SCMAC Volunteer
Duration: November 2023 - June 2024 (27 weeks)
Tools: Figma
Team: 1 Project Lead, 1 UI/UX Designer, 6 Developers
My Role: Sole UI/UX Designer
The Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center (SCMAC) aims to support and encourage art through education, exhibitions, and cultural activities. It provides unique art experiences through hands-on learning, artwork displays, and cultural events that enrich the lives of its community residents and beyond.
The Problem
The Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center has long relied on pen-and-paper methods for handling event sign-ups. While this approach gets the job done, there is not a way to communicate event updates or make changes to attendee availability after sign-ups. This often results in miscommunication issues that impact the smooth operation of events and create unnecessary burdens for organizers. The organization has recognized the need for a digital replacement to address these issues, but their limited experience with technology has made it challenging to implement an effective solution.
Project Scope and Minimum Viable Product
Our goal for the project was to provide SCMAC with an improved system for organizing events and managing their volunteers more effectively. SCMAC wanted us to create a simple, user-friendly mobile application to address their needs. The project lead and SCMAC signed off on a statement of work (SOW) that outlined all the details and expectations of the project. Based on the SOW, our team was responsible for creating a minimum viable product featuring two distinct user interfaces: volunteers and SCMAC administrators.
Minimum Viable Product
The minimum viable product consisting of core features for each user interface are as follows:
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Volunteers:
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Sign-up for events within the app
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View for booking volunteer slots, possibly a Calendar
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Reminder notifications
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Cancel volunteer slots
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SCMAC Administrators:​
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Manage, verify, and alter entries made by volunteers
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Receive notifications for volunteer bookings and cancellations
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Send reminders about upcoming events
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Create events
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My Role
I led the design of the mobile application's entire user experience. Additionally, I worked with a project lead and six developers in a cross-functional team.
My work on this project concluded in June 2024 with the final application being handed off to the Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center.
Introducing SCMAC Volunteer
SCMAC Volunteer is a transformative mobile solution that redefines how the Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center connects with its community. By replacing outdated paper sign-ups with an intuitive, digital platform, the app streamlines volunteer registration, shift scheduling, and real-time communication. This modern approach not only minimizes miscommunication and logistical errors but also empowers both volunteers and administrators to adapt quickly to changes, enhancing overall event success and deepening community engagement.
Getting Involved
Volunteers can browse a list of upcoming events and sign up for the ones that interest them. During sign-up, they can select their preferred work shifts, specify the materials they will bring, and leave availability notes.
Creating Events
SCMAC administrators can easily create and manage events using the app's comprehensive tools. This feature simplifies the process of organizing events and ensures all details are accurately communicated to volunteers.
Staying Updated
Volunteers can stay notified of event updates, event reminders, and announcements from SCMAC administrators.
Managing Profile
Volunteers can display their contact information for others to reach out to them. They can keep track of their event sign-ups and adjust their participation details as needed.
Competitive Analysis
To gather inspiration for the app’s design, I conducted competitive analysis on TeamSnap, a communication and management app for sports teams. I focused on TeamSnap because its core features closely aligned with the requirements for the mobile application, which involved discovering and signing up for various events.
Critique: When signing up for an event on TeamSnap, users can only indicate whether they are attending and leave a brief note about their availability. However, they cannot provide detailed information about how they plan to contribute to the event, which limits the options for effective event coordination.
Low-Fidelity Prototyping
Based on what I gathered from the competitive analysis, I created low-fidelity mockups for the app's main pages. The low-fidelity mockups were then used as building blocks for assembling the product map to outline the app's flow. Each screen was connected with arrows to illustrate the navigation paths triggered by different buttons.
High-Fidelity Prototyping
After completing the product map, I was able to create the high-fidelity prototype of the app. I continually iterated on the prototype by incorporating weekly feedback from the project lead and developers.
Next Steps
If I had the opportunity to continue working on SCMAC Volunteer, here are several ideas I would implement:
1. Web Version Development:
I would make a web version of SCMAC Volunteer to enable cross-platform functionality and improve accessibility. Certain features of the mobile app would be more convenient to use on a desktop or laptop. For example, the event creation feature offers numerous customization options that might be easier to edit and fine-tune on a larger user interface. Additionally, volunteers without smartphones can sign up for events using their laptops or desktops, which would help increase the number of event attendees.
2. Implementation of Stretch Features:
In the final version of the application delivered to SCMAC, I successfully designed all the required features for the minimum viable product. However, the statement of work also included several stretch features that I did not have the opportunity to implement. I would be interested in developing these enhancements to further expand the app's capabilities. Some of these stretch features include documenting free studio time in exchange for volunteer hours and providing surveys for volunteers to record their experiences, which will support the organization’s CORE grant application.
Results
The app is scheduled for deployment on the Google Play Store and the App Store by the end of 2024. Following its release, SCMAC will actively monitor user feedback, particularly focusing on evaluations related to the app's usability and overall user experience. We anticipate that the app's streamlined event sign-up process will lead to increased volunteer participation at SCMAC events. This will be measured by comparing attendance rates before and after the app's implementation. Furthermore, we expect a reduction in logistical and communication errors between SCMAC staff and volunteers.