Concordia
Volunteer Organization App
Tools
Figma
Procreate
Illustrator
Role
Product Designer
Branding Designer
Teammate
Product manager
Engineer
Client
Good Samiratan Haitian Alliance Church
Concordia is an app designed to help with coordinating on-site service efforts across impoverished communities in the Dominican Republic. The app includes a variety of features designed to help volunteers and service leaders manage such efforts. These features include a service site management system that helps with scheduling services and reporting data, a mission news and events hub for volunteers to post updates and news regarding service efforts, and a communication hub for messaging volunteers individually and within groups.
Our great team consisting of 5 designers, 1 project manager, and 1 design manager
Meet Our Team
Just to give you an idea of what I was working off of and what we wanted out of Concorida
About The Client
Before we started the project, the team met with our client, Good Samaritan Haitian Alliance Committee, to talk about their goals and what they would have liked by the end of the 16 week cycle. In our meetings, our client was able to tell us more about the organization, its values, and its current ways of function. In those meetings, our client pointed out issues of organization, as volunteers would schedule on different platforms, and communication, as volunteer managers would communicate on different platforms. At the end, we decided that our deliverables would be a hi-fi demonstration for the app and a strong brand identity to bring together Concordia.
Coordination Issues
No Existing Brand
Unity for all
The Priorities
How can we make coordinating events easier for volunteer event organizers?
When talking to GSHAC, they said they would often run into same situation where two volunteer groups would show up at the same time at the same location to do the same service. Obviously, it would be more efficient if one of the groups was doing a different thing at a different location, but because everyone was scheduling on different platforms they wouldn't know what was going on. We want to make it so everyone is scheduling on the same platform, and make it easy too.
How do we create a strong brand identity that unites different organizations under one mission?
The client did not want the application to fall under the same identity as the church, because of the other organizations under it. We would have to create a strong brand identity that focused on the mission of giving without religious undertones.
How do we create a better sense of community amongst several organizations?
The issue of communication went outside just scheduling events. Because of the different social media platforms as well, volunteers from different organizations would sparsely communicate with each other on the efforts going on in their organizations. We wanted to create a place that would allow for everyone to be able to be updated one everything.
Brand Identity
United By Giving Hands
So as stated in the beginning, because the client didn't want Concordia to be associated with the church we had to create an identity from scratch. For the identity, I used inspiration from Concordia's primary location in Puerto Rico as well as the spirit of generosity possessed by the volunteers to create Concordia's logo, wordmark, color scheme, and custom illustrations. These were also incorporated into the design system.
Design System
United By Giving Hands
Google Surveys
General Research
Findings
The Research
Google Surveys
To start our research, we sent out surveys to the volunteers of GSHAC to get a better understanding of the demographic we were working with and what they wanted out of the app. We carefully selected questions that would be the most useful to us so our volunteers wouldn't be deterred from finishing the survey.
Ideal Customer Profile
Using the data we collected from our surveys, we did further research on our demographic to help make the design choices for our users. Here's what we found
Summarized Discoveries
Our priority lies in designing for a mobile format because of the large mobile phone usage by the target audience.
Design must be easy to understand, inclusive but still fun!
Concordia’s app design must be easily digestible but visually appealing to the eye to accommodate for both gen-x’s straightforward needs and gen-z’s shorter attention span.
Regardless of the percentages, our designs should be gender-inclusive, because volunteering in general is an inclusive activity.
Social media outreach is a must
In order to increase Concordia’s audience, the ability to share events on other platforms is a critical design feature.
Celebratory rewards and career-specific events is strongly suggested to grow engagement
By providing opportunities to boost the ego, demonstrate professional skills possessed by the user, or other ways that might provide these values to the user, we can also expect more engagement.
Newsfeed
Volunteer Scheduling
Service Reports
Messages
Calendar
Product Solutions
We created a home page that allows users to stay updated on the events going on within organizations
Generated an entirely new brand identity to better fit the attitude of the company. I clarified the companys purpose by adding instructions and some deals that the user could benefit in.
Generated an entirely new brand identity to better fit the attitude of the company. I clarified the companys purpose by adding instructions and some deals that the user could benefit in.
Generated an entirely new brand identity to better fit the attitude of the company. I clarified the companys purpose by adding instructions and some deals that the user could benefit in.
Generated an entirely new brand identity to better fit the attitude of the company. I clarified the companys purpose by adding instructions and some deals that the user could benefit in.
The Client
Project Manager
Design Manager
Testimonies
*I would like to express my sincerest and most profound gratitude to you and the entire design team for the great work, flexibility, and professionalism the team has shown over the past few months in the design of the Concordia application.*
*The application is projected to aid in service delivery of thousands of underprivileged individuals in the Dominican Republic and may extend to other countries in the future. The team provided great leadership and guidance in helping to flesh out the design. Each week, my excitement grew as the design became increasingly clear due to the talented team. The team provided wonderful suggestions and executed flawlessly on every single request. It was a privilege to work with such talented young adults. I look forward to the implementation phase of the project.*
I had the privilege of working with Gia during the 16-week Concordia app project. She consistently demonstrated creativity, commitment, and a strong collaborative spirit. Gia's contributions in both client meetings, brand identity (she stepped up selflessly and designed Concordia's entire brand identity) and our Figjam sessions were incredibly important and valuable in shaping the product.Her willingness to support teammates and her growth as a designer were amazing to watch. She has an incredible skill, very talented! I enthusiastically recommend Gia for any team looking for their next talented, adaptable, and creative designer.
As the Product Manager on the Concordia project within the Develop for Good Winter 2024 program, I had the opportunity of working directly with Gia.
Gia was one of the UX Designers on our team, and her exceptional skills in UX Design and collaboration had a significant impact on our team and the Concordia app. Gia’s work is clean and effective, and the design solutions that she provided exceeded every client need that she was tasked on working with. Furthermore, Gia’s collaborative nature always had her seeking feedback and communicating thoroughly with all stakeholders, thus resulting in an effective and iterative workflow that always resulted in effective improvements and revisions on her work.
Furthermore, Gia’s work on branding & identity for the Concordia app is top-notch, and really showcases her expertise in the area. Her branding and visual design work was always backed by thorough and methodical research that not only impacted her branding decisions and suggestions but also other areas of our project. With Gia’s work in this area, branding and identity for the Concordia app was defined from the ground up, and ensured that our branding work stayed consistent throughout our project lifecycle and beyond. Gia’s work on this will continue to make significant impacts on the Concordia app even beyond our cohort’s term.
Overall, I highly recommend Gia for any team looking for a skilled and talented UX/Visual Designer with expertise in branding & identity. Her collaborative and friendly personality also adds to the immense value that she brings to any team, and I am excited to see what she accomplishes going forward!
Thanks for reading!
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always happy to chat about baking, knitting, or anything related to design
gialeework@gmail.com
