Background

At 25, Jason DaSilva, a rising star in the documentary field, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He has since then devoted to the disability rights movement to help people with disabilities and raise awareness towards the community.

In 2011, after realizing 9 out of 10 businesses on a city block were inaccessible, he and AXS Lab launched AXS Map, a crowdsourcing platform powered by Google Maps, and backed by web app users who rate the accessibility of locations like restaurants, and coffee shops. AXS Map’s goal is to map the accessibility of these places to help people with disabilities navigate the world with ease.

AXS Mapathon is one essential feature of AXS map. Basically, it calls for volunteers to work in teams to review businesses in their neighborhoods. The idea is to encourage people generate more reviews and bond with their community for a fun and meaningful experience.

The Problem

Despite its good intention, Mapathon is not meeting its goal in engaging people: the website is not built through a user-centered approach and is relatively underdeveloped . People find the site extremely difficult to understand and navigate. The overall activity experience is also not as empowering and fun as it is claimed to be.

To start, I first interviewed with Jason and his team to understand their visions more clearly. I asked why he thought of creating mapathons in the first place, and what he aims to achieve. This helped me to understand the business goals better. I also talked to people who have previously participated in mapathons to understand what drove them to involve in this activity. Together their goals allowed me to think of my design approach in the next step.

Business Goal - AXS Map:

• Goal 1: Fundraising 

• Goal 2: Enhance awareness towards the organization

• Goal 3: Recruit new volunteers

• Goal 4: Empower current volunteers so that they stay

User Goal - volunteers and newcomers 

• Goal1: To support a mission they truly believe in

• Goal2: To do good things and make a difference

• Goal3: To meet new people or bond with family and friends

Why Mapathon?

Stakeholders

Since the target users are volunteers, I created a volunteer-centered stakeholder map to understand the relationships to identify potentials gaps between different groups of people and sectors.

02 — Understanding the problems

1. Landing page: lack of instructions and poor visuals

• The landing page does not provide clear instructions for volunteers, especially new visitors. People do not understand what Mapathon is, why do it, and how

• Storytelling is missing. It is difficult to know the purpose of the cause and cannot relate to the mission

• The look-and-feel of the page fails to engage and does not convey strong brand images

2. Mapathon page: lack of instructions and poor visuals

• Visuals and storytelling are missing to showcase the mapathons and the teams’ efforts. It is difficult to build connection and provoke supports from the viewers

• Information is not clearly conveyed and has no hierarchy. Viewers can barely understand what the icons and information are about.

3. Personal page: lack of instructions and poor visuals

• Personal page does not show personalities and individual characteristic. The information is dry and hard to relate to.

• The page does not show volunteers’ impacts

• Same problems as the other pages, visuals and information are not properly organized and designed to provoke interest and engagement

User Research: Understanding the user experience of AXS Mapathon

I interviewed 5 people and video chat with them to see how new visitors walk through the mapathon page, including the main page, team page, registration, and personal page. I also asked their experience with participating in the actual mapathon activity to understand parts to be improved.

Putting together my analysis of the website and also the generated user experience journey, I was able to identify key pain points and opportunity areas for redesign solutions.

Sketch

Based on the ideations, I created sketched wireframes and conducted user tests. I asked my friends’ opinions on the new arrangement and received useful feedback for further improvement.

05 — Final Design

The visual guide

New User Journey

How does it work?

-Part 1: Rebranded Website-

Highlight the diversity of participants

The new website features an inclusive and welcoming narrative. The identities and backgrounds are highlighted through hashtags and stories. Visitors can easily relate to the cause by identifying with the community.

- Part 2: Mapathon Stickers -

After teams have reviewed the places, they could give the review stickers to approved businesses. The businesses could decide if they want to display the stickers or not. This helps to expand and visualize the volunteers’ impacts, helping to raise awareness in the city and potentially recruit new volunteers.

Team Page

06 — Reflection

It has been a fun and rewarding experience redesigning AXS Mapathon. When Jason first mentioned mapathon, I was so drawn to the idea of how through friendly competition people could bond with each other to make the world a more accessible place. 

When doing research for AXS Map, I learned the importance of branding in promoting non-profit businesses. Therefore, though creating a new set of visual design, I aimed to highlight the personality of AXS Map and their ethos, which is lacking from the old version. In addition, I applied disability theories, such as the social model of disability, into the redesign process. By emphasizing the diversity of the teams/volunteers, the visitors can more easily relate to the cause. Lastly, I have been inspired by some creative/artistic websites during the ideation process, and I believe the field of non-profit needs more creative/interaction design to promote their causes. 

In the next step, I will create interactive prototypes to better demonstrate how the new website works. I will talk to the engineering team at AXS Lab and to make the website fully functional.