WISHLIST: A case study

Explored designing a mobile app that offers various donation channels to align with users' donation objectives.

 

ROLE:

UX/UI Designer

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Prototyping & Wireframes

Conducted Interviews

Affinity Mapping

Persona & User Flows

The Product

Wishlist is a platform that provides multiple channels of access and donation options to fit members' needs and goals. Young readers have access to five free books each year, receive discounted pricing on thousands of titles, and can each create and edit their own reading Wishlists. Donors are offered opportunities to match their gently used books to kids' requested titles, browse and sponsor an individual child's reading Wishlist, or make a one-time or monthly donation to support the organization.

This case study follows the donor flow.

The Problem

Most people get excited and make one-time donations to organizations they feel inspired by in the moment, then never come back.

Children's books are charming and delightful, and most donation sites are dry and serious. How might we infuse the whimsy and joy of early reading into the donation experience?

The Goal

Encouraging donors to return to, browse, and develop a personal connection with the platform.

My Process

 

Interviews & Affinity Map

Interviews: 10

Donors who give 2-5 times a year

30-65 years old

Key Findings

Users want to feel positive and hopeful when they donate, and that they are making a difference they can see.

Users are motivated to donate by a sudden inspiration- a post on social media, an article, a friend, a search.

Users don’t have loyalty to come back and donate again, it’s on to the next issue or inspiration.

Persona & Problem Definition

the Problem

“Our organization’s fundamental problem is that most donations are one-time transactions; donors don’t feel loyalty to one cause but prefer to hop around whenever inspired.”

Based on my initial interviews, I established the user's motivation for donating is to feel positive, hopeful, good about themselves, and that they're making a difference.

The key frustration is that they find the organizations' donation tools uninspiring, boring, outdated, and difficult to navigate.

User Flow

VERSION 1

“Throughout the entire process, I was looking for ways to guide the user into the donation channel that excited them, so it was important to add more varied call-to-actions throughout the platform, especially on the home screen, and move less essential functions to the navigation.”

In my first iteration, I begin to map out the three channels of donation: Money, Used Books, and Sponsoring a Wishlist, however, after working through the actual design, testing it with users, and considering my original problem statement, some significant tweaks needed to happen.

My users find some digital tools hard to navigate, so I realized I needed to simplify the guided book donation flow, and add in friendly confirmations and pagination/ breadcrumb cues to help them keep going.

version 2

“Users wanted to feel a personal connection to their donation and wanted a lower maintenance alternative to volunteering. ”

Key Flow: Used Book Donation

Our solution is a donation channel in which users search for, describe, and mail in their gently used children’s books. A connection is made when their well-loved books give a child access to early literacy, and users want to return again and again to donate, and explore the other donation channels. It feels like shopping, but better.

user testing & iterations

High fidelity prototype

reflections & next steps

Refine

  1. The original scope of this project was to create an app that gives greater access to books to underserved communities of children. However, after interviewing and testing, I think many donors in this market would start on their desktop instead of an app or mobile. Creating a web version would be an interesting and necessary challenge after working on the app.

  2. I would create a "one-time donation" persona, with additional interviews if necessary, and validate the current features for this user. These users want a straightforward donation process with maximum warm and fuzzy feelings.

MUST Add

  1. A path for users who encounter "not your book" search results in the book donation flow.

  2. A path for users donating additional books.

MAXIMIZE JOY

  1. Add shortcuts for returning donors, such as a pop-up that says "welcome back! are you donating books today?" or “Your books were delivered to a child in Chicago today!”

  2. Design a feature to track and reward repeat donors’ stats so they feel an investment in the platform and want to continue giving more.

CREATE

  1. Create an onboarding tour experience for new users to guide them through the three donation channels.

  2. Create Flows for Monetary Donation and Sponsoring a Wishlist

 

MORE OF MY WORK

XPLORE

DANCE CARD