Chipping in has never been easier
ChipIn is an app for volunteers to provide their services to those near them in an effortless way. I conducted initial user research to validate the application idea. After collecting data, I developed empathy maps, key routes, wireframes, brand identity, and an interactive prototype of ChipIn.
My Role:
Founder + Creative Director + UX/UI Designer + Service Designer
My Responsibilities:
Research, Interviews, Branding, Mobile App Development, User Testing
Hi-Fi Key Screens of ChipIn (not in order)
The Problem
Unorganized volunteer projects leave volunteers feeling confused about project goals and what their task is, or overall frustrated with the lack of structure. Unorganized can fester into a wildly confusing event which consequently includes an unappreciated volunteer.
Another problem is how inconvenient it is to volunteer. For most organizations, volunteers have to fill out an application weeks before the project. The whole process is slow, so for someone who decides to volunteer the same day the idea occurred their options are scarcely limited if not non-existent.
Hypothesis
While conducting research and user interviews, I observed volunteers express their biggest pain points mentioned above. I needed to make this experience more intuitive and seamless for volunteers who are already accustomed to using mobile services on a daily basis.
If the user could confidently scan through the project details before signing up, this would encourage the volunteer to tackle that project. My solution to include the minimum viable products (MVP) needed to carry out user goals will keep the volunteer from becoming overwhelmed by the process.
Getting To Know Potential Users
After conducting at least 70 hours of my own research talking to potential users one-on-one, researching secondary sources, and analyzing survey data, a few things became clear: Users desire the need to feel safe, valued, and respected. With the collected insight gained from the interviews, I was able to narrow in on my targeted audience:
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Experience with volunteering
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Age 16 to 60
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Physically able to be active, and lift supplies if necessary
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Have a basic understanding of web and mobile services (5+ times a week)
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Own a smartphone
I needed to understand more about what the volunteers I interviewed were truly feeling. I discovered that quite often in interviews or regular conversations, we don’t always say what we mean. That is why it’s essential to watch for any change of behavior. It wasn’t until I put the pulled insight from the interviews onto an empathy map for my personas when I truly felted like I knew how to create a product the users would enjoy.
Empathy Mapping
Casual Volunteer
Above is an empathy map showing off my first discovered persona: the casual volunteer.
Leading with empathy, I discovered two persona types: the flexible volunteer, and the structured volunteer. Although both are my targeted audience with similar goals, they prioritize different things. This persona is extremely motivated to help, they will become anxious or overwhelmed if a task is more than they signed up for. In order for them to do a good job, they need clear instructions. Their additional motivations are to be the change they want to see, to learn new things, meet new people, and make a lasting impact.
Meet Rachel Smith
Then I discovered the structured volunteer.
Structured Volunteer
Above is an empathy map showing off my second discovered persona: the structured volunteer. This structured volunteer needs projects that can be completed within her time frame. Their time needs to be appreciated. If not, they will most likely find another opportunity that does. They need to feel confident that the organizers are in control and will prepare volunteers for each project. Additional motivations are building their network, religious reasons, civic duty, and feeling in control of making good things happen.
Meet Amy Wong
Structured Volunteer
Brand Foundation: Style Guide
To ChipIn involves action- to offer guidance, assistance, or any other opportunity that engages you. ChipIn wants you to give into those moments because even the smallest contributions can make a great impact.
Mission:
At ChipIn, we encourage acts of kindness. We have improved the experience of helping others in a spontaneous manner that also allows our community of volunteers to connect through experiences. All you have to do is ChipIn
Brand Personality:
ChipIn cares about your journey as a volunteer. You inspire us, as well as the community we share through ChipIn. Through sharing and gaining experiences, we can continue to help each other in much simpler ways.
Brand Assets:
The brand takes on the attributes of creativity, tenderness, passionate, sincere, and welcoming and adds some warmth to embody the values of reliability and trust. As expressed in the user interviews, users wanted to trust the service they would use. To ensure that I was creating an intuitive and smart service, I had to choose the color combination I did. The logo also combines these principles, using the trusted and warm typography. I believe there’s immense value, and fun to be had in ensuring a brand’s persona carries through in every interaction. This warm, burnt orange tone stimulates a warm, creative, vibrant feeling. All while representing change, flowing, balance, and energy.
Mobile App Icon
Design: Flows, Wireframes
I layed out key routes, starting with the post a project sequence, and discover a project. I listed the features needed on each of the screens. Then wireframed out the hierarchy of content using what I knew about information architecture and built out a UI kit to keep the visuals on-brand and consistent. Consistentcy is the goal when keeping MVP in mind. I want potential users to feel comfortable with the experience. I developed screens for the app UI that were wired up in a mobile prototype using Figma for testing.
Two Key Routes: Post a Project, and Discover a project
Constraints
My work is about empathy and curiosity. Learning about other people and putting myself in their shoes to get my imagination going. This is one of the most fun things this job does, and at the same time, this is what makes the work successful — putting the user at the center of the experience.
With all that said, designers still make mistakes. My wireframes above show two key routes a volunteer would take any day. I didn’t realize until usability testing that I had left out an important screen. One of the participants mentioned that when they were on their way to post their own project, there was no option to upload relatable photos to their project. WOW. They were so right! I completely left that feature off, a silly mistake. As I continued to study their behavior and craft designs that meet user needs, I kept in mind how my sole responsibility for the design phase is to make sure customers have a delightful experience and are able to achieve MVP goals. The design before has some painful errors, and that’s why the user has to be the center of the design. After two rounds of usability testing and A/B testing, my ChipIn prototype is ready to present.
Key Route in Hi-Fi: Post a Project
Results
ChipIn offers a minimal, one-time sign-up application that then allows spontaneous decision-making; whether you’d like to sign up for a project, post one of your own projects, or engage with the user’s community of volunteers. In order to keep both personas coming back to the app, I needed to create an experience both personas would enjoy.
I did this by, creating an easy-to-navigate IOS app for volunteers who own a smartphone and are familiar with mobile apps. I then eliminated the number of clicks by including the minimal, most important steps on each screen. The results will come when volunteers want to wake up the same day and want to lend a hand in an unconstrained way and actually get a project done.
Next Steps
The primary goals will be to design the next iteration of mobile websites, apps, and other mobile interfaces across multiple platforms such as iOS, Android, Windows, and mobile web. Working with the developers, and then sending ChipIn off for its first release.