Experiencing impact through immersive storytelling
New Story is a global organization using cutting edge technology to help end housing insecurity.
Using Virtual Reality technology and storytelling,
I reimagined their donor dashboard from a place
of downloading tax receipts to a place of impact.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Donors are critical to New Story's mission. They make contributions through their donor dashboard, an interface that is primarily functional. New Story is looking for new ways to engage their donors through an emerging technology such as Augmented Reality (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR). The donor dashboard has to be memorable, shareable, accessible and interactive.
CURRENT NEW STORY DONOR DASHBOARD
MY ROLE
I worked in a team of 2, with another product designer. I led the overall strategy of the VR app features and interactions, which includes the accessibility features. I contributed to the competitive analysis, persona, journey map, user flow and user interviews and usability testing. Lastly, I pitched the final design to the client.
THE APPROACH
To design a donor dashboard that is engaging to New Story's donors, we set out to understand:
• What motivates this type of donor to engage in social causes?
• What are other organizations doing to engage their donor base?
• Are the target users fluent/engaging in VR technology?
THE RESEARCH
Using a variety of research methods, opportunities and weaknesses of the New Story were
identified along with how competitors are showing impact on their donor dashboard.
NEW STORY SWOT ANALYSIS
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Empowering core values with
a 100% transparency model
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Unique proposition to end global homelessness
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Strong partnerships with other humanitarian organizations and
local communities
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Innovative ways to donate
S
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Low awareness of activities, creating a perception of low impact
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Less opportunity for social connections due to dashboard inflexible structure
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Key to understanding impact is tied to knowledge of latest
technologies
W
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Dashboard an extension of New Story's brand values to create opportunities for more social connections
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Create personalized content that lets donors fully experience the impact of their donations
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Share New Story's latest activities in an immersive way
O
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Inconsistent stream of donations
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Low charity awareness causing donors to donate elsewhere
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Disengaged donors due to inactivity on dashboard
T
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS —
Nonprofits are showing donor impact through innovative ways to engage their target audience through their donor dashboards. They do this in a variety of ways.
Competitor dashboards are not only interactive but tell a story. Telling a story engages the audience more than facts and figures.
Seeing a direct correlation between donor's contribution and their impact is another powerful tool in engaging donors with non-profit work.
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UNDERSTANDING DONOR BEHAVIORS:
Through the brief, the target demographics had been identified as:
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18-30 year olds
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Has the highest level of engagement on social media and donor dashboard
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Many donate on a monthly basis
Through user interviews of this demographic, some common behaviors emerged:
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These donors want to see immediate impact of their donations
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They donate through causes they see on social media
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They donate to causes that are personal to them
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They are fluent in VR and appreciate social interaction in VR apps
USER INSIGHTS & IDEATION
Our VR app had to address New Story's needs as well as the user's needs. Our research findings show that the VR experience has to feel personal to the donors and they want to see their immediate impact. With this insight, we started brain storming some ideas. During our brainstorm,
I kept going back to New Story's unique positioning - which is to use emerging technology to build better homes for their clients. It all started with New Story's home. I asked:
How can we bring New Story's home into donor's homes?
QUICK SKETCHES & AN IDEA WAS BORN
We quickly sketched out what this home could look like and the types of interactions donors can have inside the home. We decided the VR app would be built for the Oculus Quest as all the donors we interviewed use this as their primary device for VR. I quickly iterated the VR New Story home in Unity to see if this idea was feasible and had legs.
INITIAL SKETCH
INITIAL PROTOTYPE TO BRING CONCEPT TO LIFE
DONOR DASHBOARD VR USER JOURNEY
CONCEPTUALIZING USER EXPERIENCE
Our initial prototype validated our proof of concept and we began to conceptualize what this VR experience would be like. The journey mapping and user flows were completed to identify any points of friction. Empathizing with the user is especially important in VR, where the entry barrier is high. The ultimate goal is any user experience is to make it as frictionless as possible.
A successful experience also has affordances that delight the user. In our analysis, users felt accomplished when they successfully selected their campaign, made their donation, and
shared it with others. These high reward interactions were also where the biggest potential points
of friction lie. We kept this in mind as we began designing our prototype.
DONOR DASHBOARD VR USER FLOW
INTRODUCING THE NEW STORY VR APP
An intimate virtual reality experience, it starts inside a New Story 3D printed home. Through personal interactions, donors can learn more about New Story's work, see the immediate
impact of their donations and share their experiences with their communities.
