eGood is a startup that launched 2012 that allows businesses, causes and consumers to connect. The service allows consumers to search for businesses that give a percentage of their sales to charity,as well as engage with them. The platform also has a
management system for businesses and causes to track their sales and contributions, as
well as view stats of change created. 

How can we create a platform that enables business to give to a specific cause and promote giving and at the same time provide a platform for consumers to support those businesses that are brick and mortar?

We needed to understand user needs, desires and mental models first, so we started with a round of contextual inquiries with our 4 user groups (Consumers, Influencers, Business owners, and Non-Profit leaders). We did several rounds of pre-visualization: how the process would work, relationship models, storyboards, etc. Furthermore, we used fake promotional pieces in our testing to gather initial user feedback. Furthermore, we conducted competitive audits for positioning, visual design trends, and functional gaps in the industry. 

DISCOVERY

We needed to understand the opportunity and the focus of the business, in order to best understand how to create business requirements. In our competitive analysis, we looked for opportunities with user groups, functionality, and business focus in order to make platform recommendations. We looked at 3 verticals—Social platforms, Online purchase for donation, and more traditional fundraising models. We tested a fake promo piece in our contextual interviews we did to gather feedback on the desirability of the service. 

DESIGN

Once we had completed our discovery, it was decided that the business would focuson brick and mortar buisnesses, acting as a sort of Yelp for finding businesses that give a percentage of sales to charity. We started first on the web interface, going straight to web based prototypes in Axure, and user tested them to see how they performed.  

We also designed the interfaces for businesses to track customers using a geo-location system, whereby users checked in, and the business found their name and gave them credit. Finally, we approached the mobile app for users on the go using a map based interface  

SOLUTION:

The final solution included a web application for global management and discovery, a mobile app, and a tablet based interface for businesses. The businesses and non-profits could both access reporting features as well. 

WHAT I DID: 

UX Team Leadership and Primary Architecture, Prototyping,
and User Research