Hey welcome! 👋

This is a charity app we worked on recently, where the main purpose was to encourage people to make monetary donations through gamification and transparency about how the money is managed by each organization.

Benchmark

In Uruguay there are 2 active platforms available of this kind. The main issue lies in that users don't feel attached to the platforms, and they only focus on donating goods and not money.

It is difficult to know what the organizations really need and there was no way to know what they do with the donations, there is no transparency, leading to users to not trust on them.

Motivation was the main key for this app to be different, to achieve it, applications like Duolingo and Trailhead.com were explored to learn how they make their users happy when using their apps.


User​s

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To find the target user profile, we went through many types of research, so we could get specific information about behavior patterns regarding philanthropy. From these, we learned persona is a middle age person, with an intermediate to low income.

Other information found show this kind of users tend to be empathetic and friendly, support same political party and, in most cases, have pets and or kids.

Surprisingly, many mentioned they are willing to make donations, but they don't know how. What it seems to be a simple need, it is a difficult goal to achieve. There are more people willing to donate money than time or goods.

Empathy map

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Made with the answers got from two groups of 5 possible users each to have a better understanding of what they think and know about donations.

As a result, we got that people usually make monetary donations, feel better and be part of something with a minimum effort and sometimes influenced by friends.

Conclusion

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To find the target user profile, we went through many types of research, so we could get specific information about behavior patterns regarding philanthropy. From these, we learned persona is a middle age person, woman, or man with an intermediate to low income. Other information found show this kind of users tend to be empathetic and friendly, support same political party and, in most cases, have pets and or kids.


The education level found was quite varied as the income among the users, surprisingly many mentioned they are willing to make donations (even the ones with low incomes), but they don't know how. What it seems to be a simple need, it is a difficult goal to achieve. There are more people willing to donate money than time or goods.

Game addiction studies were done in order to know if this group of people tend to be involved in gambling and take the necessary preventions.

Mind mapping

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With this map the main idea was to trigger everything related to gamification, game addiction, engagement, and competition to discover related terms that could help us have a better

understanding, as it is a complex subject and the main reason was to make the application, enjoyable and create some kind of addiction, just like a games do and that way keep users engaged.

Guiding design principles

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· As a user, I want to make donations, so I don't waste time making transactions from my bank account.

· As a user I want to see how much money I donated throughout time, so I don't spend more than what I planned

· As a user I want to check the donations an organization received, so I can donate the ones that need the most help

· As a user I want to decide where my money will go, so I help specific causes

Flow chart

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Basic flow chart where the core structure was planned. It evolved after some iterations, especially after the prototypes testings with users, as their feedback added more features to the whole flow.

Sketches – Idea approach

Flow chart

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Basic flow chart where the core structure was planned. It evolved after some iterations, especially after the prototypes testings with users, as their feedback added more features to the whole flow.

Testing and validation

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A set of testings were done with a Low-mid-res wireframe prototype and with a high-res version to get as much feedback from users before development.

1. Information visualization: we needed to check if we were showing irrelevant information and if the users could find what they needed easily.

2. Donation flow: 3 ways tested, from the project, from organization and directly from the card.

3. Points, badges, and Leaderboards: how much engagement they can produce on this type of user.

4. Desktop version: for regular users the same tests were made with the intention to verify if the platform changes the user experience affecting the donations.

5. Admins flow: needed to find pain point and collect useful information they might need to see.

6. Posting process: each organization will handle their own postings, so the process had to be easy and intuitive.

Conclusion

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After all the research and iterations, we found out we were not showing relevant information for the user (donator and organization). Also, some flows were a bit complicated for them to understand till we finally found the right way, this actually raised the level of trust while introducing a credit card information.

The overall look was also tested, including badges and iconography, as it is crucial to the user experience of our product, so the information collected was very important to us, giving us the opportunity to find the right look to improve trust and fun, taking gamification to the next level.

As this is a work in progress, badges and iconography along with the overall look is constantly evolving, and the application is refining some details and flows.

Takeaway

· Human psychology when making donations online vs donating time.

· Gamification

· Gamblers psychology.

Thanks!

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If you have a mobile or desktop app that you need help with, get in touch with us, and we will be glad to be part of your project.

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