Latinitas
Project Overview
Latinitas is a non-profit organization in Austin, TX focused on empowering girls in underrepresented communities to innovate through STEAM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics). They offer a variety of opportunities for girls to discover their voice, develop skills, and build a solid foundation for their future.
Objective
Latinitas currently utilizes a lot of different platforms to communicate with volunteers, interns, and staff. They need a solution to create long lasting relationships between everyone involved in the organization, and a process for streamlining volunteer onboarding.
Approach
I utilized the Sprint process to uncover the underlying issues within the nonprofit organization, and figure out how to best empathize with my users and come up with a solution that would best fit their needs.
Long-Term Goal
To start the Sprint process, I needed to set a long-term goal. This helps set the base of the project, and helps establish clarity on where the project will be headed.
Ask the Experts - Interviews
Next in the Sprint process, Asking the Experts helped me uncover the pain points of the organization amongst all of the members involved.
Volunteers
Talking to volunteers made it clear that they didn't feel confident with what was expected of them and that they wished for more guidance.
Event Leader
Talking to Event Leaders made it clear that they felt overwhelmed and could use more support during events.
Program Director
Talking to the Program Director it was clear that they wanted to offer professional development for those involved, but were also stretched thin with other pressing tasks and needed to rely on others to be able to do their tasks efficiently.
Journey Map
To dig a little deeper, I attended a Latinitas event to experience its inner workings firsthand. During the duration of the event, I confirmed various pain points for all members involved.
Which included:
• The Event leader often has to work alone, and at times can be responsible for 4 families at once.
• Volunteers tend to be shy or lack confidence in the subjects they are teaching to children.
• Events can be hectic or feel disorganized for volunteers and attendees.
• The Program Director has to constantly be looking for new volunteers through various outlets such as: EventBrite, Volunteer Match, and other Latinx Organizations.
User Persona
After interviews and attending a Latinitas event, I felt comfortable creating a user persona to establish clarity, empathize with my user, and think of a helpful solution that would be beneficial and utilized.
How Might We's
Taking what I learned in my research, I made several How Might We statements, which is an exercise where I rephrase challenges as a question to maintain positivity while thinking in a different way.
During this exercise, I noticed my statements fell into three categories:
• Volunteer Support
• Event Structure
• Communication
Volunteer Support
Event Structure
Communication
Final Outcome
The volunteer portal allows for volunteers to connect with each other, easily find their volunteer shifts, and watch training videos so that they are prepared and confident for their shifts. Showcasing what kind of skills the user has in their profile helps make it feel a little more personal.
Social Media
Latinitas mission is to empower and encourage all girls to go into STEAM fields, and they currently use their Instagram feed to do just that. Creating an Instagram filter was a fun way to stay on brand, and encourage awareness and engagement from their followers.
Lessons Learned
This project taught me to not be afraid to take initiative, and how design can make a positive impact in real everyday problems. This was my first solo Design Research project, mentored by a professor, it was great experience to learn to not get overwhelmed and trust the process.
With More Time and Resources
Towards the end of this project, I realized having a volunteer newsletter would work great alongside the portal. I would have also loved a chance to work with Latinitas on implementing my portal idea, and measuring its success.