(i) Reshaping the user experience for a crowdfunding platform

CROWDLOBBY

Reshaping the user experience for a crowdfunding platform

Looking to increase users’ likelihood to contribute, we revamped the campaign page to create a personal connection to the cause and a sense of credibility, transparency and momentum.

Client | CrowdLobby

Tools used | Wireframing and prototyping: Figma | Annotated wireframes for handoff: Invision

Project length | 4 weeks

Team | 3 designers

Click to view prototype

How can we convince users to give away their money?

CrowdLobby is a website that connects everyday people to professional political lobbyists through crowdfunded campaigns. It’s operating model is to crowdfund a lobbyist to work on a particular cause.

Since CrowdLobby wanted to increase users likelihood to contribute to campaigns, we wanted to uncover what influences people to make the decision to donate their money.

To answer that question we researched around potential users’ relationships with crowdfunding campaigns, and/or to a charity/social/political cause. This is what we discovered:

Personal connection drives contribution

That connection creates an emotional reaction that is one of the main factors that increases users’ likelihood to contribute.

“I fear not knowing where the money goes“

In order to feel confident enough to make a contribution, users seek transparency and legitimacy.

Users need to feel their money can make an impact

Users gain confidence from seeing momentum and tangible results. Those assure them that their contribution can make a difference in the world.

Users are driven to a campaign, and are indifferent to the platform

On a typical user journey, he/she is usually being directed from a link to the campaign page, and is not browsing the platform.

How might we make users feel personally connected and sufficiently confident to make a contribution?

Before diving into solutioning we reviewed key players in the crowdfunding space, and interviewed the founder of a crowdfunding platform, to learn about best practices and different approaches to solve the users pain points we discovered. Here are our main findings:

The host is the face and soul of the campaign

The host is the one component that is not only able to drive relevant users to the campaign, but also make it relatable. [Image: GoFundMe]

Success stories offer encouragement

Inspire users and make them feel campaign goals are achievable. [Image: Kickstarter]

Social networks elements increase user confidence

Commenting, communicating, and profile pages connects users around the cause and form a larger community of passionate individuals. [Image: Facebook Fundraisers]

Video is an effective tool to engage users

Use video front and center to strike a deep emotional connection and increase legitimacy. [Image: Indigogo]

The Revamped Campaign Page

Armed with this knowledge, we moved on to transforming our research discoveries into informed design decisions:

1 | Focus our efforts on the campaign page

Based on the insight that users are indifferent to the fundraising platform, we have decided to focus our efforts on the campaign page (as opposed to working on other sections of the platform).

In addition to revamping the existing page and allowing more functionalities to it (update, comment etc.), we examined 2 features that can be integrated into this page using the creation of additional tab(s).

The revamped campaign page Click gif to view full prototype — The revamped campaign page
**Click gif to view full prototype**

2 | Reveal the people behind the campaign

In their current campaign page, CrowdLobby showed little to none of the host (the initiator of the campaign) or the lobbyist who would be working to promote the cause once campaign is fully funded.
By adding the images and bios of the people behind the campaign, we were hoping to create a connection between the user and the campaign, as well as a perception of legitimacy and transparency.

Campaign host and assigned lobbyist images and bio

3 | Make content more approachable

To enhance the personal approach, we provided directional content in our wireframes: simplified the language and transformed it into a story being told in first-person narrative (the host); Added sub-headers that creates hierarchy and help hold scanners attention; Highlighted quotes ; Added lots of images.

4 | Use Authentic Images

CrowdLobby were using shutterstock photos in their campaign page, which looked generic and alienating. We’ve changed those into authentic photos of the host and his community, and added a carousel that allows the user the option to engage while browsing them, hoping to establish a sense of genuineness and to make it easy for the user to empathize with the story without having to process all the text.

A carousel allows the user the option to engage

5 | Update campaign front to industry standards

To match Crowdlobby’s campaign page with users’ mental models around donating and crowdfunding we’ve revamped the whole front of the page by
adding a large video section, adding subheader that provides context, and polishing the text to create clear hierarchy and call to action.

Testing the Effectiveness of the Revamped Version

To learn how much we’ve moved the needle for CrowdLobby we have decided to A/B test the 2 versions (client page v. the revamped page). As making an actual contribution was hypothetical in this phase, we focused on the following parameters:

Emotional reaction and a level of empathy for the campaign
Users idea about how their donation would be used, and how confident they feel donating
Users trust that their donation would be impactful

We learned about potential donors reaction by measuring the parameters above as qualitative and quantitative (Likert scale) measures, and were also hoping to get some usability feedback along the way.

Results of the A/B test were dramatic, and showed that by adding personal information and other human factors as well as updating and refining of the visual hierarchy of the page we were able to achieve the desired outcome:

Emotional connection

Increased
1.5 to 4.4

Trust in the Host

Increased
1.6 to 4.1

Perception of legitimacy

Increased
2.5 to 4.3

Following the unequivocal results, we have decided to recommend full implementation of the revamped page, and moved on to testing experimental features that would encourage users to contribute.

Next Steps // Project Learnings

The client was satisfied with our recommendations to update the campaign page.

Our wireframes were handed to CrowdLobby’s developers.

On a personal note, I have learned some valuable lessons from this project:

The client had faith in our solutions because each design decision was backed by research.

The brief is just a starting point. It’s worth investing the time to align with the client and unveil the “why” behind the given project objectives, and pivot if necessary.
CrowdLobby had concerns about how their messaging around lobbying should be framed. We had to manage expectations by telling them that as UX designers (and not content strategists), tackling their messaging would not be the best use of our skills. We agreed to focus our efforts on how we could utilize our UX skill ses to get more users to donate to campaigns, as this was CrowdLobby’s ultimate goal anyway.