Horizon Consulting
Client: Cued-In
Description: This project was created as part of an Interactive Design course, during the 4th year of my Interactive Design degree at James Madison University. Together with a team of front and back-end designers and developers we created a website solution for our client.
Software: Bootstrap, HTML/CSS, GitHub, Illustrator, Photoshop, Axure RP
Design Question: How might we improve the experience of nonprofit employers trying to connect students to non-profit opportunities within their community?
User Research
Our user research strategy began with brainstorming and reaching out to local nonprofit organizations. We chose to interview with the supervisors of a variety of nonprofit companies including: Goodwill, New Hampshire SPCA, Habitat for Humanity, and United Way.
Hypothesis: Nonprofit employers would have varying techniques in recruiting staff and volunteers for their company and would therefore have different needs. For this reason, the nonprofits we chose to interview varied in experience, techniques, and preferences in the on-boarding process.
Interview Questions:
What is the mission of your nonprofit?
What kind of events and services does your nonprofit offer?
How do you currently recruit volunteers and employees?
Do you currently use any job board platforms or social media?
Can you describe your experience with it?
What do you use these apps or websites for?
What are any challenges or frustrations you have within your nonprofit?
What qualities would a good volunteer or employee possess?
How do you get the word out about your nonprofit?
Do you offer any scholarships? If so, what is the process of giving them out?
Key Takeaways
From our data, we concluded that our hypothesis assumption that different nonprofits would have a different needs was not necessarily true. We found a these common challenges for all our nonprofits. Getting the word out about events, scholarships, services, and jobs are needs each nonprofit addressed during their interviews.
Personas
Design Requirements
From our user interview analysis and personas, 5 design requirements were identified:
This site should connect students with nonprofits because nonprofits currently have trouble employing the “right” people for the job.
This site should let nonprofits post job listings, volunteers, upcoming events, and scholarships so that students can not only look up jobs, but sign up for programs that are hosted by companies.
This site should allow nonprofits to post listings by categories such as events, scholarships, and jobs to better target interested students who search based on these categories.
This site should able to allow nonprofits view applications and RSVP forms from other users, especially students job and scholarship applications.
The website of the system should reside in an Amazon instance and it must also be able to be run in a local environment using Localhost.
Branding
Wireframes (Axure RP)
UI Mockups
Solution
A streamlined, user-friendly, intuitive website designed specifically for their audience. This resulted in a significant improvement of their system and ease of use. The final product featured an administrative dashboard, a prominent search feature, and a refreshed website design.
