Advancing Communication
Project Details
Bringing Citymeals on Wheels an efficient means of communication between staff and volunteers - helping those who are helping others complete their mission with ease and support.
Client: Citymeals on Wheels NYC, a volunteer agency partnering with the New York City Department for the Aging to bring meals to homebound residents.
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Role: Design Lead, Project Manager
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Duration: 2 week sprint
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Tools: Figma, Photoshop, Miro, Smartsheets, Notion
My Role
I took the lead in developing a problem solving and design strategy, assigning tasks to the team.
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After taking an active role in research, synthesis, problem definition and solution I produced the initial information architecture for our product focusing on the needs of all our users; volunteers and staff.
I also managed the conversion of our wireframes to a high fidelity prototype, and coordinated the design process.
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Another focus of mine was leading the development of a full design system based only on the fonts and colors used on the current Citymeals website. This provided an extra challenge for a complex problem within a tight timeline of only 2 weeks.
The problem.
Outdated delivery of information was hindering communication between Staff and Volunteers and causing frustration on both ends.
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The task was to design a responsive website that allows volunteers to quickly access and enter information regarding meal delivery, the client’s health, well being, or other concerns as well as allow staff to easily keep records for at least 7 years to maintain funding.
What we achieved.
Citymeals on Wheels will provide volunteers an intuitive mobile centered website that allows them to efficiently review and log aspects of their delivery routes with the option to immediately contact a central office line.​
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In the end we also recommended a full mobile app. This was not in scope of the project but through our research we concluded it was a logical next step to serve an on the go Volunteer.
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Scroll down for a detailed look at the project and design process. Or click on each icon to browse a section.
Research
Design
Test
Deliver
Research
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At a glance, Citymeals on Wheels mission can look deceptively simple. Getting meals and social interaction to homebound seniors, but behind the scenes the logistics become quite complex. Currently CMW relies on paper and pen to deliver multiple levels of information to and from its volunteers and maintain its records. A new responsive web platform will streamline this process eliminating frustrations and giving time back to Both volunteers and staff.
User Interviews & Field Research
What the Volunteers Say
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Paper route sheet is confusing for first time volunteers
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Getting access to NYC apartments can be complicated
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Sadly, shifts can feel transactional when the program is meant to advocate for human connection
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Don’t like giving out personal phone number
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Want to be able to contact the office easily by phone
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Having to log your route on paper with a staff member takes time
Here we see the existing information model ...
outdated, confusing spreadsheets - oh my!
What the Staff Says
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Volunteers come and go
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Wellness checks are an important component of delivering meals
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Manual data entry is time consuming
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Tracking meal delivery is important for securing city funding*
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Storing paper copies for 7 years which takes logistics and space
Competitive and Comparative Analysis
We looked at other volunteer platforms such as Invisible Hands, North Brooklyn Angels and Mom's Meals as well as delivery apps such as Door Dash and Uber Eats to see how they provide detailed information to their Users and what features are provided to enhance the experience.
Key Features Identified
Maps
Safety
Schedule
Details
Confimation
Design
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Designing for a mobile volunteer is of the utmost importance since they are constantly on the go. Mobile wireframes are transformed into a full prototype.
​From outdated, confusing spreadsheets
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No Updates
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No Maps
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No emergency services
​To responsive online design
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Real Time Notifications (from both sides)
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Instant Route Mapping
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Access to Staff for Emergencies
Test
Usability Testing was conducted with 5 participants (one with a long-term Citymeals on Wheels volunteer) through 3 task flows.
​User Tasks
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Navigate to Route
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Navigate to a participant’s profile
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Log your visit with a participant
Adjustments Made in Final Iteration​
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Added check marks to indicate when a participant’s meal was successfully delivered
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Sign - Up button adjusted to reduce confusion
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Citymeals on Wheels icon brings user back to home page
Click through the screens below for more specific notes on our findings
Deliver
A responsive website that volunteers and staff can access on the go or engage with via desktop.
The final recommendation for Citymeals on Wheels was to further develop the mobile website into a native App. This would make it even more convenient for staff and protect against complex user interface problems that can arise on different browsers. A mobile App would allow for more centralized input from the volunteer. Since the information would be stored on the device itself the user would rely less on pinging a server to constantly load a desired page.
Click through the final prototype below
Next Steps
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Accessibility testing & improvement
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Additional Usability Testing
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Additional Volunteer features
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Staff view in portal
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Mobile app
Reflecting on the Process
There was an extensive research process to this project, especially given the design sprint timeline. The first difficulty the team ran into is that both volunteers and staff are considerably overwhelmed and very busy, making scheduling interviews quite difficult. This problem turned into additional motivation to make their lives easier by creating this mobile interface.
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One lesson brought to light by this process is that if one avenue becomes unavailable it's important to be able to pivot and find a solution. With interviews being initially difficult the team stepped up and sent it's own volunteer in to document the process first hand. This allowed for incredible knowledge of the process and difficulties faced.
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Another hurdle came from lack of access to any design system. In a very short amount of time all new components where developed riffing on the current public website. One thing I think would hugely benefit this project is revising the UI elements and refining them. Doing a thorough Heuristic analysis and some tweaking of the brand colors and standards to function better for this specific purpose and mobile environment.
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Icons created by Freepik - Flaticon