Project Overview

Objective:

My goal was to design a unified digital platform that enhances community engagement through donations, shopping, and volunteering at Habitat for Humanity's ReStore.

Challenge:

The main challenge was to intertwine community support with individual actions on their ReStore platform, ensuring that every interaction was meaningful and impactful.

Process and Development

Research and Insights:

At the start of this project, I conducted an in-depth analysis of how users interacted with Habitat's existing platforms. It became clear that there were significant limitations hindering user engagement:

• Current Sales Platform Limitations: Habitat's ReStore was primarily using Facebook Marketplace for selling items online. This platform imposed restrictions that often made it difficult for users to make purchases, limiting the reach and effectiveness of Habitat's online sales.
• Complicated Donation Process: The donation form used by Habitat was lengthy and required too much information from donors. This complexity deterred potential donors, as the process was perceived as overly cumbersome and time-consuming.
• Inefficient Volunteer Registration: The volunteer registration process lacked intuitiveness and failed to clearly communicate what it means to volunteer at Habitat or ReStore. This lack of clarity and the non-intuitive nature of the process made it difficult for potential volunteers to engage with the organization effectively.

These insights highlighted the need for a redesigned platform that could address these barriers, making the donation, shopping, and volunteering processes more accessible and meaningful. This realization sparked the core idea of my project—integrating personal impact narratives directly into the digital experience to connect users' actions with the tangible impacts of their contributions.