A NEW STORY HOME EXPERIENCE
It was very important that New Story home interior felt welcoming and donors understand
which objects they can interact with and how. I introduced the concept of Ali - an avatar who
greets the user as they enter the New Story home. Ali tested well with most users as she
guides the user and points out object interactions along the way, making the experience
feel curated but also intimate.
UNDERSTANDING IMPACT THROUGH INTERACTION
Ali leads the user to a desk and a prompt appears that lets them know to interact with the
globe. The goal here is to make the donor aware of the global reach that New Story has
and the affect of donations on a macro level. As the experiences progresses, it becomes
more intimate with each interaction.
A PICTURE TELLS MORE THAN A THOUSAND WORDS
Our users want to see the impact of their donations. Some of the most impactful stories come from New Story clients themselves. Those who faced housing insecurity have felt tremendous shift in the quality of life after securing housing for themselves and their families. Donors can hear more of these stories in the VR experience by interacting with the picture frames on the walls.
SHARE YOUR VIRTUAL JOURNEY WITH OTHERS
I introduced the idea of the virtual suitcase. Certain interactions, such as the stories told in the
picture frames can be saved to the donor's virtual suitcase. A small, yellow virtual suitcase icon
indicates that the donor can point to it and save that experience in their virtual suitcase.
The contents can then be shared with the donor's community through email or a social media feed.
This goal of this feature was sharing New Story's impact within the donor's network and building
a community around it.
DONATIONS THAT SHOW IMMEDIATE IMPACT
Including a donation CTA feature in the VR app was important to the client but also to the user.
The user wants to see the immediate impact of their donations for the experience to be meaningful to them. The intent with this interaction is to show the far reaching affects of owning a home to people and their families to the donor. It starts with the home but the impact is much more and far reaching than just owning a home.
THE ITERATIONS THAT GOT US HERE
It was difficult to find donors that were avid VR users but the donors we found that used VR were passionate users and gave us great feedback on the experience. Designing in the VR space is complex. Our prototype had its limitations - it wasn't fully developed to be experienced with a headset. However, we implemented VR design patterns for familiarity and ease of use.
TELEPORTATION
Teleportation is a common design pattern used in VR so the user can move around the virtual space with ease, particularly large distances. Initially, double arrows indicated the direction of movement. Users understood the double arrows as a UI element for teleportation but we later changed it to foot prints as we felt this was a commonly used for teleportation and we felt it worked well with the interior theme of a home.
BEFORE
AFTER
DISAGREEMENTS OVER ALI
The role of Ali, our New Story ambassador/hostess was not universally liked. Some found her to be helpful while others felt taken aback by her presence (in the first iteration). In the end, we kept her in the experience because she facilitated and introduced object interactions to the user. We modified her look from casual to business casual for a more professional look.
ALI BEFORE
ALI AFTER
TOO MUCH TEXT
In VR, there is such a thing as too much text. In our usability testing, our users lets us know
right away that text is difficult to read in VR apps and too much of it can detract from their experience.
I edited down the text to 2-3 sentences and we had text represented visually and added audio
for accessibility.
BEFORE
AFTER
TUTORIALS
A tutorial was added to the VR experience. VR users said they always watch a tutorial if it's their first time in a VR app so they know how to maneuver and interact in the app. They thought the virtual suitcase was unique and users should be taught its function. We included a tutorial of the virtual suitcase as how to use controls to minimizes user frustration when interacting in the app and make it more enjoyable.
VIRTUAL SUITCASE TUTORIAL
CONTROLLER TUTORIAL
ACCESSIBILITY
Accessibility in VR is a work in progress. The VR hardware is not accessible to individuals with limited mobility. As technology for the hardware continues to evolve and improve, there are several ways we can make the VR application more accessible, using control, graphicis and audio settings that can be customized.
This accessibility settings do not cover everything but it opens a dialogue on accessibility concerns and the types of features that need to be included to make this VR experiences
successful for a larger audience.
ACCESSIBILITY SETTINGS IN NEW STORY VR APP
CLIENT FEEDBACK
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Liked the concept of entering VR space and exploring the space at donor's own pace.
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The use of the avatar to help guide the experience was helpful
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The idea of virtual suitcase was well received but it was not clear to the client what was
being shared
NEXT STEPS
The client would need to understand ROI and development costs if they decide to move forward.
Some future implementations to consider are adding 360 videos to the environment around the 3D home, avatar customization to add more diverse representation and building out the prototype in Unity for full functionality.