Follow as I establish a non-profit charity venture centred around a mobile application.
Role
Partner, Product Designer
Company
Give local
Skills
Product, Strategy, UX/UI
Overview
Challenges and goals
Designing an effective feature set presented a dual challenge: the product needed to captivate both donors and recipients while addressing common pitfalls in similar apps, particularly the issue of time-wasters. With the concept still in its early stages, focus group testing would be essential to gain insights into user needs and perceptions. Additionally, various branding and UX/UI approaches needed exploration to determine the most compelling direction. At this stage, the objective was to create a vertical slice that effectively serves both audiences. This would require developing a range of features and concepts for user testing to ensure the product remained intuitive and engaging, validating the need for such a solution.
Deliverables
Focus groups
Plan and conduct focus groups to identify potential challenges and ensure a complete understanding of the product concept
User experience
Design and deliver a clean, intuitive, and accessible user experience that prioritises clear concept understanding and highlights key product features
Feedback loops
Establish proactive feedback loops with stakeholders and focus groups to iteratively refine the product
Route to market
Analyse market opportunities and map out the necessary steps for a successful product launch
Prototypes
Develop a vertical slice to demonstrate app interactions and uncover any early pain points
Branding
Craft a recognisable and resonant brand that effectively communicates the core message to the target audience
Approach
Conceptualisation
To establish the application's core functionality and concepts, we focused on balancing the needs of two key user groups: donors and recipients. This led to a solution where recipients would pay a nominal fee for items, reducing time-wasters while donating the fee to approved local charities, schools, and good causes. Additionally, donors, typically the more fortunate of the two groups, would be encouraged to match and even exceed these donations. All activities on both sides contribute to earning tickets that can be exchanged to enter prize draws for gifts and services provided by local businesses in exchange for free listings and promotions.
Communicating the concept
Effectively conveying the concept, emphasising its benefits, and capturing the synergy among donors, recipients, and local businesses proved to be a unique challenge. To overcome this, we segmented our audiences during focus testing, which allowed us to refine our communication strategy based on targeted, actionable insights.
Pich, iteration and mockups
As we gained a deeper understanding of audience groups and identified points of confusion, we iterated on the concept, simplifying and refining it further. We developed a prototype showcasing specific features and functionalities, presenting it to user groups to gather feedback. This process laid the foundation for honing the user experience and branding.
Routes to market
The key challenge during the initial concept phase was defining an effective strategy for market entry. While standard SEO practices were going to be foundational, the primary approach was to be centred on leveraging the “local” aspect. This strategy would focus on targeting individual towns, forming partnerships with local businesses, and connecting with charity recipients. By supporting local businesses and good causes, we aimed to foster organic word-of-mouth promotion. Additionally, engagement opportunities through local news outlets and interest groups would further amplify our outreach efforts. By leveraging the local aspect of the project, we could implement a small-scale, iterative rollout with minimal initial investment. This approach would enable us to gather insights from each iteration, allowing for adaptive learning and the flexibility to scale at varying speeds.
