Event and volunteer management platform
A smarter way to manage volunteers and trash data for beach cleanups
Project Overview
Developed a portal for the nonprofit Stand Up to Trash to transition from a paper-pen system to an online portal to increase efficiency and streamline workflows.
Timeline
Researched and designed over nine weeks with a team of 3 designers, 5 developers, and 1 product manager.
Background
Stand Up to Trash is a non-profit focused on beach cleanups and environmental awareness. This platform transitioned them to an online system that allowed them to digitally manage volunteers and events all in one website.
User Research
Gathering Insights
When I joined the team, I was presented a few main points regarding the scope for the project moving forward:
A platform to allow admins to manage volunteers online, such as registering them and taking attendance for events.
A platform that allows admins to manage the publication of events and view attendee list.
A platform that allows users to effectively check into events online or in person.
What do stakeholders think?
To better understand how admins and volunteers navigate the current website, I set out to conduct 4 user interviews with stakeholders in order to determine scope of the project as well as gain a better understanding of potential users. The findings are summarized below:
The interview(s) confirmed the need for an easy and guided system from non-technical volunteers as well as ensuring old users are able to adapt to the new system.
The interview(s) confirmed a need for a scalable data management workflow that still maintained familiar functionalities.
Volunteers want to be able to easily view and register for events.
The Problem
Unfortunately, admins have a hard time navigating this landscape because there’s no centralized place to do so.
Stand Up to Trash’s existing workflow requires them to manage their volunteers by hand with spreadsheets and paper, thus increasing their workload. Checking in volunteers and inputting trash from their beach cleanups slows operations down and creates more work.
Admins have an inefficient workflow, are hindered by a paper-pen system, and don’t have other options.
Design Process
After conducting user interviews, I still lacked clear information on a typical admin journey, due to admins only having experience with a pen-and-paper system.
To gather more data, I went in person to observe firsthand what their workflow looked like during a live beach cleanup. This helped me better understand where their pain points lie, which was concentrated around when they first checked-in volunteers.
After laying out this user joruney, it is clear that volunteer input and management must be overhauled.
Key findings after in-person testing
In the first iteration of the website, the only option to mark a volunteer as present was one of two options: search by name or filter by tabs and sort through them. While this was an improvement over their current workflow, it still left room for improvement.
After going in-person to see live in action, it highlighted that the current solution was insufficient. To tackle this, the ability to scan volunteers' QR codes was added to reduce the number of steps to check in volunteers, as this was one of the most tedious parts of managing the beach cleanup.
Jimmy Smith
jimmysmith@gmail.com
Show this to an admin to be signed in!
Volunteer dashboard
Stand Up to Trash’s event dashboard brings past and future cleanups into one clear view. Admins can easily manage upcoming events, make real-time updates, and reference archived ones without digging through old documents or scattered files. This simplifies coordination and saves valuable time.
Event dashboard and archives
An all in one volunteer managment system. Admins are able to manage volunteers in multiple ways. Whether by searching for a name, filtering by status, or even adding new volunteers, they can complete this all in one place.
Total Registered Volunteers
9,845
Total Checked-In Volunteers
8,845
Total Trash Weight
10,487Ib
Export All Past Events Data
Past Events
Search name
Location
Event Name
Location
Date
Beach Cleanup
Laguna Beach
02/08/2024
View Event
America Recycles
Newport Beach
01/31/2024
View Event
Water Sheds
Corona Del Mar
01/28/2024
View Event
Festival of Whales
Laguna Beach
01/15/2024
View Event
Earth’s Month
Chula Vista
01/08/2024
View Event
08/17/2023
Admin
Home
Current Events
Past Events
Volunteers
Support
Joseph Smith
Admin
Input collected trash details
With a dedicated input system for each volunteer, it is now easier to record the amount and type of trash collected from the beaches. By opting for a centralized approach, this reduces the change of lost or incomplete data.
Conclusion: Impact of the new portal
The launch of this new portal has transformed Stand Up to Trash's workflow. The portal supports the admin team responsible for keeping the non-profit running and over 4000+ volunteers a year.
“The check-in process is much smoother than before and I’m able to quickly start contributing to the cleanups.”
Stand Up to Trash Volunteer
“Managing an event has been so much easier with the help of this portal and I can focus more on interacting with volunteers!”
Stand Up to Trash Admin