 1: Users found the information in the acceptable pre-loved items list modal not immediately noticeable.
Friction Point 2: Users found it difficult to find specific pre-loved item name quickly.
Reflection
This project was my first experience as both project manager and designer. Huge thanks to my colleagues, Fabian and Rizmiya, for trusting me in this role; I gained invaluable experience working alongside them.
Balancing both roles proved more challenging than expected, as I had to carefully manage my time between project oversight and UX research and design. Initially, I underestimated the effort required to organize, track, and allocate tasks, often spending more time than anticipated keeping the project on schedule.
To streamline our progress, I implemented a project tracker to ensure an organized and transparent workflow. This tool helped manage assignments and deadlines while tagging responsibilities, clarifying ownership, and reducing unnecessary back-and-forth as deadlines neared.
Through this project, I also learned the importance of compromise. In time-sensitive projects, moving forward with an agreed-upon solution—even if it means setting aside personal preferences—helps maintain alignment and avoids prolonged debates.
Reflecting on the experience, I resonate with the Confucian thought 三人行必有我师焉: "Among three people walking, there will always be someone I can learn from." I adopted Fabian's meticulous approach to organizing design documentation and was inspired by Rizmiya’s adaptive interview techniques for diverse audiences. These lessons will continue to shape my UX design journey.
