A user experience for social good; saving endangered rhinos.
Huyen Hoang, UI/UX Designer, Researcher
Rhino Rescue App & Website
“Let’s save the rhinos with generousity.”
Project background
Since 2007, the number of rhinos poached in the wild has soared as demand for their rhinos in Asian black markets climbed among the affluent. The crisis has reached unsustainable levels, captured the attention of a global audience, and the rhinos are at risk of extinction at the current pace. NGOs, governments, celebrities, and animal advocates have banded together to tackle this issue. Moreover, with social media, the call to action has been trumpeted well and often. For laypeople, donating to such a cause has many options. However, donors want to know how much of their donations are going to help rhinos directly.
This case study presents the development of a product that brings all the news, events, and means of contributing to this crisis into one place. Rhino Rescue’s mobile app makes donating to NGOs that focuses on the rhino crisis easy by offering details on NGOs’ initiatives and financials and a seamless payment portal. The website curate’s news, events and promotes the fight against rhino poaching.
Users
Rhino Rescue’s primary end-users include adults in developed nations far away from where rhino poaching occurs. These individuals are concerned about the impact of human activities on biodiversity.
Research Findings
Animal lovers who have contributed to animal welfare projects in the past were interviewed about their experiences with donating through digital means. The findings were used to produce user personas.
One persona is Joy, an outdoor enthusiast who owns her dog walking business. The research found that Joy prefers if donations can be made via modern digital payment methods like PayPal. Transparency on how contributions will be spending by the NGOs is also essential.
A frustration among laypeople wishing to contribute to this crisis is that organizations host events and fundraisers. However, their efforts are siloed, with each group’s marketing team working independently for their respective NGO.
The Problem
There needs to be a digital platform that allows users to donate through modern payment methods to help save the endangered rhinos while also providing information on non-profit organizations’ financial spending to help inform users’ decisions on which NGOs they would like to support. Additionally, all content and events organized by NGOs need curation into one place for users to stay informed and engaged with conservation efforts to save rhinos.
Design Challenges and Constraints
- Solution needs to be usable by an international audience given the context of the rhino poaching crisis.
- Solution must be tested with international participants also
- Solution must account for users in emerging markets
Initial Concepts & Design Strategy
A competitive audit of well-known wildlife conservation domains was done to understand the acknowledge layout and navigation of call-to-action heavy digital properties.
Ideation
Low-Fidelity Designs
Wireframes
Low-fidelity Prototype(s)
The core function of donating money to support rhino protection efforts were connected for user experience testing.
Mobile app: View in Adobe XD
Website: View in Adobe XD
Research Plan and Usability Study
Usability Study Insights (by priority)
- Users found the slider feature difficult to use on the mobile app. Label needed.
- Users successfully made accounts but progression labels would be helpful.
- Users struggled to find informaton about NGOs on mainpage.
- Donating was easy, but users were frustrated when trying to adjust payment options.
Iteration
High Fidelity Prototype
We then moved from designing to prototyping to creating high-fidelity prototypes. All the updated screens were connected into a working version that was representative of the final product and in accord with a brand style. Highly prioritized insights from usability testing were made to address user pain points.
High fidelity prototypes were also tested and iterated upon.
Mobile app: View on Adobe XD
Website: View on Adobe XD
Accessibility Considerations
- Users from emerging markets of Africa where the crisis is centered were considered.
- A mobile-first approach was taken to design an inclusive experience for all.
- International users were screened and recruited for usability testing of both the mobile app and website.
- Users who might need assistive technologies such as keyboard and screen readers were involved in usability testing.
Lessons Learned
- Remote, unmoderated usability testing can adequately meet the challenges of recruiting international research participants.
- When recruiting international particpants, flexiblilty needs to be incorporated into reschedule plan to accomendate for time zones.
- Mobile-first appoach priortizes accessibility in design, but demands prioritizing content: what belongs in a mobile app and what better belongs on a responsive website.
- Branding guiding help designers to create consistent user experience across devices.
