I Used Emotional Design to Encourage E-Donations
Peru faces a dual crisis where 50% of food is wasted, yet more than half of the population struggles with food insecurity and nutritional deficiencies. The World Food Programme (WFP) launched an initiative to develop a digital donation platform aimed at redistributing surplus food from markets to those in need. The initial prototype lacked user engagement and clarity, requiring a redesign that would appeal to local donors and effectively address the issue.
Tags
Product Design, Co-Design Workshops, UX/UI Design, Emotional Design, Information Architecture, Web Platform, Digital donation platform, iterative prototyping
Client
World Food Programme (WFP)
Project goal
The main goal is to encourage donations from locals in order to redistribute surplus food from markets and shops to the most vulnerable in the population.
Time Period
Q3 2023 — Q2 2024
My Role
UX/UI design, data collection, conceptualisation, wireframing, information architecting, user testing, stakeholder aligment
As a key member of the design team, I was responsible for leading the redesign efforts to improve the platform’s user experience and engagement. My task involved identifying user pain points, understanding the specific needs of the target group, and creating a user interface that balanced both the factual and emotional aspects of the platform's mission. As the target group was challenging to contact due to language barriers and vastly different timezones, I decided to learn specific domain knowledge and user pain points from surveys (created by our team, which was then translated and distributed by the stakeholders), and perform rapid prototype testing of the platform user experience locally in Oslo. Doing so enabled the team to improve the prototypes rapidly while also ensuring the product meets the needs of the actual target group. My key contribution to the project was facilitating a rapid design development environment that could accurately capture user needs regardless of the restrictions we were facing with getting in contact with the users.
To tackle these challenges, I initiated the project by conducting an in-depth review of the initial prototype and identifying key issues with user comprehension. I spearheaded the research phase, including designing surveys that were translated and distributed to gather insights from the target audience. Recognizing the emotional impact needed to drive donations, I delved into complementary disciplines such as marketing and psychology to redesign the platform with a stronger emotional appeal.
I led the creation of wireframes and prototypes using Figma, ensuring they were aligned with the WFP's goals and user needs. Additionally, I developed a comprehensive UI design library to maintain consistency across the platform. As an extra effort, I researched ways to design solutions that could bring out the unique selling point (USP) while adhering to intuitive user interactions to develop a well-grounded and unique product for our client. Throughout the process, I facilitated multiple rounds of user testing, iteratively refining the design based on feedback. I also played a pivotal role in content structuring, utilizing rhetorical strategies (pathos, ethos, and logos) to craft a user journey that effectively conveyed the importance of food assistance.
We received the project from the previous team with a synopsis of the main goals of the platform. We then continued stakeholder meetings to learn their background for the project and what we needed to accommodate to meet their business goals. As part of establishing foundational knowledge, we also compared the existing platform with a competitior analysis. Doing so enabled our team to understand what approach we could inspire by and how we should deviate from other competitors to create a unique product in the highly competitive market.
The data from the online surveys and interviews with key stakeholders of the project revealed several crucial user needs and frustrations. The information was sorted through affinity mapping and clustered together in order to identify the main key interest points for the first design iteration.
We received mobile prototypes of the solution from the initial project handover. Our previous data collection revealed user needs and frustrations that were not addressed in the prototype we received. Hence, the rest of the design process entailed iterative data collection to learn more about how we could engineer the web platform to be informative enough for the target demographic to donate. In addition, we also needed to establish a way to appeal to emotions without the solution being perceived as disingenuous or as manipulative.
Due to user feedback, we decided to move forward with addressing the information architecture and content of the web platform. One of the key exercises was mapping out the ideal user journey through activity diagrams. This activity was performed together with the backend developers in order for the core team to grasp how the platform application will perform and what to expect from the product designs.
In addition to prioritizing through acitivity mapping, I also decided to put in the extra effort of scoping content importance through emotional design. As humanitarian projects are emotionally loaded, being careful with how we present information and portray the project becomes significatnly more important. Once the the appropriate level of adjustments were made to the content, we moved on to addressing all feedback continuously. The feedback were collected both locally in Norway and online in Peru to unite the different consumer needs.
The redesigned platform successfully addressed the challenges of user engagement and comprehension. My contributions led to a more intuitive and emotionally resonant user experience, significantly increasing the likelihood of local donations. The project provided valuable insights into content structuring and flow management, particularly in balancing factual information with emotional appeal. The final design was well-received by the WFP stakeholder team and was handed over to the branding team for finalization, ensuring it aligned with the broader strategic goals of reducing food waste and improving food security in Peru.
The project provided valuable learnings regarding content structuring and flow management in information-heavy contexts. Notably, the main challenge with the project was understanding how the information could be curated and presented in a way that could captivate an audience through the active use of the rhetorical tools pathos, ethos and logos. As the true purpose of the platform is to provide sincere information and reasoning to why food assistance is the next in contrast to food aid, using rhetorical strategies deliberately would need to be tackled. A valuable learning from the project was understanding how the way the content is curated influenced how the content would be presented on the platform, which would again influence the effectiveness and the flow of the website. And because of that, we needed to figure out an optimal flow that would incorporate both a factual and an emotional journey, intertwined.
