client

feeding america

duration

3 months
[ january - march 2020 ]

ROLE

user research lead

SKILLS

market research // benchmarking
user research
user interviewing
user testing
prototyping
a // b testing
mobile ui // ux design

the problem ―

donating is an obscure concept to people. even if they have the motivation and desire to donate, it is often not enough for them. people believe donating is a whole new, complicated process that they must learn to navigate. we found that many students and young professionals often used delivery apps for their convenience and accessibility to options they usually would not have, yet felt guilty about choosing the “easy way out.” we decided to combine these two problems, and create a solution at the intersection of donating and food delivery apps.

how might we help food delivery app users make donations in a way that is convenient, easy, and hassle-free?

the process ―

Much of our initial research was based on user interviews, where we talked to students at various universities, people who are involved in on-campus groups targeting food insecurity, and managers at local grocery stores. 

talking to young professionals and students, we found that many of them were frequent delivery app users, as well as do-gooders that wanted to make a positive impact, yet did not know how or where to donate. they also mentioned how they wanted the process to be transparent, and know exactly where their donations were going. In addition, people were against the idea of downloading new apps onto their devices, which is why we decided that our concept would need to be incorporated into existing applications for users to actually use them.

a large part of the design process consisted of understanding the problem space, and how our solution was work in a tangled web of different stakeholders and users. in order to better understand the implications of our work, we created value maps and stakeholder maps to help visualise the process.

the solution ―

donatenow is a point-based donation function that can be embedded in food delivery apps. through donatenow, users can easily and seamlessly donate points that they’ve earned through their orders to feeding america. the points will be converted into monetary value by delivery app platforms, and users will be able to see the impact they are making on their community.

the live prototype can be seen here