Donate for TriUXPA
Designing from 0-1 to help a non-profit fundraise while engaging the local design community.
context
Triangle UXPA is a membership-based community based in North Carolina that empowers design professionals in the RTP area through various events and design conferences.
In March 2024, I joined the web design team as a Product Designer to help build a trustworthy donation experience that motivates people to donate.
Timeline
March - June 2024
Team
2 Designers
1 Researcher
2 Mentors
Tools
Figma
Notion
Slack
Disciplines
User Research
Interaction Design
User Testing
summary
Triangle UXPA is currently in a developmental phase and needs additional financial support beyond its regular sponsors.
The organization didn't have a donation page for supporters, so creating one was super urgent to keep their work going. I jumped in as a Product Designer and teamed up with the design lead and UX researcher to build a donation page that feels trustworthy and motivates people to donate.
discovery research
Our client expected the new donation page to not only meet financial needs but also support advertising efforts for TriUXPA.
To kick off the project, we quickly set up a meeting with the president from TriUXPA, to grasp the idea about the primary users, the content we need to show, and the project’s expectations.
problem space
How can we design a user-friendly donation experience that allows quick contributions and engages donors?
Final Solution
key insights
Growing together with the community is the biggest reason donors feel connected with, followed by…
Easy & Transparent
“Should be easy to understand, with options to learn more but no long essays, and clearly tell where the money goes.”
- Participant 3
Social connections
“Feel more motivated when a friend asks me to donate.”
- Participant 7
product goal
Engaging and Community-Driven Donation Experience
Based on this insight, our product goal is to create an engaging and supportive donation platform that not only facilitates easy and transparent donations but also fosters a strong sense of community and shared growth among donors.
designing
Competitive Analysis: Gathering Insights
We analyzed four competitors' and two NGOs' donation pages, and here's what we got:
Donation Interface explorations
With our insights in hand, I worked together with Silvia, we sketched low-fidelity wireframes to streamline the donation process. We then developed it into high-fidelity wireframes for further user testing.
testing
The Current Social Sharing Feature Failed
We conducted usability tests with five TriUXPA members. Even though they found the donation process easy, 4/5 weren’t motivated to share their donations on social channels. Since the social sharing feature was designed to encourage more donors and advertise TriUXPA, this lack of motivation is a big concern. We need to figure out why.
Understanding Generosity
I then explored research on the science of generosity. A key insight stood out: people tend to be generous to those who have shown generosity to them or those they expect will reciprocate in the future (2018 study).
Brainstorming and Testing TriUXPA Members
Based on this insight, I brainstormed five reward ideas, created storyboards, and tested them with five TriUXPA members. I asked them to pick their favorite, but found everyone had different preferences. So, I tweaked my questions, asking participants to rank the five ideas.
Feature Prioritization: Official Badge
Based on their feedback, then I used an evaluation matrix for feature prioritization while considering feasibility for TriUXPA. I shared these insights with my team, and we finally decided to go with the official badge idea.
iteration
Design Feedbacks And Iterations
Change #1
While our primary donors know the organization well, we also need to think about potential donors who are curious but not yet familiar. So, it’s important to display our cause information right away to help people quickly understand what we're all about.
Cause is not visible
Cause on top
Change #2
At first, we used a dark and white background to make the donation form stand out. But two participants pointed out that it felt sad for a donation page. So, we decided to change the background color to better support a positive donation experience.
Feels so sad
Feels more positive
Change #3
Based on user feedback, we added the badge feature to our social sharing function. This way, we can really motivate our active members and spread the word about TriUXPA at the same time.
Feels so boring
Feels more engaging
final product
Engaging and Community-Driven Donation Experience
Quickly Fill Out the Simple & Accessible Form
Provided a simple donation form with an error state reminder for TriUXPA members to quickly fill out.
Official Badge to Share with the Network to Engage Donors
Added a badge download feature to the "Your donation is confirmed" section to encourage donors to share their appreciation on social channels, thereby multiplying their social impact.
Support Responsive Mobile Version to Complete the Donation
Based on this research, we also created the responsive mobile version so members can easily complete the donation process on their phones, potentially increasing the donation conversion rate and reducing the abandonment rate.
Metrics of Success
Due to the project's 0-1 nature and short timeline, our team couldn't build a fully functioning product for a long-term usability study. Instead, we conducted 5 usability testing to gather honest feedback on functionality. We then used the System Usability Scale (SUS) to quantitatively evaluate user satisfaction.
We plan to continue to work with TriUXPA after the first launch of the donation feature, here are the metrics I am interested in to evaluate the success of our design product:
01
Payment button click-through rate & conversion rate
These metrics will help us understand how effectively our design encourages users to initiate and complete donations.
reflection
My Key Learnings
User testing is iterative
There's no one-size-fits-all way to testing. it's important to reflect on the process and the problems that come up, then tweak the testing and questions as needed.
Thank you!
To Jamal and Andrew, the amazing design mentors at TriUXPA! Your guidance helped me enjoy the design process and explore so many happy possibilities. Special thanks to Silvia for your help, support, and for practicing the presentation with me for several hours before the final presentation.