Building an anonymous platform for community support during a global pandemic.
GIVE-19 seeks to help connect donors willing to help those in need as a result of COVID-19.
Role: Product Designer, Brand Designer, UX Writer
Timeline: 3-4 Weeks
Tools: Illustrator, Figma, Notion, Lots of Google Hangouts (#Quarantine)
Goal: Create a simple platform that can allow supporters to provide financial assistance to those in need during the COVID-19 pandemic
Overview
As the COVID-19 pandemic began to ramp up in March of 2020, with businesses shutting down, employees being laid off, and all of us confined to the walls of our homes. Although some of us were able to continue to work from home, others would struggle to have a guaranteed means for their next rent payment, groceries, and more. A few friends and I wanted to team up to provide a simple way for those needing financial assistance during these times with those willing to donate. A much quicker, simpler, and anonymous version of GoFundMe.
The twitter thread that started it all:
Problem
With everyone aside from essential workers forced to stay home and practice social distancing, those in the service industry took a huge financial hit due to restaurants, malls, bars, salons, etc all temporarily shutting down. Large and small companies were forced to layoff workers bringing the unemployment rate to a new high in Canada and the U.S.
Research insights:
3M jobs were lost over March/April 2020 in Canada
The unemployment rate hit 13.7% in June 2020
2.2M Ontario workers lost jobs or faced a big drop in hours due to COVID-19. Primarily service and retail workers in May 2020
Assumptions & Questions
We wanted to make sure we could move fast on this project and get a version 1 out the door but these were some of our assumptions in the early stages:
Site Structure
As the initial sole designer, I set out to lay out the structure of the site and run that by the team. The idea was to have two sections, one for the donee (need extra $$) to submit their story and how much they need, and the other section for the donor (providing the $$) to read through stories and then choose someone or multiple people to send money to.
The Solution
We set out to build GIVE-19 to allow those who need additional financial support with those willing to donate. The idea for the name was a play on COVID-19, asking donors to provide $19 or more. Here’s how it worked:
Donee - Needs financial assistance
The donee fills out a form providing their email and preferred method of payment, and then answers a few short questions such as: Where are you located, what is your occupation, and what they need the financial support for.
Donor - Providing financial assistance
The donor can browse the stories of different donees and choose to filter by Country. Once they click on a user’s story they fill out a short form answering questions such as: where are you located and why are you donating? Once they agree to a short privacy agreement they receive the donees email or $cashtag to send a money transfer
Design Considerations
PRIVACY & SAFETY
Privacy was a huge element of this project. We wanted to avoid having people’s names or pictures as they are unnecessary to the success of the project and asking for money in itself can be seen as a big step and something many shy away from. On the other hand, we didn’t want the donee's contact details to be floating around for anyone to view and grab easily.
We tried to be as clear as possible to donee’s where their information would show up. On the donor side, we included a form with a required field to write why they want to donate as that extra step to hopefully deter those just browsing around viewing and copying emails.
INCLUSIVITY
Originally built for Canadians we later realized after getting feedback from a user in the U.S, it could help those anywhere. From here we iterated to allow for more payment methods than just Interac e-transfer, and we included CashApp for the U.S, and PayPal for all regions.
SIMPLICITY
This one goes without saying but we wanted to keep it SIMPLE. Donors can simply jump on the site, read stories and pick one or more to then send additional funds to. Other than simple steps on the form we wanted to keep the site light and easy to absorb.
VISUAL IDENTITY
The typeface and colour I used were similar to GoFundMe as it’s a visual identity people are already familiar with in association with donations. The green not only resembles the GoFundMe identity but also represents money paired with a logo that represents giving and support.
We ensured the photography used reflected a diverse range of service workers.
Challenges
I’d be lying if I said there weren’t any roadblocks! One of the biggest challenges was making a decision on the level of privacy we were okay with giving the users. In order to be paid, an email transfer was the most logical step in the beginning and in order to do this the donor would need to see the email eventually. Most emails as you can imagine contain a user's first and last name. Our challenge was to think of a way to ensure that whoever was viewing the email had honest intentions to use the email for the purpose of donating and nothing else.
Next Steps
Although the state of the project is currently on pause, our team has discussed the following changes:
UI changes to feel a bit more modern and enhance the look and feel
Clearly identify the steps for how the platform works and how to donate funds
Update the privacy by authenticating users through a SMS code verification
