Activate
Digital platform to match volunteers with local
non-profits
About the Project
Activate is a digital platform that matches people to social change opportunities and local non-profits. It helps people make connections across non-profit organizations and deepen community ties. Users can select their interests, skills and set up their desired schedule to be matched with a like-minded group of people to volunteer at a local non-profit.
Finding volunteer opportunities through Activate
The home page explains how Activate works to new users.
Explanation of Activate program on home page
Role
UX Designer
UI Designer
UX Researcher
Illustrator
Team
3 Graduate Students
Duration
Jan 2021 - Aug 2021
Project
Project for the
Human-Computer Interaction and Design Capstone Course at the University of Washington
The Problem
Many young adults want to be involved in social change work, but have trouble getting and staying involved.
Research Process
To find out why young adults had trouble staying involved in social change, we conducted semi-structured interviews with young adults, social change organizers, and subject matter experts. We also conducted an emotional mapping workshop.
Emotional mapping workshop
Research Insights
We found that social connection and personal relationships are key to establishing continued engagement in social change work.
Young adults also need to feel a sense of belonging and feel that they are personally aligned with the current and future trajectory of the cause.
We also found that a social change space can encourage continued involvement by fostering a fun, joyful environment.
Our research showed that spaces that allowed for joy and fun created opportunities for deeper, interpersonal connections.
Process
Our team began to look at ways that we could create spaces that fostered continued involvement with social change causes for young adults.
Creating affinity maps for our concepts
Gathering feedback from the design workshop we conducted
Wireframing
Final Design
The home page for the website explains Activate's volunteer group matchmaking process for new users.
Home page and introduction to Activate program
The user inputs their interests, skills and schedule, and Activate gathers results for possible volunteer opportunities that match the user's criteria.
Finding volunteer opportunities after inputting causes, skills, schedule, etc.
