Connecting Volunteers to Their Cause: The Stonewall Network
The Project: Connecting Volunteers to Their Cause
Volunteers across various backgrounds look for organizations to align with in various ways. From known LGBTQIA+ political advocacy groups to grassroots political organizations. The Stonewall Network is a directory designed to keep these groups connected and in sync. The directory is a fast way for volunteers to get connected to a political organization close to them. Through the directory we’re making, we aim to use the current infrastructure available to get these groups connected, and keep volunteers in the know about how to get involved.
The shipped product showing search results, organization information, and where the user is located based on the geographical information.
User Research: Understanding current needs through our current political climate
When the project began, there was a problem that existed for many grassroots LGBTQ+ political organizations. It is tough to get connected to other organizations who may be spread out and sparse depending on the region and state they’re located in. The lack of directory or ability to be easily located also impacts how volunteers are able to connect with organizations. Grassroots LGBTQ+ groups have trouble connecting with volunteers. Volunteers have trouble finding political groups which they can volunteer for, and be involved with. Our directory is making organizations and volunteers easier to find and connect with everyday people who’d get involved in the political process.
User Research: Identifying the major pain points of orgs and volunteers
Accessibility: Organizations don’t have a way to broadcast to new volunteers. Volunteers in isolated communities couldn’t find groups that were available.
Support: Volunteers couldn’t find a directory or had a list of where organizations are located. They have to go out of their way to find organizations, which can be hard to find.
Insufficient Information: Political Organizations and volunteers don’t have a network to let volunteers know they exist. Volunteers don’t have the right information to find an organization the fits them.
Resources: Organizations may have to spend money in order to advertise their cause. Attracting new volunteers can become costly on a limited budget as non-profit organizations.
User Personas: creating the framework for what we’re solving
Volunteers, and their organizations are diverse in size, spectrum, and reach. No two organizations are alike, and neither are the volunteers that make up the movements, culture, and effort of an organization. The team came together to create four distinct user personas. Each with their own unique struggles, goals, and backgrounds.
Each persona has a distinct timeframe they’ve been volunteering, and their level of involvement is different. Each represent the volunteers who will use the directory, and how we can solve for various needs through our solution.
Stonewall Network Sitemap: Simple, convenient, and accessible
Volunteers, and their organizations are diverse in size, spectrum, and reach. No two organizations are alike, and neither are the volunteers that make up the movements, culture, and effort of an organization. The team came together to create four distinct user personas. Each with their own unique struggles, goals, and backgrounds.
The Stonewall Networks unique feature is that no user has to have an account in order to use the service. The site is meant to assist with organizations, and volunteers who may be unsure where to start.
From an idea to a product: Making The Stonewall Network Site
The Stonewall Network had a deadline of August 1st. When we began in April, this became a big piece to consider. In order to accomplish our goals of shipping the product the UX team wanted to find an early solution in which our designs were able to be passed onto development quickly. To accomplish this task, we decided to work with Material.io in order to develop a product quickly. Using a standard design system at first allowed us to asses our needs, and build from there. This allowed for can be easily passed onto our teammates who worked on the development stage. We used the free resources to create the mobile site, and desktop.
Material.io has allowed us to quickly build out and make prototypes for our development team. This quickly allowed us to draft up the flow’s we need based on the sitemap.
USability: What our users see at first glance
We were within a time constraint during this product due to the presidential election coming up. The UX teams internal goals changed to make sure that the final product when shipped was usable. To achieve this we decided on testing the usability of our early drafts made with our material.io kit. We decided to take this step and quickly test through online, unmoderated testing. Our low fidelity prototype user testing focused on three main portions 1. Finding a Group 2. Creating a Group 3. Secondary Account actions. We completed this for mobile and for desktop users.
The Results: What unmoderated testing showed our team
Through Maze we gathered several insights on where we could improve upon before we launched The Stonewall Network officially. We managed to gain key changes that we needed to make as the UX team. We focused on these insights based on what we could find:
Usability - User’s had a 76% completion of tasks that we asked them to complete
System Error - Task completion dropped off when searching for a group by 27.3%
Account Actions - 85% of users were unsuccessful at secondary account actions
Building the brand: The style guide of the Stonewall network
Our team worked together to look at how other networks similar to ours designed their color typing. In order to set us apart the colors and style were key to making sure we could deliver a memorable experience for the orgs and volunteers using the directory. We found that similar competitors used these colors.
After seeing how other competitors completed their style, and color schemes, we designed our brand assets, and what colors we would use. Our color pallette, brand assets and typography were designed in order to separate us, draw attention based on the colors, and create a memorable user experience. From this point we were able to branch away from Material.io in order to begin making our own brand components. We decided the framework of our system would be these pieces
Our brand template was made to ensure that all members of our team could understand how to use each component, and why certain color choices were made.
The impact of our work: A fully fledged ground breaking directory
After the UX team handed off our work to the development team, The Stonewall Network became a live website. Inside of it, our designs came to life. We are excited to provide something that will lead to a positive political impact for grassroots LGBTQIA+ organizations nationwide. We will continue to gather feedback as it comes in, and we look forward to making a positive impact on the success of grassroots political organizations and volunteers looking to get involved. The Stonewall Network is officially live, and we are able to have organizations sign up!
I have learned so much in designing this product for The Stonewall Network. My most significant takeaways are that designing for the user comes first. Brand color, intention, and impact all play a crucial role in the user experience. This makes the volunteers and organizations experiences memorable.
I learned how to coordinate between many teams. I conducted usability studies, assisted with creation of brand components and style. I also learned how design inside of a team which is I can take with me as we continue to work on the project.
What are our next steps?
The fun part of the UX process begins with iteration. We have a accomplished a lot with this project in a short amount of time. The next steps of this project are to make sure that it is usable. We are going to present this at the DNC. We want the product to be liked amongst our end users.
My team and I are brainstorming new features that users may want. We want to implement a document uploading system. We also want some method of volunteer verification.
We want to further complete competitive analysis. We want to see how many users go to the site. We also want to see the impact that this has for the organizations that choose to sign up.
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