Sunbeam

A peer-philanthropy platform to benefit victims of recent natural disasters.

process

interviews -> persona development -> competitive analysis -> storyboarding & speed-dating -> needs validation -> low-fidelity prototyping -> concept validation -> design system creation -> high-fidelity prototyping

team

Nishchala Singhal, Yulin Liu

duration

2017 / 6 months

Problem Statement

Many victims of natural disasters find themselves strapped for cash in their time of need. There are a number of organizations that provide relief to these victims, but the relief might take days to get there. Those few days are crucial, and small amounts of money can go a long way toward helping victims get the help they need.

Outcome

Sunbeam is a peer-to-peer philanthropy plaftorm that connect victims that allows people from the around the world to make direct donations to the victims of a recent natural disaster. The product has two key users: Beneficiaries are the victims of a recent natural disaster. They use Sunbeam to seek monetary assistance to meet urgent needs. Donors are the well-wishers who want to help others out of a tight spot during a crisis.

Selected Assets

A selection of assets from the prototyping process are presented here.

[Figure 1] A storyboard from early on in the iteration process.


[Figure 2] A simple-flow diagram of the two main user types in Sunbeam.


[Figure 3] Low-fidelity screen sketches from the iteration process.


[Figure 4] A screen map showing the main screens in the Sunbeam app.


[Figure 5] Sunbeam is designed to be a responsive web app.


[Figure 6] A few representative screens from the app as seen on mobile.


[Figure 7] Sunbeam is designed to be easily translated into other languages, and the list of languages is dynamically altered based on the locations of recent natural disasters.


[Figure 8] Sunbeam is designed for use by people who aren't tech-savvy. This is because many beneficiaries of the product are likely to hail from relatively remote parts of the world.


[Figure 9] Sunbeam uses avatars instead of actualy photographs in order to reduce people's innate biases as they use the app. Our design hopes that this will reduce bias when donors are choosing who to send money to.


[Figure 10] An example of a delightful microinteraction to encourage donors to be more generous on Sunbeam.