Project
Free Geek
Understand and solve for the challenges a small non-profit organization is facing.
Project
Understand and solve for the challenges a small non-profit organization is facing.
Free Geek is a very inclusive non-profit organization. They help upcycle and recycle donated electronic goods. They also aim to educate all members of the community about technology and the how-tos of a computer. In order to achieve this, they have tech nights, classes for schools, as well as a volunteer program. Free Geek receive most of their funding by selling refurbished computers and computer parts.
To be Vancouver’s go to place for e-waste recycling and thrifted items.
My role
UX Designer, team lead
team
Mandy Cheung
Lucas Fung
Erin Jang
Free Geek faces many problems, the main problem is that they are not well funded. As their board members change frequently, Free Geek’s vision also changes alongside each round of new board members.
Through our evaluation at Free Geek, we realized that they are not utilizing their resources as well as they could be. Specifically their volunteers that are a main factor in keeping Free Geek running. They are also the people that produce products for the Free Geek Thrift Store.
Free Geek is struggling to have enough funds to expand and make operations run more efficient.
We conducted ethnographic research at Free Geek. We observed their daily operations and occasionally asked questions about certain processes we didn’t understand.
We conducted in-depth interviews with mulitple parties. The goal was to get a better idea of how the different parts of Free Geek are related to each other and work together.
“ There’s a small group of people that know about us, but a lot of people don’t”
- Lucas S., Lead System Admin
Main Takeaway
Volunteer Coordinators
Store Owners
Board of Director
System Admin
We got 16 volunteers to fill out our Google Surveys in order to better understand their experience at Free Geek. We chose to do surveys because we thought it was the quickest way to get in depth insight from many people.
Sample questions:
“ I’m a wannabe techie, and you can learn to build computers here, isn’t that cool? “
- A volunteer at Free Geek
Free Geek kitchen where we conducted the surveys
There were many problems that Free Geek was facing due to their lack of funding. These were the current ways that they were recieving funds, and we chose to focus on the store stream of revenue.
Chose to focus on this area because it is Free Geek’s main source of income.
The board of directors are already working on getting sponsorships and partnerships.
Cannot obtain more donations due to lack of space and equipment to get donations
There were many problems that Free Geek was facing due to their lack of funding. These were the current ways that they were recieving funds, and we chose to focus on the store stream of revenue.
Digital tracker of inventory to easily sell and keep track of what’s available, allowing Store Coordinators to do more high level planning, instead of doing miniscual and mundane things. Thus allowing to improve on efficiency in the store and allow for sales to increase.
The physical store at Free Geek was small and can easily get really crowded. Therefore, we thought if we are able to sell the products online they can make more revenue. We even thought of having an online quiz to help people that are unsure of what type of computer they will be needing.
We decided to focus on volunteers after re-evaluating Free Geek as an organization as a whole. From our research, we know that the volunteers are vital to the operations at Free Geek.
We think that once the organization and management of the volunteers improve, it could exponentially help the efficiency in the use of volunteers and relieve stress from the Volunteer Coordinators.
We conducted a workshop with the Volunteer Coordinators to get them to help brainstorm potential ideas to improve the volunteer program as well as to find out problem areas of the Volunteer program.
Takeaway
Materials for workshop
Me conducting workshop with the 2 volunteer coordinators
We designed the cards as an immediate response to showcase the stations that are available at Free Geek in hopes to disperse the volunteers to other stations. In the meantime, the developer at Free Geek can work on the portal for staff and volunteers.
We designed cards for all the stations at Free Geek, so new volunteers can know that there are more stations than just Dismantle Station.
Each card has the station name as well as the description of the work at the station. We designed this solution in hopes that they will learn of other roles at Free Geek aspire to help out at those other roles. This will also help Free Geek expand their volunteers to other areas, as they expressed before that they could have too many volunteers at the Dismantle Station.
Front of card
Back of card
We designed the UI of the portal with both the staff and volunteers in mind
Have access to information to understand all the stations at Free Geek
Have volunteers be able to sign up and cancel shifts
Ensure that the volunteers have a clear goal of what they are doing at Free Geek and how to get to the next role that they are interested in
Volunteers will have a better understanding of how Free Geek works as an organization and have inspirations to have a bigger impact at Free Geek. Sign up is more efficient and easy. Not only is it easy to sign up for shifts, but new volunteers can also sign up for orientation, allowing for more volunteers to help out at Free Geek.
Have access to information about the volunteers (ex. Contact information, understand their personal needs, goals at Free Geek, progress and volunteer hours at Free Geek)
This allows staff to better understand the needs of volunteers so they can better assist them.
Digitize the process of acquiring, scheduling and contacting volunteers
Ensuring the design of the portal was easy and quick to use for staff as they are always busy and on the run
All these aspects come together to ensure that the volunteer coordinators are organized and that their volunteers are having a good experience at Free Geek. This allows the volunteer coordinators to have a better understanding of their volunteers and how to support them.
We helped Free Geek print out a few copies of the cards and sent them a powerpoint version of the cards so they can display it on their TV in the lunchroom for better explanation during orientation. When we gave them the cards we told them areas where we think the cards could be, like the lunchroom and the sign up desk.
For our final deliverables, we sent them:
A year later, I visited Free Geek to donate my laptop. Walking in, I was hoping to see if they implemented our changes. The first thing I saw when I stepped into Free Geek was the store staff changed. Disappointed, I walked into the dismantle/ build area and none of the employees that I had met with before was there. The cards that our team made for them were not in use, and they were still using the sign up binder.
To account for next time:
I think our team worked well together. As the team lead, I planned our next steps and provoked discussion. We were able to work individually and work together during ideation, critique and planning next steps. I appreciate the critique I got from my team as I gave out critique as well. I think our team worked well together because we listened to each other and had great communication.
