SENIOR CAPSTONE
FRIENDS OF BURMA x PAPER CRANE
WEB DESIGN, SYSTEMS MAP, STATIONERY BRANDING & PACKAGING
Problem
There are hundreds of non-profit organizations around the world that help people and the community through different causes at a given time. However websites that we see today can be confusing, simple, complicated or not up-to-date, and not many of them show ways of giving back to donors. As most of us at least donated once in our life towards something we personally connect or out of habit, we believe we did something good to help out others without receiving anything back.
We are motivated to donate to a cause based on personal experience or being influenced by someone else, and so how may we design a user-friendly non-profit website, and show an avenue of giving back to donors?
SOLUTION
I chose to redesign a non-profit website that was outdated and not user-friendly, create a reward system to give back to donors, and creating a systems map of how users interact with a cause through social media or in person.
As for one of my deliverables, I chose something that was personal to me and that anyone could use.
Deliverables
Campaign/ Non-profit Website
Systems Mapping
Stationery Kit
PRELIMINARY RESEARCH
CONCEPT MAP
SECONDARY RESEARCH
Competitive Analysis
A RAW INTERVIEW
Kate McDowell, Associate Professor of Informatics Sciences at the University of Illinois
QUESTIONS
How important is storytelling?
Is there a right or wrong way to tell stories? How do you tell a story in a cultural perspective without “butchering” the context?
What is your process on storytelling and how effective can it be?
How do you work with nonprofits? Is your work mainly in the United States or in other countries?
How would you describe/define empathy for non-western countries?
survey
Surveyed: 50 people
Method: Google Surveys
Age Range: 20-30
Keywords: non-profit, donations, user-friendly websites, rewards, social media
Results: Most of the people who surveyed donated at least once in their life and their reasons why they do varies (personal, empathy, family and friends, etc). They donate for different causes either in person (whether a business is helping fundraise money towards an organization) or directly on the non-profit website from social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. Based on their response on rewards, their answers are all over the place — it can be a motivation for people to donate, it isn’t necessary, or they said it would be cool to receive.
Design process
LOW FIDELITY
MID FIDELITY
Mock up of what the box would look like.
HIGH FIDELITY
Stickers
final deliverables
campaign website
Check it out! : PROTOTYPE
BEFORE REWORK
AFTER REWORK
DONATION PROCESS SYSTEMS MAP
PAPER CRANE STATIONERY KIT
process book & VIDEO on enamel pins
bfa show exhibition
Reflection
Throughout this project, my initial deliverable was to create a website that encased all non-profit organizations and categorized them by issue and region of the world and somehow simplifies the information that can be easy for users. However, I decided to focus on one non-profit and one issue and that lead to towards Friends of Burma. After choosing my non-profit, I decided to redesign their website to make it more inviting and updated as my first deliverable and created a systems map to show the process of a user donating to a cause and creating a reward for donors for donating. My intent for my audience is to help motivate you to donate more if something like this were to happen. My third deliverable is essentially a partnership with a non-profit to help motivate people to donate and receive something back based on the amount they donated. Based on my competitive analysis research, “rewards” can be anything if you were to buy something at a store or were to ask to donate to a cause at a restaurant. From my interview with Kate McDowell, she helped me understand how storytelling is important in someone’s language other than my own.
In my design process, I created wireframes that can be simplified and easy for users to navigate on the website, and generate an idea of a systems map on a donation process using icons, and creating a list of a stationery kit would be like in different tiers. After that, I did some further research on packaging and how each item would look like as a collective.
I believe that one of my deliverables isn’t necessarily a solution but it can motivate people to donate more to a non-profit organization. For improvement, I do believe that there’s a lot more work to be done on their website, another way to format my icons in my systems map, and have people test out my prototype. I did struggle a lot with the color palette as I wanted to use the Burmese flag colors in the website.