Helping Hands is a revolutionary volunteer platform that simplifies the way people connect with organizations by offering a universal, shareable volunteer profile. By eliminating repetitive applications and streamlining opportunity discovery, it empowers volunteers to get involved faster while giving nonprofits greater access to passionate individuals. With seamless matching, in-app communication, and future integrations for sponsorships and donations, Helping Hands is redefining how communities come together to make an impact.
Problem
Volunteering is a powerful force for social good, with 6.3 million Americans dedicating their time in 2025 alone. However, the process of signing up is often inefficient—volunteers must repeatedly create and submit profiles for each organization, leading to frustration and potential drop-off.
Background
Imagine a universal volunteer profile that functions like a “volunteering dating app,” allowing users to create a single profile and share it with multiple organizations instantly. This streamlined approach removes redundancy, accelerates the matching process, and expands outreach for nonprofits—ensuring volunteers can connect with opportunities faster and with greater impact.
Research Goal
The goal is to develop a responsive web app that enables users to create a comprehensive volunteer profile—one that can be seamlessly shared with multiple organizations through a secure and trusted database. This system allows nonprofits to easily discover and connect with potential volunteers, streamlining the onboarding process. Additionally, the platform will serve as a hub to boost organization visibility, facilitate donation collection, and match corporate sponsors with volunteering initiatives—amplifying the overall impact of community service.
User Surveys
To better understand the challenges and motivations of volunteers, we conducted interviews with three individuals representing different levels of experience in volunteering:
Emma (Beginner Volunteer) – A college student eager to start volunteering but overwhelmed by the process of finding the right opportunities. She struggled with knowing where to start, creating a compelling volunteer profile, and understanding what organizations expect.
David (Intermediate Volunteer) – A working professional who volunteers occasionally but finds it frustrating to repeatedly fill out applications for multiple organizations. He wants a faster way to apply, better opportunity filters, and clearer communication on next steps after signing up.
Linda (Seasoned Volunteer) – A retiree with years of experience, actively involved in multiple causes. She values efficiency, wants to track her impact over time, and prefers an organized system for managing applications and availability across different organizations.
These insights shaped the platform’s universal volunteer profile, streamlined applications, and enhanced search functionality, ensuring that Helping Hands meets the needs of volunteers at every stage of their journey. To view each interview, please click here.
Affinity Mapping
With conducting user interviews, the feedback I received help me create an affinity map that served as the early foundation of what Helping Hands was to become down the road. Creating this allowed me to put all user data in one place and prioritize what needs to be done to move forward.
Personas
Creating the following Personas allowed me to get in the mindset of my target users and how I can solve the problem that Helping Hands faced. These Personas essentially came to life when going through the design process and served as my guiding lights.
Business Goals
Business Goals and user Goals for Helping Hands allowed me to definite two paths that in turn had common goals that can help push Helping Hands to the next level. The Business Goals served as the founding business plan while the User Goals would create the ideas that will attract and retain users to keep Helping Hands going.
Task Flows
This task flow allows me to think out the process of how a User will create either a volunteer profile or organization profile to be featured on Helping Hands. With user testing, I was able to create a straightforward path towards an easy sign up process.
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
Creating wireframes for a web based application was definitely a different pool to swim in and learn. This allowed me to understand web design a lot more and point out key differences of what can and will affect users compared to mobile based design. In most instances, i felt I had more room to play with, but of course still encountered skill based limits. Just more reasons for me to practice more.
High-Fidelity Wireframes
With what I learned from making the mid-fidelity screens, I was able to create more of a cohesive look for Helping Hands
UI Kit
The Helping Hands UI Kit is designed to provide a clean, intuitive, and accessible experience for volunteers and organizations. It features a warm and inviting color palette that reflects themes of community, trust, and action, incorporating shades of blue (reliability), green (growth/helping), and orange (energy/giving back). The typography is modern and easy to read, ensuring clarity across all devices.
Key UI components include interactive profile cards, streamlined application forms, intuitive filtering options, and real-time notifications to enhance engagement. Buttons and CTAs are bold and action-driven, while accessibility features such as high-contrast elements, scalable fonts, and mobile-responsive layouts ensure inclusivity. The UI kit is crafted to simplify the volunteering process, encourage participation, and create a seamless connection between volunteers and organizations.
Goals:
The primary goal of this usability test is to evaluate how users navigate the process of creating a volunteer profile, building a volunteer resume, and searching for opportunities. This will help identify pain points, assess overall user experience, and refine the platform for seamless engagement.
Methodology
This study will be conducted as a moderated usability test, either in-person or via video conference. Three confirmed participants, with one potential alternate, will take part—each representing different levels of technological proficiency and varying experiences with volunteering. Sessions will be recorded for further analysis, ensuring key insights are accurately captured and used to improve the platform.
Test Results
Overall, users found the platform intuitive and efficient, especially appreciating the universal profile feature. However, some areas of friction were identified, particularly regarding sign-up guidance, search filtering, and communication clarity between volunteers and organizations. The platform successfully simplifies the volunteer application process and makes finding opportunities more accessible. With a few key refinements, it can become a seamless, go-to hub for volunteers and organizations alike.
Revisions
For me revisions are based on real feedback and allow for better ideas to come to the top that will be applied to final rounds. For these revisions, I was able to find the ability to create better flows and showcase the importance of allowing the user have better control when viewing their profile, or searching for volunteer opportunities. I want to ensure they have a clean path to their goals.
Final Thoughts
This usability study provided valuable insights into how volunteers engage with the platform and revealed key strengths along with areas for improvement. Overall, users found the platform intuitive, efficient, and beneficial, especially appreciating the universal volunteer profile and streamlined application process. The ability to share a profile across multiple organizations was seen as a game-changer, reducing redundancy and increasing accessibility to meaningful opportunities.
However, challenges such as first-time user onboarding, search refinement, and communication clarity need to be addressed to improve engagement and ensure a seamless experience for all skill levels. Addressing these issues will not only enhance usability but also increase volunteer retention and organizational efficiency.
Future Plans
Moving forward, the platform will focus on improving onboarding, refining search functionality, streamlining volunteer profiles, enhancing communication, and optimizing mobile accessibility. Key updates will include a guided profile setup, improved filters, in-app messaging, and better profile import options. Long-term, the goal is to expand beyond volunteer matching by integrating corporate sponsorships, donation features, and community engagement tools to create a more connected and impactful volunteering ecosystem.
If you are interested in the prototype, please click here to give it a test run!
