Year
2023-2024
Duration
10 months
Location
Remote
Role
Founding Designer
(UX, UI)
Tools
Figma
Autodesk Fusion
Canva
collaborators
Ark Foundation team
ARRA Networks team
Sweetbridge team
Flourish matches volunteers to organizations based on skills, purpose, and availability, aiming to improve engagement for both individuals and nonprofits through data-driven volunteer management.
As founding designer, I...
Opportunity
Skilled volunteers often struggle to find meaningful ways to contribute, while VBOs may not know what help to ask for—or how. Hidden needs, outdated systems, and understaffed teams make it difficult to match passion with purpose on both sides. Flourish aimed to build trust, lower friction, and ensure follow-through—while designing for a wide range of digital comfort levels across both sides of the platform.
My Role
As the founding designer, I designed a volunteer-facing app, a volunteer management platform for VBOs, and a scalable design library to support future partnerships and growth:
Research & Concept Development:
Interviewed volunteers and VBO coordinators to understand motivation, barriers, and workflows. Mapped journeys to identify points of friction and define product needs that prioritized discovery, matching, and follow-through.
UX/UI Design:
Designed, prototyped, and iterated flows for onboarding, matching, scheduling, communication, and feedback across volunteer and admin views. Conducted virtual and in-person user testing to guide design decisions and validate usability.
Design Systems:
Built a design library to ensure visual consistency and support future product expansion.
key insights
Scheduling is the foundation of successful matches
Clear, upfront scheduling details help volunteers make faster, more confident commitments—reducing drop-off and no-shows. Flourish simplifies scheduling for both volunteers and VBOs through calendar integrations, structured shifts, and intuitive selection flows.
A seamless volunteer journey boosts retention
Volunteers are more likely to show up and return when expectations are clear, preparation is easy, and follow-up feels meaningful. Flourish supports the full journey—from shift reminders to check-ins, in-app communication, and post-engagement feedback loops.
Impact needs to be seen and shared
Stories drive support. Flourish captures real-time reflections from volunteers and tracking micro/macro impact for VBOs to showcase value and secure future engagement.
Dashboard for admins at volunter-based organizations —optimizing for topline data at a glance and immediate engagement
Opportunities—supporting multi-currency, cash-based transactions and use, conversion, and earning of Sweet Economy reward points. Built to reflect local context while enabling participation in a broader decentralized economy.
Team—supporting multi-currency, cash-based transactions and use, conversion, and earning of Sweet Economy reward points. Built to reflect local context while enabling participation in a broader decentralized economy.
Analytics —supporting multi-currency, cash-based transactions and use, conversion, and earning of Sweet Economy reward points. Built to reflect local context while enabling participation in a broader decentralized economy.
Messages —supporting multi-currency, cash-based transactions and use, conversion, and earning of Sweet Economy reward points. Built to reflect local context while enabling participation in a broader decentralized economy.
Settings —supporting multi-currency, cash-based transactions and use, conversion, and earning of Sweet Economy reward points. Built to reflect local context while enabling participation in a broader decentralized economy.
Outcomes
The designs were met with enthusiasm from both volunteers and nonprofit partners during testing. I handed off the Figma files and design system and UI to the client for the engineering team is to implement.
Yan is a brilliant UX/UI designer. Her ability to bring a vision into reality is incredible. She does a phenomenal job of interviewing stakeholders and gaining understanding of the problem you are working to solve. She works quickly and is excellent at synthesizing user feedback to improve designs. She genuinely cares about the work she does and the people she works with.