Project Overview
Keep Austin Fed is a heavily volunteer based nonprofit organization that gathers wholesome surplus food from commercial kitchens and distributes it to area charities that serve people in need.
Problem Statement
Redesign user experience of Keep Austin Fed's website from the existing barebones, information scattered design; So it is engaging, smooth & effortless right from the beginning.
Scope
The design I worked on for this project focused on:
Current navigation + Solutions: How do users currently experience browsing the website? How do users experience
Registering to volunteer,
Registering to donate food,
Registering as a recipient of donor food
Delivering Requirements: what elements would create the best experience for the user to better understand the organization to increase the volunteer sign-up, hopefully, get in more donations monetarily and food-wise.
My Role
I volunteered at the 24-hour design hackathon and was responsible for user research, prototyping and UX design
UX website audit & redesign
Tools
Sketch, Invision and Adobe Illustrator
Research Setup
1. Stakeholder Interview
We got a chance to talk to the Program Director, Lisa Barden about the existing brand in place, what is working? what is not working?
Is she looking for branding or re-branding and what are the deliverables she is looking for at the end of the design hackathon.
We got to understand the organization's history, their mission, vision, target demography
2. Brand Strategy
We went about working on the Brand Strategy by first identifying the following:
KAF's target clients & researching the target client group
Developing brand positioning, messaging strategy across social media, during facilitating food donation and in website
Develop new logo, brand mission, and tagline
Develop content marketing strategy including photography, imagery, and typography
3. Prototyping
Due to the limited time available, I came up with quick sketches of homepage.
We finalized on a sketch that reflects the brand mission and the goals enlisted.
Sketches and wireframes formed the basis for low, high fidelity prototypes that were part of the deliverables submitted to the client.
Website Audit
Persona Creation
We identified the target demographic as Austin’s active, hippie & eco-friendly new retirees, stay at home parents and college students.
We modeled their experiences, tasks, and mindsets to articulate the user goals & presented them as empathy maps and personas for quick, easy reference & guidance throughout the design process.
Personas, Moodboards, Photography, and Typography helped us in building the overall brand image of Keep Austin Fed.
Crazy 8 Sprint method
The goal was to push beyond my first idea and generate a wide variety of solutions.
Upon discussing with my team, I proceeded to prototype phase in order to validate the idea.
Wire-framing. Prototyping.
- The brand assets were updated to
better explain what Keep Austin
Fed does by improving the general visibility, to attract more volunteers and encourage donation.- Volunteer photographs,
NGO's accomplishments,
donor information, other
social media blogs and posts were
effectively utilized in the homepage
Mood-board, Photography, Typography
Key Insights
To register as a volunteer is a pain:
Attracting more volunteers is an important goal for a volunteer-run organization. The process to get registered as a volunteer is a huge pain-point for users.
To schedule to donate food is a pain:
A visible and accessible calendar to schedule food donation will be appreciated.
Lack of brand exposure:
The role of Keep Austin fed as a facilitator in donating food from the donor organization to recipients was not appreciated.
Business Outcomes
A refreshed brand system & UX audit:
- Copy and key messaging updated on the latest website.
- Current website revamped adopting key features from the Homepage mockup as delivered to the stakeholder.