Designing a New Look for the Internet’s “Take Action” Button

By: Braden Floris, Design Manager

Over the years, GoFundMe has become synonymous with helping others. We have evolved into the internet’s “take action” button, and we’re excited today to introduce a redesign of our site that makes it even easier to turn compassion into action. Not only do these updates bring a fresh, new look, but they also empower our community to be more efficient and effective at fundraising.

Take a look at any GoFundMe fundraiser or our homepage and you’ll see a clean, modern design with a bright new color palette. Because our community is dedicated to helping people make a difference, we’ve highlighted some of these inspiring stories through photo-journalistic images.

Why we did it

Our donor community extends to nearly every country in the world. When people come to GoFundMe, they have countless opportunities to connect with causes they’re passionate about and help our organizers get the support they need. It’s our responsibility to provide the best experience for all, and in turn, make fundraisers more successful.

Helping people is what brings us to work every day, and for Chi-Chao Chang, our chief technology officer, it’s what drives our product and design choices. In his own words: “It’s imperative that we always think about how we are creating features and design elements that will make fundraising easier and faster for our community. A cleaner design for our fundraising pages helps donors find the latest information faster. While increasing our page speed not only results in more donations, it also helps organizers with weaker internet connections. For example, if someone has poor connectivity after a natural disaster, they’ll be able to access our fundraisers faster when they need it most.”

What’s new

World-class performance and accessibility

• New tech stack: The page load time is significantly faster so that donors can take action quickly, regardless of internet speeds. With this new infrastructure, we’re investing in greater user research so we can identify challenges and implement new changes faster.
• Improved accessibility: Anyone, regardless of circumstance or location, can engage with the content and turn their compassion into action.
• Gather support on the go: We make it as easy as possible for people to digest the content of the fundraiser no matter where they are by creating a mobile-first experience.

Tell the full story

• More photos = more donors. People are more likely to donate when there are a variety of photos on the fundraiser. Now we feature multiple photos in a gallery view, rather than hiding them behind a small button. We’re also giving organizers more control over the gallery by displaying photos uploaded by the community in a dedicated space.
• Clear sequence of events. Updates are now in an easy-to-digest timeline view, so the community can stay up to date on the latest news.
• Celebrate the team. There’s now more of an emphasis on the fundraiser’s team members in an effort to better acknowledge and identify their important role in the fundraiser’s success.

Take action

• Clear calls-to-action. We enabled an ever-present donate button that follows people as they scroll down to read updates and comments, making it easier for them to take action at any time. We also reduced the number of buttons on the fundraising page to give people clarity on how to quickly take action.
• Fast donor discovery. Donors bring social proof to a fundraiser and inspire others to give back. To encourage potential supporters to keep the momentum going, we optimized the page so that donations are more prominent.
• Easy access to more share channels. We made it easier for the community to share fundraisers across multiple communities, whether it’s through email, text, WhatsApp, and other important networks and channels.

It takes a village

I want to give a big thanks to our talented engineering, data, product, quality assurance, and design teams for helping to ensure a successful roll-out of this new experience.

Lastly, I would like to thank the customers, organizers, and donors who spent time with us and voiced their past successes and challenges. We will continue to make time with you our top priority.

-Braden Floris, Design Manager