Getting Volunteers Off the Couch and Into the Community

CommunityHERO’s web application, which connects volunteers with nonprofits, needed a mobile-focused refresh. Together we created a new, engaging experience for both volunteers and organizations to use CommunityHERO.

The new mobile app makes it easy for volunteers to choose projects, upload photos, locate project sites, and contact project leaders. What was once a standalone web app is now a product suite that matches thousands of volunteers to opportunities with seamless UX across Android, iOS, and the web.

What We Did

Collaborative Product Discovery, Visual Design, UX Design, Mobile Development, Web Development, User Testing

Tech Stack

Xamarin, Spring, Angular, AWS, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Geographic Information System (GIS)

Opportunity

CommunityHERO saw a need in the nonprofit world: matching volunteers with diverse talents to organizations with unique needs. What if there was an easy way to connect those individuals to the nonprofits that would most benefit from their help? They needed an engaging, mobile-focused solution to complement and update their existing product. It needed to be delivered quickly, just in time for a major event.

CommunityHERO teamed up with SEP to breathe new life into their product and bridge the gap between volunteers and organizations in their traditionally low-tech industry.

Solution

The power behind CommunityHERO is the prediction algorithms that connect volunteers to organizations that need their specific skill set. Together we created a new, engaging experience for both volunteers and organizations to use CommunityHERO.

We created a mobile experience for both of the major platforms: iOS and Android. Developing in the cross-platform tool Xamarin made it easy to create both apps at the same time: they shared 85% of the same code. The mobile apps make it easy for volunteers to easily choose projects, upload selfies, locate project sites and contact project leaders.

We built the web app with Spring and Angular and host it on AWS. Using a cloud-based infrastructure makes it easy to maintain the app. The application uses a Geographic Information System (GIS) to aid in coordinating jobs and Semantic technologies (NLP) to create an intuitive, seamless experience for users. Organizations can use the web app to coordinate volunteers, collaborate simultaneously with many organizations, and view analytics about their organization’s community impact.

Our team worked collaboratively to design an engaging experience for CommunityHERO’s users. Design studio sessions were key to this process, bringing both our team of designers, developers, product owners, and managers together with our client’s team to share and draw ideas. Design studios build shared ownership and understanding, invite less rework and documentation, and set common design patterns that make future updates easy.

Results

CommunityHERO has matched thousands of volunteers to perfectly suited opportunities. With a seamless user experience across Android, iOS, and the web, the platform makes large scale events easy for both volunteers and event organizers.

CommunityHERO facilitates a unique cultural shift: help potential volunteers get off the couch, into the community, and leading their peers in making their world a better place.

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