TruGive
Empowering Donors to Transparent and Ethical Giving
TruGive is an app that lets users fund, volunteer for, or donate to select charities, causes, or organizations, and tracks how resources are allocated by the recipients.
The Challenge
Many people aspire to contribute to their community, but they often hesitate to donate due to concerns related to ethics, such as compensation, conflicts of interest, publications, financial integrity, accountability, and strategic management. This app aims to address these concerns and provide users with the assurance that their contributions genuinely support altruistic causes, using a method of their choice.
MY ROLE
Product Designer
UI/UX Designer
UX Researcher
TOOLS
Figma
Illustrator
Miro
Photoshop
Project Scope
App Functionality & User Experience
Community Impact
Addressing Ethical Concerns
Monitoring & Reporting
User Research
I interviewed three individuals, questioning them about their charitable contributions and volunteering experiences. Despite variations in their responses, all participants expressed a common concern about ensuring the altruistic motives of the organizations or events they supported.
Primary Users
Age Group
31-52 Years Old
Social Class
Middle to upper-middle working class with a higher education background
Reasons for Donating
Helping the less fortunate, reducing waste, repurposing resources
How can users confidently ensure the positive impact of their donations and volunteering efforts, while maintaining transparent intentions and information from local organizations and charity events?
Market Research
Researching top charity apps revealed a market gap in addressing users' uncertainty about the impact of their donations and the trustworthiness of recipient organizations. These apps mostly offered streamlined donation and volunteering processes but little transparency on resource use and allocation. After a competitor analysis, considering users' long-term success, I aimed to fill these gaps by creating TruGive.
Givelify
Pros
- Donation options available
- Volunteer opportunities available
- Notifications and reminders
- Social sharing and networking available
Cons
- No feedback or ratings available
- No impact tracking
- No analytics or reporting
Givi
Pros
- Donation options available
- Provides feedback and ratings
- Social sharing and networking available
- Impact tracking
- Analytics and reporting
Cons
- No volunteer opportunities
- No notifications or reminders
Givio
Pros
- Donation options available
- Provides feedback and ratings
Cons
- No volunteer opportunities
- No notifications or reminders
- No social sharing or networking
- No impact tracking
- No analytics or reporting
ItsDeductible
Pros
- Donation options available
- Volunteer opportunities available
- Notifications and reminders
Cons
- No notifications or reminders
- No social sharing or networking
- No impact tracking
- No analytics or reporting
ShareTheMeal
Pros
- Donation options available
- Social sharing and networking available
- Impact tracking
- Analytics and reporting
Cons
- No volunteer opportunities
- No notifications or reminders
- No feedback or ratings
Ensuring users have the necessary information would give them the confidence to make a positive impact.
From the competitor analysis, I concluded the app should have the following key features:
User Persona
User Flow & Information Hierarchy
The user flow in this app uniquely enables users to contribute funds, time, and items while simplifying the process of finding relevant organizations or events, addressing user persona concerns through a user-friendly interface and personalized donation recommendations, and ensuring trust by verifying and presenting reliable organizations.
Lo-Fi Wireframes
The initial lo-fi wireframes guided our hi-res versions and enabled early usability tests, revealing crucial revisions needed, such as:
Key Revisions Needed & Solutions
Revision Needed: Enhancing user-friendly donation options.
Solution: Find a way to make it apparent and easy for users to choose how they donate (via with funds, items, or volunteering) to increase users' confidence.
Revision Needed: Incorporate gamification.
Solution: Encourage broader community engagement in charitable events.
Mid-Fi Wireframes
Logo & Branding
I named the app TruGive to reflect its emphasis on transparency and charity, aiming for a simple, attractive, and approachable branding style. The color palette features bright blues and teals for trust and connectivity, with pink accents for compassion, and light grey for a modern touch. The main font, Family Poppins, was chosen for its readability, legibility, and friendly demeanor.
Hi-Fi Wireframes
Prototyping
Below is a video presentation of my prototype.
Usability Testing
I tested the first and second prototypes with three volunteers to identify pain points and improve the overall user experience.
Key Revisions Needed & Solutions
Revision Needed: Overwhelming amount of donation methods - Users found it overwhelming that various donation methods were all in one place.
Solution: Further separate the "Donate" page into financial donations and item donations.
Revision Needed: Users wanted to connect with like-minded individuals in their local areas.
Solution: Add a page for a community forum.
Reflection: Takeaways & Next Steps
Beyond Giving: Unveiling the Altruistic Impact and Building Communities through TruGive
During the project, I was surprised to find users concerned about the genuineness of their motives for donating or volunteering, diverging from the common focus on giving in charitable apps. Addressing this, I aimed to emphasize the positive impact of users' actions. Additionally, I discovered that introverted users desiring to contribute from home also sought a sense of community, inspiring my future goal of creating an app that integrates TruGive's functions with a platform connecting individuals based on their interests and hobbies.