Many children still lack the basic help they need. Traditional donations can feel distant, and donors often don’t see how their help makes a difference. The Reindeers Donation platform was created to change this. It makes helping simple and clear, connecting donors directly with the children they support to create a more personal and meaningful experience.
How might we help donors choose between giving money and selecting the right gifts for children, while also allowing them to track the impact of their contributions?
Our platform offers categories based on children’s specific needs, allowing donors to support targeted groups like those in rural areas, with health challenges, or requiring educational resources. According to research, here are the main categories:
The goal of this research is to understand user behavior, preferences, and pain points when using donation platforms. Key decisions to inform include:
1. What features should be prioritized in the platform design?
2. What donation methods should be supported to align with user preferences?
3. How can the platform build trust and encourage recurring donations?
To achieve this, I conducted 4-5 user interviews, analyzing qualitative insights through thematic analysis.
Participants were selected to represent diverse demographics and donation habits, including regular donors, occasional givers, and those with preferences for donating money, items, or time.
From these conversations, I gathered valuable user insights:
I explored different ways to make the donation process easy and clear. Both approaches test how to balance guidance and personal choices.
- One design offers pre-set donation packages with descriptions, making choices simple.
- Another gives more flexibility, letting donors pick a recipient, set an amount, and choose one-time or recurring donations.
I looked into ways to make gift donations more personal and easy to use.
- One design lets donors choose whether to give money or a gift, giving them more control.
- If they pick gifts, they can browse items and add them to a cart, making the process feel more thoughtful.
This approach keeps the donation process simple while allowing for personal choice.
This exploration is to help donors choose specific groups of children to support. Both approaches test how to balance clear choices with an easy browsing experience.
- One design shows groups through photos, making the choice more visual and engaging.
- Another option presents a list with descriptions, but only a few groups are visible at a time, requiring scrolling to see more.
I conducted a usability test with 8 participants to compare two donation selection methods: browsing through a list with filters and using a step-by-step process. For the test, we prepared prototypes for both methods, along with tasks and scenarios to guide participants through the experience.
The results showed that 62.5% of participants preferred the guided steps approach, while 37.5% leaned towards browsing with options. This feedback helps me refine the user experience and align it with donor preferences.
Some participants shared feedback:
Here are the summury of the results.
Based on their feedback, we made updates to improve navigation in the step-by-step process to make it more user-friendly.
After handover, stakeholders praised the platform’s ability to foster emotional connections between donors and children, emphasizing that features like step-by-step donation, tracking, and recipient messages add a compelling personal touch.
This feedback inspired me to focus on deepening emotional engagement, optimizing donor journeys, and ensuring scalability for future growth.