UX AND UI DESIGN
Reconceiving a product
Giving not-for-profit content a makeover
The Problem
Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York (NPCC), which provided general support services to other nonprofits, wanted to build their membership base. They had identified a benefit to entice new members and boost retention: their collection of informative articles and templates, which they called a “toolbox.” The content already existed and needed to be re-packaged and made available.
The Solution
The proposal involved expanding the concept of a toolkit to a knowledge center, which would include not only informational resources, but also facilitate connections with advisors and vendors offering services. The updated web pages would include a search and a landing page that surfaced more of the content. Articles and information would be available only to members, to make it a benefit of membership.
Project at a glance
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I worked as the sole UX designer on a team assembled through a volunteer program.
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The team also included a product/marketing specialist and a technologist
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It was a fairly structured project run through another non-profit that matched volunteers with non-profits looking for help
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The total project time was 6 weeks (which accommodated the fact that all team members had full-time commitments as well)
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We worked efficiently, meeting very few times with the NPCC staff and ourselves with clear goals each time
Deep Dive
A project like this one might be straightforward. Knowledge-base type websites are common enough, with established design patterns that could be easily deployed. The wrinkle usually comes with the budget. With non-profits, perhaps even more so than with for-profits, the main question is often one of resources. As a designer, I work not only to find the sweet spot between business goals (in this case, engaging members and potential members) and user goals (getting low-cost support), but also do so in a way that accommodates the bare-bones budget.
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We did this on this project by making the most of existing resources, including institutional knowledge of the user base and internal resources like vendor lists, and we worked creatively with their tech team to devise a solution that would leverage their existing technology ecosystem to the maximum extent possible.
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Once some of the basic approach had been settled, I got to work elaborating the wireframes, working out the details of the homepage and different states of a resource page. The main UX design question revolved around the question of marketing. One goal of the project was to create something that could be used to market to potential members, so some information needed to be public. But the content needed to be exclusive to paying members. We decided to show teaser content with a paywall, with full content access to members.
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Once wireframes were settled, I elaborated the final pixel-perfect UI, using their design system and branding.
Selected final designs
The Outcome
Final designs were approved, and the stakeholders were fully invested in the direction and expecting to see an increase in membership. Implementation ended up being deferred.
Contact me if you are looking for more detail. I can provide it privately.