Skills
UX Design
UI Design
User Research
Team
3 UX Designers (including myself)
Product Manager
Development Team
UX Research Team
Executive Director
Duration
3 months
Tool
Figma
Trello
UserTesting
Overview
DemocracyLab is a platform that connects nonprofit organizations with skilled volunteers. As a UX Designer, I designed the Applications tab to help Project Owners (nonprofit leaders) efficiently review and manage project contributor (volunteer) applications. This tab—along with other key tabs—formed the Project Management Tool (PMT), improving usability and engagement on the platform.
Role
I led everything about the Applications tab, from research to design, while also serving as the bridge between the design and development teams. As the first designer on the Design team, I organized design meetings, managed tasks, and guided team members throughout design sessions.
Solution Highlights
Results
Decreased the task completion time for volunteer approval
Increased the # of active volunteers on the platform
INITIAL PROBLEM DISCOVERY
Our Design team + Product Manager met with Mark, DemocracyLab’s Executive Director and a Project Owner who actively uses the platform himself. He highlighted issues with the navigation and flow of project pages, making it difficult to manage volunteer applications and projects. Citing website analytics and his own experience, he emphasized the need for a Project Management Tool (PMT) to streamline these processes. Below were the original screens:
Goals
After several meetings with Mark and the PM, we set the following goals for our PMT project, which we hope to achieve within 1 month after the launch of the PMT feature. Increase the number of… :
USER RESEARCH & PAIN POINTS
Identifying key pain points from research
After synthesizing the research findings, we categorized them to highlight the most frequently mentioned pain points from Project Owners. These were the 4 main issues:
Project Owners struggle to…
Track and analyze project progress & statistical data 📊
DemocracyLab does not have this feature at all.
Track volunteer contributions and activities 👥
The "Recent Activity" tab only displays the recent updates without any detailed information.
Manage volunteer applications 📝
Users have to scroll down the "Recent Volunteer Applications" endlessly.
Review volunteer applications 🔎
Users cannot check applicants' profile information.
HMW
After analyzing users' main pain points, we brainstormed and formulated How Might We questions to address them. We grouped related questions into three themes and assigned each team member to tackle one set. I focused on solving pain points related to volunteer application management.:
How Might We help Project Owners to efficiently…
Review volunteer applications
Approve/Reject/Contact (individual/multiple) volunteers
Manage Pending/Approved/Rejected/Expired applications
Organize/Filter applications by roles
Anticipated impacts 💭 🎯
More effective and efficient volunteer application management
⭐ Increase in the # of approved & active volunteers ⭐
⭐ Increase in the # of active projects with more contributions ⭐
Creating persona & user journey map to empathize with users
Before ideating features to address the HMW questions, I created a persona (Jane) to guide my design proceess and provide stakeholders with a clear representation of our users and their needs. I also mapped out Jane’s user journey in the original volunteer application management flow to better empathize with users and understand their experience.
IDEATE
DESIGN, TEST, & ITERATE
DESIGN
MORE TESTS & ITERATIONS
Satisfaction from internal teams & users
Before handing off our designs to the Development team, our Design team delivered a final presentation to the DemocracyLab stakeholders, including the Executive Director and cross-functional team leads. They were impressed with our prototypes and agreed that this feature aligns with our goal of expanding the volunteer community and project offerings.
100% of key stakeholders…:
Provided positive feedback and agreed this new feature would improve volunteer application management efficiency!
100% of participants from moderated usability tests…:
Answered they would prefer to use this new Application tab over the original design!
FINAL DESIGNS & RESULTS
With the launch of the Project Management Tool (PMT), we achieved two goals: increasing the number of active volunteers and the number of active projects, ultimately fostering a community space where nonprofit leaders and volunteers collaborate to create meaningful impact.
Decreased the task completion time for volunteer approval
Increased the # of active volunteers on the platform
Increased the # of active projects on the platform
REFLECTION
Growing beyond design -> Multi-skilled problem solver
Opportunity for growth
Throughout this project, I gained skills not only in design but also in many other areas, such as project management, accessibility, communication, and more.
Valuable feedback
Although our team members each focused on one feature, we supported each other when challenges arose and shared valuable design feedback.
Leadership satisfaction + Next step
The Executive Director and team leads of DemocracyLab were highly satisfied with our work! We agreed to continue tracking the data and iterate further if needed.
