Case Study: Change Heroes
Designing Responsive Website and Mobile App
Asking for donations from your broader network can be awkward — and this is where Change Heroes comes in. Change Heroes is the leader in peer-to-peer giving by providing a platform to promote non-profit organization fundraising campaigns via personalized videos. This “video first tech”approach has enabled thousands of volunteer fundraisers to raise more funds and build a recurring donor base. I had an opportunity to work with the Change Heroes team with one clear objective: Enhance their website and app with an improved user experience.
Research
We began by interviewing people who had experiences in running campaigns or donating to non-profit organizations and charities. We also collected over 80 responses using Google Surveys and found that:
- Donors want to know how much money reach end users (76% responses)
- Organizational transparency would impact their decision to donate (63% responses)
- Donors give based on worthiness of the cause (68% responses)
Our interviews revealed that:
- Campaign runners liked Change Heroes personalized video approach.
- Asking close friends or family for donations merit a face-to-face conversation.
- Video is a socially appropriate means for their extended network
We created a Custom Journey Map based on our user testings with Campaign Runners, and it revealed that users were dropping off significantly between the Donate and Dashboard portion of the website — the problem was that users could not easily figure out how to launch their campaign. Also, due to inconsistent UI and lack of helpful text, some users were left unsure and confused at this stage.
Key Informational Touch Points from our research were:
- Financial Transparency
% Going to beneficiaries, % Going to Change Heroes, Relationship to non-profit organizations - Change Heroes Model
Campaign Page, Management dashboard, Team growth & personal videos - Donation Costs
Be upfront with numbers, $3.33 causes confusion and suspicion, 70% say $300 is a large donation - Non-profit Partners
Profit vs non-profit relationship, Vetted organizations & 5 pillars
Brand clarity - Cause Detail
Cause and goal, Description of beneficiaries, Illustration of impact
Personas
We created Primary and Secondary persona, Danika and Charles based off from our research:
- Danika Lee (Primary Persona)
She’s a Marketing person at Hootsuite. She‘s a giving person but she wants to make a real connection to a cause she’s supporting. - Charles Ho (Secondary Persona)
Design
Before designing in pixels, we created a paper prototype to quickly collect data and feedback. One of our assumptions was that users would download the app. if we showed a pop-up on the landing page, but after testing that theory we observed that many were reluctant to do this. We learned that users were not compelled to download the mobile app unless they had their own campaign to manage. This lead our team to making a revision in the user flow — introducing people to the Change Heroes mobile app after they launched their first campaign.
Prototype with Updated Flow
Testing
We tested our updated prototype to ensure we had made improvements for a smoother journey. Also, we got initial feedback from users which has been positive: they appreciated the simplicity of the overall layout, and the additional information discussing how money is collected. Users commented that they felt excited to create their own campaign due to the improved site ease and design. Also, the app has become more desirable with the inclusion of an introductory tutorial and follow-up features.
UI Design Update
More UI Design on my website
Result
After much research, prototyping and user-testing we shared our results with the Change Heroes team — they we’re so impressed with the proposed solutions that they’ve decided to implement our thinking and design in their next version of the Change Heroes app.
