The Giving Tree was a peer-to-peer volunteer platform to help people in need during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the wide-spread quarantine and high risk of infection, many people suddenly found it difficult to access essential items like groceries and toiletries. This problem was compounded for people who were immunocompromised or elderly, as their risk of virus-related complications was much higher.
The Giving Tree’s primary goal was to create a platform for these people in need to connect with lower-risk individuals who are able to purchase and deliver goods for their community. On both sides of the pandemic, we found people who needed help and people who wanted to help. The Giving Tree set out to be the bridge that helps these two groups unite — albeit while complying with 6-feet social distancing regulations.
My Role
I joined the team as a UX writer and copywriter, but I wore many hats during the startup’s three month run. I wrote copy and blog posts for marketing efforts, conducted user interviews to help our user research team, and contributed to product development and content strategy meetings.
This blurb became the first text a user would come across on the site. It went through many iterations, but had a few specific goals it needed to accomplish. The first of which was establishing its purpose as a tool for relief during COVID-19 related quarantine. The second was defining the platform’s audience. And the third was converting visitors into users by streamlining signups.
This final iteration of copy succeeds in all of these areas. The title is short without being too vague or general. The body copy is equally direct, but also includes descriptive details that define helpers, requesters, and their relationship to each other. The signup button is salient and prominent, while also giving users the freedom to call or text a hotline. This final feature was key to our userbase — since our primary focus was providing aid to vulnerable populations which include older people who may be unfamiliar with technology (or have disabilities that make operating a computer difficult), having the ability to request help via cell phone was crucial.
“Ask for help or lend a hand” continued to be our primary tagline throughout our marketing campaign. This banner served as a short and sweet header for our blog posts and article in the Stanford Daily.
The first time you’d click “create request” on our main feed page, this short tutorial situated you and led you into the decision tree underneath to guide new users into the subsequent request creation forms.
The “here to help?” line redirected users who wanted to be volunteers and clicked “create request” by accident.
Requests made by users were aggregated in the Requests Feed, which was organized by proximity to your current location.
An empty ongoing request list (which would populate with requests accepted by a volunteer) would prompt microcopy to redirect you to the Requests Feed to browse open requests.
My other responsibilities included writing and editing the Health and Safety Guidelines, Community Guidelines, and Terms and Conditions. The first was to remind users to comply with local social distancing rules, the second was to define the platform’s rules to establish a safe environment for users, and the third was to lay the groundwork for legal terms for the site.
Ultimately, our startup didn’t succeed beyond the three month mark due to competition and problems with sustainability. Our entire team was operating on a volunteer basis — which, while good-natured and optimistic, meant that our long-term operations model couldn’t keep up with our progress. Despite this, the project was meaningful to me personally, and I learned a tremendous amount about startup operations and UX writing as a discipline.
If the project could have continued, I would have loved to see more research and testing on the microcopy to see if there are any areas where the wording is unclear or unnecessary. Our platform was still early enough in the development process that I could find our heuristic violations, clunky UX, and areas for growth at a glance. But I was proud to be a part of something that aims to help others.
If the site was still live at givingtreeproject.org, I’d love to show you how far we got! Sadly, it isn’t. If you’d like a closer look at what the wireframes looked like, just send me an email at isabella@ifroman.com.