Allegiance Fundraising

Client Project
A product design for a radio traffic system that allows current non-commercial broadcasters at nonprofit public media stations to complete daily tasks within the system.

CLIENT

Allegiance Fundraising Group (AFG)

METHODS

User Interviews, Affinity Map, Persona Development, Feature Prioritization, Design Studio, User Flows, Wireframes, Prototypes, Usability Testing

TOOLS

Figma, Google Docs, Keynote, Miro

TEAM

Bonny Ma, Dorothy Pranolo, Gillian Weitz, Marta

MY ROLE

UX Researcher and UX/UI Designer

DURATION

2.5 weeks

INTRODUCTION

Allegiance Fundraising Group (AFG) is a company formed by several businesses that have come together with a mutual goal — to provide end-to-end fundraising solutions to our clients. Our areas of expertise include agency services, technology solutions, and loyalty & incentives. We currently focus on nonprofit organizations and hold strong expertise in public media.

We were hired to help Allegiance Fundraising to redesign and modernize their radio traffic system. The goal is to move the system from a software-based product to a web-accessible platform to make it more user-friendly and intuitive for all Allegiance users.

RESEARCH

User Interviews
Affinity Map

My team and I conducted remote interviews with ten of Allegiance’s current radio traffic and billing managers who showed us how they perform their daily tasks. Some of the questions we asked centered around their pain points with the system. We discovered these insights and pain points:

After collecting all of the information from the interviews, we visually organized our ideas through affinity mapping and then generated user statements.

SYNTHESIS

Persona Development
Problem Statement
User Flows

We synthesized these statements to create a persona, Katherine.

Katherine is a radio traffic manager who has been working with Allegiance’s traffic system for ten years. Even though she is familiar with how the system works, she:

• has difficulty editing and saving contacts.
• needs to customize, edit, and preview documents and emails to ensure accuracy before sending to clients.
• needs one clear way to achieve a task.
• finds it necessary to manually confirm billing information to ensure accuracy.

This information led us to create a “how might we” statement to narrow down the problem.

How might we streamline the Allegiance system to ensure a quick and accurate workflow?

DESIGN

Feature Prioritization
Design Studio
Wireframes

Based on the insights we uncovered from interviews and through affinity mapping, we focused on the following areas: the home page, the underwriting section (contacts), and billing.

Before moving into our design session, we prioritized features based on Allegiance’s needs and the problems our users were facing.

Aside from wanting the system to be more user-friendly, Allegiance also requested that it look more modern. We kept this, along with our persona, Katherine, in mind while sketching.

While sketching, we thought about how we would be able to streamline all of the windows, buttons, and sections of the system. We used other systems we were able to view as inspiration, along with how we envisioned it to look ourselves.

After design studio, we jumped right into creating our mid-fidelity wireframes using Figma, which are digital versions of the sketches.

TEST

Prototypes
Usability Testing

After designing our wireframes, we conducted two rounds of usability testing. We tested five users in our first round with our mid-fidelity wireframes and tested six users for the second round with our high-fidelity wireframes.

The users performed the following tasks during both usability tests and the insights:

The user insights for our mid-fidelity and high-fidelity tests were as follows:

These were the averages scores using a Likert scale of 1 being difficult and 5 being easy, 1 being not satisfied and 5 being very satisfied.

BEFORE AND AFTER

Original System (before)
High-Fidelity Wireframes (after)

REDESIGN OF THE HOME SCREEN

1. The home screen now functions as a dashboard where the primary buttons are the main focus.
2. Changed some of the terminology so it would appeal to both noncommercial and commercial broadcasters as Allegiance expands its user base.
3. Added tabs at the top of the screen so users would be able to access and tab between any section of the system faster, and without having to open multiple windows.
4. Incorporated a hamburger menu to the left side. As the menu opens, it pushes content over so users won’t miss any information on their screen.
5. Any announcements will pop up when users first log into the system, notifying them immediately of news or updates.

REDESIGN OF ACCOUNT INFORMATION/CONTACT PAGE

1. Account information is now displayed prominently at the top of the page, including contact information and subscription lists.
2. Created an Add New Contact button so users could easily add multiple contacts to an account.
3. Streamlined the remaining information into categorized dropdown menus to make the page more instinctive and accessible.
4. Added a dropdown section within the page for Other Contacts. This allows users to easily update the account’s primary contact, which was something they previously struggled with.

REDESIGN OF BILLING REPORT PAGE

1. Grouped information into clear sections and created cleaner spacing.
2. Placed the Options section in a dropdown menu to consolidate screen real estate. It was previously a long checklist of available options.

REDESIGN OF THE AFFIDAVITS / INVOICES AND STATEMENTS PAGE

1. Combined the Affidavits / Invoices and Statements sections so users could avoid toggling between the two sections.
2. Placed the preview and print options in a dropdown menu to consolidate space.

REDESIGN OF THE AFFIDAVITS / INVOICES AND STATEMENTS PAGE

1. Combined the Affidavits / Invoices and Statements sections so users could avoid toggling between the two sections.
2. Placed the preview and print options in a dropdown menu to consolidate space.

NEW FEATURE ADDED

Users will be able to preview the documents they want to print or send. Without this feature, they have to export a PDF file in order to preview documents.

RADIO TRAFFIC SYSTEM

Full Prototype

Hot spots are on.
Press “R” to restart.

NEXT STEPS

Based on feedback we received during our usability tests, we suggested to the Allegiance
team that they consider:

• Changing the copy from Clients to Accounts.
• Moving the Add New Contact button into the Other Contacts section.
• Adding copy within the dropdown field under Document Options to indicate specific available options.

“I was not real confident what we would find at this point after two and a half weeks, but I’m very impressed. This team is awesome!”

— Ruth Hetland, Director of Product Management at Allegiance Fundraising

“I want to also give a shout out to Gillian. I think your enthusiasm is infectious! I felt like I wanted to use this system as you were presenting, so great job presenting!”

— Su Sanni, President of Technology Solutions at Allegiance Fundraising

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The Allegiance team was thrilled with our project and presentation because we were able to improve the overall user experience.

This was amazing for my team. We went from not knowing anything about radio trafficking systems to redesigning one that was first created in the late 90s. We were extremely happy that the stakeholders were satisfied with our final product and felt the research we did and the designs we created were significant.