Mobile application

The Giving Circle

An app that helps people, animals and the environment by making donation and fundraising easy for anyone willing to give, with the option to share a project with friends and family.

Type: Mobile application
Role: User research, personas, IA, design system, UI design

Challenge

Giving should be the easy part, but it rarely is. People who want to donate can't tell which charities are verified, can't see where their money actually went, and hit minimum donation amounts set well above what they can comfortably give. Existing apps bury all of this under cluttered interfaces that take too long to navigate.

Goals

Make donating and fundraising quick enough to fit into a busy day.
Establish trust through verification and real-time reporting on where donations go.
Let people give what they can afford, rather than meeting a high minimum.
Surface causes near the donor's own location.

User research

I ran research to identify the problems involved in donating to charity and to better understand the process. It covered a wide range of people, aged 20 to 60, through surveys and interviews:

Have you ever donated before?
What motivates you to donate?
Do you prefer online or offline platforms?
How do you find the people who need the charity?
What demotivates you from donating?
What problems do you hit while donating?
How often do you donate?
Have you ever fundraised, for yourself or for people in your circle?

Insights

Users want a verified platform for donation.
They expect real-time updates reporting back on their donations.
They don't want to spend long in the app — it needs to be concise and easy to navigate.
They prefer donating to people near their location.
Many apps have no way to save a charity for later.
Most people can't afford a high "minimum pay amount" and want to give according to their budget.
They want a wide range of payment methods, and transparency throughout.

Personas

Aghina Raj — fashion designer, empathetic, believes in a sustainable lifestyle. Highly motivated in her profession, grateful for her privileges, and ready to offer a helping hand. B.Des Fashion, ₹8–10L annual income.

Her frustrations: she can't find verified, trustworthy charity centres; she has no time to find the right causes between work and family; other apps have confusing interfaces; and minimum donation amounts sit outside her budget.

Her goals: to travel the world and make a positive impact on society, to build her own design label, to help the people around her, and to become a job provider herself.

Sachin Jayesh — software engineer, passionate, kind and grounded. A busy young professional who cares about the people and nature around him and looks to make a difference between commitments. B.Tech Computer Science, ₹14–16L annual income.

His frustrations: no proper description of any particular charity; limited time after a busy work schedule; spam ads; limited payment methods; and no way to find causes close to him.

His goals: to start a tech company of his own, to help elderly people, and to grow that company profitably while contributing to CSR work.

Empathy map

Competitor analysis

Milaap — no navigation bar; location enabled only for big cities; no verification for fundraisers; no way to save a donation for later; UI alignment issues; a ₹500 minimum; no notifications page.

Ketto — no search; can't create a fundraiser inside the app; no location-based search; no verification for the fundraiser; cluttered with so much information that it loads slowly.

Impact Guru — no categories; no search; location preference inaccessible; can't save a donation for later; confusing UI; spam ads.

Prioritisation and flow

Feature prioritisation matrix

The resulting user flow:

The Giving Circle user flow

Design system

Wireframe

The Giving Circle wireframes

Final UI

Login and sign up. A simple process, with social sign-in and optional location access to enable location-oriented search.

Home. Urgently required donations at the top, categories reachable from the home page, notifications and bookmarks in the top right, and featured projects below.

Donations. Separate tabs for all donations and the donations you've made to date, category-specific search, and an option to donate again from "your donations".

Fundraiser. A simple flow to create a fundraiser, with edit and delete.

Search. By title and category, with location-based search and filters for distance, expiring fundraisers and organiser.

Profile. An uncluttered page where your own fundraising lives, payment settings are easy to reach, and personal information can be updated.