Service design and strategic design tweaks

Sometimes a small change to a process can have a big impact. Here are some examples of projects that benefited from pinpoint changes. My blend of skills in word and design help get these smaller projects further along, faster.

1. Streamlining onboarding

New users who want to volunteer with New York Cares create an account, take training, and provide a few strategic bits of background information about themselves. The information is a legal necessity.

The process was clunky on digital devices. The forms were long, and used formal language with no explanation about why the information was needed. These steps probably are a legacy of the on-paper era in which new volunteers filled out forms by hand and in person.

The introduction of an asynchronous on-demand training into the onboarding process created an opportunity to prune,  rewrite sections of the form, and re-chunk the whole flow.

Edits to the flow:

• Elimination of non-essential  questions

• Divided the on boarding process into chunks.

• 1. Create an account
• 2. Training
• 3  Additional essential questions

• In each step  content was re-organized in contextual chunks

• Context as to why the organization requires personal information like birth date, emergency contact, and legal history.

An example: create account/sign in modal

• Modified the design of the form to encourage rapid scanning

• Redesigned the modal to clarify the difference between log in and account creation.

Results of edits to modified flow and content edits

These small adjustments had a big impact. On the volunteer information form:

• Exit rates on all devices declined from 13-14% to 6%.

• Exit rates on mobile devices declined from 19% to 8.5%.

• Average time on the page was reduced by 50%

2.  Service diagram of data flow

Background

 New York Cares recently pivoted how it identifies and addresses community needs. This change in strategy was accompanied by an organizational restructure. The changes created opportunity to improve data flow.

Details of documentation lanes

Above: The organization currently uses: Salesforce (data managment), Asana (project management), and OneDrive (document storage). Traditionally data had been organized by department, creating information silos.  This diagram shows where a gap in information will emerge after the reorganization.

Below: We proposed adding a Salesforce record  to close the gap holistically.

3. Using a flow chart to shape project management

This road map diagram tracks the steps leading up to an annual event hosted by New York Cares. The  visualization helped align stakeholders on the digital process and a range of individual tasks. The diagram:

• Shaped project management steps

• Helped define where on the website the virtual gala would appear

• Revealed dead ends in navigation

 4. A new on boarding flow for dedicated training

Volunteers who lead teams of other volunteers need additional training. Traditionally the training is in person. This service diagram shows the incorporation of an asynchronous on-demand training into a new team leader’s onboarding flow.

 5.  Retiring a widget to make room for valuable content

The widget 'gamified' goal setting for volunteers. The problem was that 95% of  users never uses it despite its prominence on the homepage.

Those did use it were unlikely to ever reset their goals,  which created unfortunate misalignments.

Retiring the widget made space for more substantive content on the page. The quote below is from a research interview.