I had a particular passion for these two projects because the goal of both was to motivate site visitors to get involved in causes they care about.  The clients wanted their members and sponsors to visit the site and give money before leaving, in effect, to "purchase the experience" of supporting worthy activities.  I had to figure out how to engage the dynamic of emotions and intellect that spur philanthropy and find an experience we could design to trigger that dynamic interactively.

What we learned from the focus group research and interviews was simple: people want to give more of themselves to a cause than just money. See an excerpt from the focus group findings report for details. 

Let them spread the word, they would tell us, let them get their hands dirty on non-profit projects.  Heck, they said, let them do each other's taxes if the proceeds of the transaction can go to the shared cause.  Proceeds of time, money and building a community around that singular cause.  We found that the desire to use the web to meet people who want the same world is the engine of philanthropy.  And, one user experience design in particular seemed suited to profit from it: a service auction that functions as a barter economy with interest or more going to the non-profit. 

Everyone knew that legal issues prevented this from being an easy launch but as a solution, it is possible and it is deeply effective at accomplishing the client's final goals.  I continue to pursue this idea; reach out for more.

The outcome for the two projects was similar in that a massive organization stood behind it, and turned away from risk like a tugboat on the tide.  The difference between them was that one held gobs of cash, the other was merely well-endowed.  That one settled for brochure-ware online, while the wealthy but risk-averse company decided to run with it, albeit without the false economy factor attached.

We ran with it by constructing scenarios of users that emotionally and intellectually become donors as they proceed through the site.From general information to specific research, people's lives formed the core of each story told.  That narrative drove users, like a well-edited film, to seeing how good works depend on good and generous hearts. Constructing the user's identity in the golden light of "benefactor" gives the visitor the catharsis that financial and other contributions make possible.

The left image shows the user environment design (or brief use cases with relationships) developed by articulating the functionality required for the site to enable the experience interactively.

We prototyped screens to explan the user experience and requirements for the content management system that would be needed to support the maintenance and prodution of content for this site by diverse kinds of users. 

The end result was a site designed as templates with a content management system supporting the development of small pieces of content that could be displayed dynamically depending on the type of page and navigational activity of the user.

Alison Andrews | alison@functionlust.com