Who is the Giving Grape?
The Giving Grape is a non-profit founded in Brooklyn, NY in 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Giving Grape’s mission is to address food insecurity by connecting people in our community, giving people and families gift cards to grocery stores of their choice to buy the necessities they need
What is the problem here? 🧐
The Giving Grape is in need of a redesign that aligns more with its current values and addresses the concern of the organization’s credibility. Since it is a new non-profit not many people are aware of it nor how it works.
Our Objective
Homepage Redesign
The left mockup was the beginning stages of the homepage redesign.
I was passed on the left design, and I was tasked to make it more lively. The team wanted something more aligned with them.
The GIving Grape is about helping others and feeling welcomed.
I began brainstorming and coming up with potential new features.
First, I made the top purple to make it more colorful.
Second, I made the three steps in the middle making it feel more like an insert rather than a full bleed to give the site some dimension.
For “Our Stories,” I mocked up a continuous carousel that would highlight each quote as it reached the center.
I then presented my mockup to my team for feedback
They liked how where this was going, but it still need something else. They suggested new icons, and I worked with the Creative Director to create new icons.
We went through a few iterations until we concluded the right ones were the best for this message.
After getting the engineers’ approval I shared the homepage redesign Figma file. I began working on the next do with our redesign which was a donor and donee sign up modal with the UX Lead Jon
Donor Sign up Process
Donee Sign Up Process
Challenges we faced
The verbiage for the modal sign-up process was one of the areas we really had to make sure was clear. We noticed some people would get confused based on the word “Donor” and “Donee.” These comments were brought to our attention by the head of our team since they were directly informed.
As a designer, the last thing you want your designs to be is confusing!
Off to the drawing board, we go
We thought of changing the word to “seeking request” for the donee or “I want to help” for the donor. However, these got too Looooooonnnggggg for that button. Well, that would be a drag! We kept brainstorming and saying different potential solutions.
Our Solution
We came up with adding context once the user clicks on either “Donor” or “Donee.” If someone clicks on “Donor” then it will say I want to give help, but if they click “Donee” then it will say I want to get help.
See below for our final high-fidelity mockups
Remember when I said I handed off the redesigned homepage to the engineers?
Even though you might think the idea was great, sometimes it’s just not possible in certain situations.
The engineers worked on the carousel but they couldn’t make the words appear bigger as it rotated one after the other. Additionally, we didn’t have as many quotes as we originally thought.
Another change was the rearrangement of the Partners went back to how it was previously. As for the carousel, we still incorporated one. However, it only displays one quote at a time.
See below for the latest live version of the site.
The Giving Grape is no longer operating because almost all of the volunteers have left since they receive full-time opportunities. The Giving Grape was not established enough to be able to pay its volunteers.
Last version when it was operating
What people said about The Giving Grape
The Giving Grape is no longer operating, but these are some of the quotes we pulled from our survey calls.
Reflection
I wish I would have been able to stay longer at the Giving Grape, but unfortunately, like many other volunteers had to leave because it was a lot in addition to our work lives. I did learn a lot with the Giving Grape especially since I collaborated for the first time ever at THe GIving Grape. Attending the UX and engineering tram weekly was extremely helpful to listen to the conversations they had.