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résumé
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Blueprint, Tech for Nonprofits
National Black Justice Coalition
NBJC is a Washington, DC civil rights org dedicated to empowering Black LGBTQ+/SGL people through federal public policy advocacy, coalition building, research, and education.
I designed a platform 0-1 to further NBJC’s community organization efforts, promote events, and otherwise be a general resource in the Black LGBTQ+ space.
Product Designer (Sole)
Sep 2020 - Jun 2021
User research, Product strategy, Visual Design, Interaction design, Usability testing
Figma
Problem
PROBLEMThere was no existing platform or tech that was perfect for NBJC’s needs: encouraging community organization, participation, and keeping a living record of Black, LGBTQ/SGL focused organizations.
Solution
A comprehensive platform for potential NPO partners to apply into NBJC’s network, then promote themselves and their events to the public.
(NBJC Staff) MODERATOR DASHBOARD
Easily review NPO-partner applications.
Preserving information accessibility and density while keeping everything legible and highly agile allows NBJC Moderators to confidently assess incoming applications.
- see most important info quickly “at-a-glance”
- encourage thoughtful evaluation of organizations
- better, seamless reading experience for staff
(NBJC Staff) ADMIN DASHBOARD
Confidently oversee and manage the network.
Network Admins can easily manage all apsects of the platform with fine-grained control over all areas of the tool in a simple interface.
- provide big-picture control over the platform as it scales
- ability to change org requirements and questions for admission as time passes, built for longevity
Effortlessly apply to join the network.
- NPOs know “where” they are in the process and what to anticipate
- simple copy and flow reduces complexity and time spent
- flexibility in the form to accommodate a wide variety organization types and backgrounds
(NPO-partner) ORGANIZATION PROFILE, EDIT AND VIEW
Promote your NPO’s details and events.
Logical information hierarchy, page organization, and mode transitions allow for quick profile setup and editing without hassle.
- guiding NPOs w/ onboarding: modals and helper text
- reduce unnecessary and confusing “in-between” screens
- ease of information accessibility / visibility
- prioritizing most essential info about orgs
Discover NPOs and events for causes you care about.
Detailed search and filtering lets anybody discover and search for organizations, movements, and events to join.
- detailed search and results filtering system
- encourage exploration and discovery of new orgs or events
- strengthens the main purpose of the site: to enable discovery of NPOs
BUILDING CONTEXT AND DEFINING GOALS
Research
We establish why needs were not met through existing solutions designed for NPOs:
First was a competitive audit and analysis of other potential solutions on the market.
- Cannot easily discover and add new orgs
- Difficult, annoying to manually update and keep track of
- As database grows, hard to manage and effectively use information
- Not comprehensive LGBTQ+/SGL listings or database of organizations
- More effective for listing one-off events, not learning about an org and their activities
👥 Guidestar
- Is a “directory” of NPOs, but not community oriented
- Paywalled and not accessible to the masses and public
- Not an interactive, network type of platform
Figuring out user needs progressed to a logical understanding of features to tackle.
Determining user needs
- easily accessible to public and simple to navigate
- powerful moderation features
- room for growth and flexibility
MTP Feature Gameplan
- Organization registration
- Moderator and Admin
- Organization list and search
TURNING INSIGHTS INTO SOLUTIONS
Ideation
Organizations
Wants to:
- Advertise and promote
- connect with other orgs and share resources
- reduce time spent on using platform
NBJC Staff
Want to:
- Easily moderate and select partner orgs
- Approve events
- Access settings for users
Public Users
Want to:
- Discover organization info and events
- View further organization details
Mapping out the intended user flows within each user solidified the scope of our goals and what steps or features would be essential in the MTP.
IDEATE AND ITERATE
Design
NBJC Moderator + Admin Dashboard
After initial sketches, I began to flesh out and iterate on the low fidelity wireframes.
In mid fidelity, I focused on improving on these areas of readability, flexibility, and encouraging thoughtfulness:
FEATURE TWO - Iteration
Organization (Partner) Application Portal
FEATURE THREE - Iteration
Organization Profile Page
FEATURE FOUR - Iteration
Map, Search, and Events
IMPLEMENTATION AND REFLECTIONS
- Reorganizing and prioritizing last efforts + bugs
- Making and cleaning up handoff Figma
- Writing documentation of project and usage
- app to be linked as external site on NBJC.org website and promoted to NBJC affiliates
- potentially 10s-100s of thousands of visitors!
- Unfortunately, we handed off before NBJC’s team began full integration, so I don’t have access to launch or current usage stats
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importance of frequent communication
- clarify expectations for all stakeholders
- design with end users in mind
- prioritize user and usability testing
- standardize design system earlier on in the process
- use more design thinking frameworks in early stages
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