Help Or Get Help
Building An Easy-To-Use Resource Hub For COVD-19
When COVID-19 hit New York, it hit New York hard. It seemed like overnight there were thousands out of work or furloughed and front-line workers were constantly on the clock. What also sprung up overnight were countless resources, new mutual aid groups, and nonprofits ready to help— but they also needed donations. The team at ROSE knew we wanted to help in some way, but we were overwhelmed by the number of places that needed help. Honing in on this feeling we knew we wanted to create a resource aggregator, but one that took the pressure of navigating the resources off of the user. Help Or Get Help was created to help facilitate small and actionable ways that we could give and receive aid from one another during COVID-19.
ROLE: STRATEGY, UX/UI DESIGN, PROJECT MANAGEMENT
TEAM:
ERIC LIANG, ENGINEER
VANDE PANDEY, DATA ARCHITECT
JORDAN LONG, STRATEGY
THE PROBLEM
In the early days of the pandemic, dozens of resources were popping up daily, just in NYC alone. With people sharing these resources on social media, new resources were showcased with every tap of a finger, but with no way to differentiate between them. With the pandemic already causing excessive amounts of daily stress, this added stress of wanting to donate but being overwhelmed by the options furthered decision paralysis and added to the pandemic panic.
THE OBJECTIVE
To create a platform that aggregates COVID-19 resources and takes the burden of sifting through those resources off of the user.
THE STRATEGY
We want to provide users with a way to give or get help in their category of interest, without having to decide from a large pool of resources. We took inspiration from “one-a-day” prompts and online generators like Coolors.co, and created a COVID-19 resource “generator.” This format allows users to be served a single option that pertains to their interests, the decision making becoming almost obsolete. If the result doesn’t interest them, they can keep generating results until they find something better suited.
Determining Content Types + Filters
To determine what filtering mechanisms would make the most sense for this product, we collected an initial ~100 COVID related resources and divided them into categories. This process led us to determine the two main user types, the industry types looking for donations or giving out aid, what types of things people could donate, and what types of aid people could apply for. Using these insights we created the filtering options for the UI as well as the results cards.
User Flow
After understanding the types of information we could provide users following our resources audit, we created a user flow based on three main filters:
Type of User: Are you looking to give or get help?
What category does the help type fall in?
Types of aid (ie. money, time, general resources)
Help Or Get Help Branding
We named the platform Help Or Get Help because it very easily tells the story of what the resource provides. Using a humanist typeface gave the wordmark and the UI of the website a friendly feeling. The color palette is similar to the American flag, but with a brighter edge to evoke optimism and patriotism during this period of national distress.
UI Design
To keep the resource friendly and not overwhelming, we didn’t provide a long list of resources with filters at the top. Instead we created a conversational filtering mechanism that allows users to select for the resources they are looking for. The initial selections are randomized upon first load, making the process even easier for users and also providing the opportunity for the resources to be viewed more evenly.
Anatomy of A “Help” Card
The UI of the “Help” cards had to be directly tied to the resource database. This meant using our initial resource audit to help determine the consistent types of information we could show to users. The following UI allowed us to accommodate all the resources with the addition of a few standard icons that could display in case of a missing logo or resource image.
Results
11k+
Sessions in 2 months
50 sec
Avg Session Duration
10 Days
From Ideation To Launch