Rise of a Volunteer Management App
A Mobile-First Solution for Smarter Volunteer Coordination
Role
Research, UI/UX Designer
Team
Nikhil Mohan (Me - UI/UX Designer),
Hanan Binth Basheer (UX Research),
Jinso Raj (Backend Developer)
Jithu (Flutter Developer)
Timeline
Sep 2024 - Mar 2024
Project Type
Mobile App
0 → 1
Gamified UX
User Research
How we reached to this idea?
When I first met the team at Insight for Innovation, they were doing something incredible — managing over 9,000 volunteers, guiding 62,000+ students, and coordinating across 100+ schools in Kerala and Karnataka. But behind this inspiring mission was a messy reality: Excel sheets, endless WhatsApp messages, and piles of paperwork.
Volunteers had to manually log attendance.
Coordinators juggled dozens of schools without a clear system.
Quality Analysts struggled to evaluate sessions in real-time.
And as the NGO grew, these inefficiencies grew with it. It was becoming impossible to scale without burning out their people.
The Challenge
The organization needed more than a digital version of their spreadsheets — they needed a scalable, mobile-first solution that:
#Challenge
Simplified the lives of volunteers and coordinators
#Challenge
Enabled real-time evaluation and feedback
#Challenge
Brought transparency to student performance tracking
#Challenge
Protected Sensitive Data with secure role-based access
The Mission
I took on the role of Lead UI/UX Designer, steering the entire design journey from research to handoff.
Our mission was to
“Build an intuitive, role-based mobile app that fits seamlessly into the daily lives of the people using it.”
The Journey
Understanding the Humans Behind the Numbers
We began with stakeholder interviews — sitting down with volunteers, district coordinators, and quality analysts. We shadowed their daily work, listened to frustrations, and mapped their workflows. From this, three core personas emerged:
"I really love teaching kids, but honestly, it gets overwhelming. Sometimes I don’t know which school I have to go to until the last minute. I try to prepare lessons, but without knowing the exact schedule, it feels rushed. Also, I don’t get feedback on whether I’m doing well or not — I just go, teach, and leave, hoping I made an impact."
Gokul Raj
Insight for Innovation Volunteer
"My job is to make sure the teaching quality is maintained, but it’s really tough. There’s no structured way to review or track how volunteers are performing. Sometimes I only get feedback weeks later, and it’s inconsistent. Without proper data, it feels like I’m just guessing rather than actually improving the teaching experience."
Andrea J
Insight for Innovation Volunteer
"Managing volunteers and schools is like juggling without a proper system. I have to track availability through scattered emails, WhatsApp groups, and phone calls. If someone cancels, I’m stuck finding a replacement last minute, which creates stress for both the school and me. I often feel like I’m firefighting instead of coordinating smoothly."
Karthika R
Insight for Innovation Volunteer
Designing for Clarity and Flow
With insights in hand, we crafted user flows and information architecture, ensuring that each role saw only what they needed — nothing more, nothing less. We moved from mid-fidelity wireframes to polished high-fidelity UIs, testing with real users at every stage.
Building Together
Once designs were validated, I delivered:
#Final Deliveries
A complete design system for consistency
#Final Deliveries
Interactive prototypes for seamless handoff
#Final Deliveries
Clear documentation for development and QA
Key Features That Changed the Game
Impacts we created
The launch was a success — the app went live on both Play Store and App Store. Within weeks:
60% faster volunteer scheduling and school mapping compared to the old manual process.
50+ schools now managed in one platform instead of scattered tools.
3+ hours saved weekly for coordinators who no longer juggle Excel sheets and WhatsApp groups.
Volunteers felt more valued and motivated through rewards and badges.
Provided a single source of truth for student performance and volunteer activity.
Quality Analysts could now give instant feedback after sessions, instead of waiting weeks.
Reflections & Learnings
- Learned to design fordiverse users with different needs.
- Understood theimportance of offline-first solutions.
- Collaboration with stakeholders shaped better decisions.
- Practiced prioritizing core features over extras.
- Iterative feedback improved flows and usability.
What’s Next
We plan to:
- Including Location/Map feature for Volunteers to easily locate schools and plan travel routes.
- Introduce a leaderboard feature to motivate the volunteers to perform well on the teaching sessions.
- Multi-language Support to make the app inclusive for volunteers and schools from different regions.
- Make the app completely run as an offline platform, allowing volunteers in remote areas with poor connectivity to still manage tasks and sync data once online.
