Volunteering Platform
"HeartsGive" is a volunteering platform designed for a
non-profit organisation, Heartfulness. It was designed to bring structure to their volunteering experience making it seamless and efficient for volunteers as well as the organisation.
Client
Heartfulness
Year
2023
Category
Mental Wellness
Type of Work
Personal Project
UX Design
App Design
User Journey
INTRODUCTION:
I previously worked on various projects with a non-profit organisation, Heartfulness. This organisation promotes mental well-being by providing a practical approach to meditation practices that are applicable to modern lifestyle needs. This organisation is currently expanding at a rapid pace, leaving the people running this organisation with no time conducting formal research or developing a long term strategic plan. This gave me an opportunity to take on the challenge to conduct a thorough analysis on this organisation and provide strategic recommendations based on inferred insights.
Please refer to other project “Service Strategy for Heartfulness” on the website for an entire case study on Heartfulness and how I arrived at this solution.
CHALLENGE:
Heartfulness practitioners are highly motivated to contribute to the organization through donations and volunteering. As the organization expands, there is an increasing need for volunteers to spread awareness, organize events, and conduct workshops for their target audiences.
The absence of proper database makes the select group of 'regular' volunteers and staff recruit new volunteers, directly or through network limiting their outreach and losing out on better resources. The lack of structured processes also result in abandoning of projects halfway by volunteers leading decline in quality output.
OVERVIEW: I have been volunteering at Heartfulness for past few years, bringing in my expertise for the cause I believe in. It has also given me the chance to connect with like-minded people, and established a sense of belonging in me.
Heartfulness practitioners are very enthusiastic about contributing to their organisation and are ready to make time out of their busy schedules to support this cause. Although, I noticed that I, along with a handful of volunteers, felt the need to take occasional "breaks" from volunteering. Due to the ongoing launch of numerous initiatives within a short span, there was a constant demand for additional tasks, which overwhelmed the 'regular' volunteers and led them to temporarily suspend their volunteering activities. Furthermore, Project heads typically sought out potential volunteers directly or through their network, creating restrictions on finding new substitutes and perhaps losing out on them. Thus it is essential for Heartfulness to address this gap between its management and potential volunteers to ensure functioning in the long run.
With the help of my design thinking perspective and a significant findings in the other project (Service Strategy of Heartfulness), I recognised importance of structuring the work processes and delivering an efficient volunteering experience. Thus, this project revolves around the question of how Heartfulness can make work processes quick and efficient while also bringing in additional volunteers.
Note: Please refer to images for quicker skim-through of the project.
DESIGN PROCESS
TL;DR: The main challenge was already identified in the other project ‘Service Strategy for Heartfulness’, this project focuses on one of the service recommendations, i.e. designing a work experience for volunteers of Heartfulness. I chose to work with a 6-step UX design process to give shape to my service recommendation.
Stage 1: Research
DESK RESEARCH:
Heartfulness, a global non-profit organization with 6000 centers worldwide, is actively launching multiple initiatives to promote mental wellness. Their efforts have led to a growing demand for volunteers who are vital to functioning of the organization.
With the project goal in mind, I decided to explore more on the existing volunteer experiences and strategies used by the experts for attracting and retaining volunteers. Going through popular volunteering apps in the market and with the help of affinity mapping, I managed to outline the essential features that would help bridge the gap between the organisation and the volunteers.
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Volunteer Database: The first criteria according to volunteer-driven organisations and strategy experts was to stay organised. With all the volunteer contact information, their qualifications, skills, availability etc., stored in one place, the Project Heads would be able to reach out to the available volunteers easily.
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Screening Tools: For quality management, it is also essential for the Project Heads to easily review, accept or reject volunteer applications based on the project’s requirements.
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Clear Communication: It is essential for the organization and volunteers to maintain open channels of communication in order to ensure correct project direction.
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Recognition: It is vital for the organization to retain active volunteers, which can be done through acknowledging their efforts. Volunteers who feel valued and appreciated are more likely to continue participating and may even inspire more volunteers to join the organization.
PRIMARY RESEARCH:
I selected the qualitative research method of one-on-one interviews as it would provide me with in-depth knowledge of the current volunteering process and how Heartfulness coordinated and launched initiatives. Putting it simply, the volunteering process involved two main participants: the individual who performed the tasks and the person requiring them to be completed. This enabled me to pinpoint the key players as the Volunteers and Project Heads from Heartfulness Management respectively.
My goal was to learn how the existing volunteer system operates from the perspectives of Project Heads and Active Volunteers, as well as the challenges encountered while working together.
Open-ended questions were used to collect qualitative data about service users and get insights into their ideas, feelings, and behaviours. I collaboratively worked with the two user groups to map out the process journey from their own perspectives. The questions also delved deeper into the difficulties they encountered during the process as well as their expectations concerning the experience.
KEY INSIGHTS:
As identified in the previous section, two main user groups were the Volunteers and the Project Heads. The in-depth interviews with the participants presented me with valuable insights on a range of volunteer activities that took place in Heartfulness at a global level. It helped me categorise based on the manner of volunteering—remote or on-site volunteering. I also grouped the volunteers based on their needs and behaviour in context of tasks they needed to accomplish.
It was also common for regular volunteers to become permanent employees for Heartfulness. HFN has its own HR app where people can apply for jobs. In the meanwhile, they rely on volunteers to complete critical tasks for the organization's ongoing activities.
The main problem perceived by the volunteers was that they had to take a ‘break’ from volunteering occasionally as they felt overburdened with work at a certain point(s). The volunteering work was taking over their time assigned for other daily activities, making them drop the project midway.
The Project Heads missed out on better resources and skill sets, as a result of their limited ability to reach out to potential volunteers. Insufficient resources during emergency situations resulted in piles of work on already burdened volunteers.
Since volunteering is based on participation on volition, volunteers themselves originally sought to commit to projects for HFN. The main reason they discontinued the project was due to unrealistic expectations placed on volunteers. I realised that adopting a structured approach to volunteering in HFN would help tackle these challenges and establishing a process that is both adaptable and self-sufficient would help with alignment of goals of the volunteer and the organisation.
Stage 2: Define
The following user persona cards acted as a guide for me to remain relevant with the users throughout the design process. It’d also assist the organisation to stay on track with user needs and pain points, allowing them to meet user expectations.
I visualised a current-state journey map with the help of gathered insights, taking into account the ‘before’, ‘beginning’, ‘during' and ‘after’ phases of the current process. As a result, I was able to break down the process into several sections and identify the pain points at each stage. It also helped me determine where the opportunity areas fit in the process, enabling me to incorporate them into my re-imagined volunteer experience.
I shortlisted five areas of opportunity from the perspective of both user groups. It was based on the common pain points and needs specified by them in personal interviews.
I decided to create future-state journey maps from the perspectives of both Volunteers and Project Heads based on the above opportunity areas and key activities from the current volunteering process. This enabled me to visualise what the re-imagined process would be like and also helped me put-together the guidelines/principles for better volunteering experience. I believe it’d also serve as a roadmap for HFN to design this experience while considering the key features and service points to work on.
Prototype Coming Soon ..