Treasure

The Problem

Finding charity organizations that accept gently used items can be challenging due to the lack of a centralized, easily accessible resource. Without a straightforward way to locate these organizations, people often struggle to identify where their donations can make the most impact. This difficulty is compounded by the varying acceptance policies and hours of operation among charities, which are not always clearly communicated. As a result, potential donors may feel overwhelmed and unsure of how to proceed, leading to missed opportunities for giving and increased waste.

This article states, "Over a third (38%) of [surveyed adults] could not name a local charity in their area and 50% of those who said they did not donate to any local charities gave the reason as not knowing enough about them."

The lack of an easy way to find charities accepting gently used items hinders effective donations and increases waste.

What's Treasure?

Treasure aims to create an easy way for people to find local charities so they can get the donations and help they need. The app allows individuals to discover local charities and is a place where organizations can improve their presence. This was an academic project but research was gathered from real people.

Are there competitors?

While there are no direct competitors, there are, however, apps for specific organizations such as the Salvation Army. Other apps such as Share The Meal and Goodgive allow users to donate to different causes but they are primarily focused on monetary donations. I further explored the features of these apps by assessing their strengths and weaknesses and to get a better understanding of how similar services craft their solutions.

What do donors think?

While the app is a platform for both individuals and organizations, this project focused on the perspectives of the donors. In order to better understand donation behaviors, attitudes, thoughts, and habits, I conducted one on one user interviews with five participants who all have experience donating to charities. The interviews revealed differences between what people think/feel about donations and what they actually do.

While donors care about the causes of organizations, convenience, such as being able to do a one-time drop-off and the location, is more important.

From here, the image of Treasure's first iteration is starting to be realized. The app would primarily focus on being simple and quick to use, providing the most important information donors need to know.

For the MVP, I focused on designing a fast, easy, and straightforward way to find general information and donation needs of charities.

Primary Flow

I begin to pose questions to create an ideal user flow for a user trying to find an organization. This allowed me to focus on developing the key features, screens, and information they would need in order to accomplish their goals.
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• How should a user find a charity organization?
• How can we help users quickly find local charities they can donate to?
• What are the steps involved in trying to find a charity that meets specific criteria?

Branding and UI

From the famous phrase, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”, I decided on the name Treasure. With a name decided, I thought about some keywords for the brand to brainstorm color schemes. Some brand attributes I wanted to highlight were: altruistic, trustworthy, helpful, and sincere. Coming up with those attributes then helped me develop the color palette, which is a combination of blues and yellows that evoke a sense of trustworthiness and optimism. Given that the app has extensive use of imagery, I kept color usage to a minimum as to not overwhelm the user with excessive colors.

Discover Flow

Home

Donors may not necessarily know which charities are in need of items, so the home screen is a place for users to discover charities of different causes and for different organizations to get highlighted. On the other hand, for users who already have items, causes, or a specific charity in mind, the search bar can help them find what they need quickly and easily.

Results

The results page is a list of organizations that match the search query. At the top of the results list, users can further refine their search or see a map view, since location is crucial to donors. Each result “card” provides the organization name, a brief description about what they do, the distance from current location, and the type of cause. The cause indicators help users quickly identify who/what the organization serves so they can more efficiently make a decision.

Profile

The organization profile screens provide the core pieces of information a donor needs to determine whether or not they can donate. Based on the interviews, donors want to know the mission of an organization, whether or not they are accepting donations, and what things they currently need.

Solution

Reflections

As I worked through this project, I found that the information architecture was much more complex than I had anticipated. Many charity organizations categorize and classify donations differently and it was challenging to assume one system that would account for all the different organizations. Another major limitation of this project is that it focuses on the individuals looking for charities only; however, it is critical to also understand the needs and motivations of the charity organizations in order to create a more complete and successful app.

Discovering behaviors and needs of both individuals and charity organizations is crucial for the success of this product as whole.