Ceres

CERES is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a just and sustainable future, and this app extends to showcase the volunteering opportunities at CERES. Designed for everyone, from newcomers to dedicated volunteers, this app is a valuable resource for discovering and engaging in CERES' impactful initiatives.

Inspiration

We chose CERES because (1) They do many things, from consulting businesses, connecting people with various communities, hosting education programs at schools, and producing goods and produce sustainably from their farms. (2) They have a significant impact, with 61,599 students in their programs, 4,596 in Teacher Programs to build ResourceSmartSchools, and 28,403 visitors to their sustainable farm. There are 29,000 people subscribed to their newsletter, and 853,010 people visit their website annually.

While they have a broad reach, their annual report states that engagement has dropped due to COVID-19, and they are trying to rebuild community engagement. The current issue with their website lies in its overwhelming amount of information, stemming from the organisation's extensive range of services. As such, it is confusing for new community members to get involved. They would think: What does CERES actually do? (They seem all over the place.) How do I join a community? (It isn't clear how I can get involved.) How do I keep track of the many events of each community and fit them into my life? (The events are overwhelming, and I'd hate to organise them manually.)

What it does

Our app addresses all the questions above. It has 5 main features:

1. A convenient place for CERES community members to subscribe to groups of their choosing (e.g., Eco-feminism, Buddhism, etc.) and by doing so, they can get notified about events from these groups.
2. If they signed up for an event, it will be booked in their calendar. They can see their calendar through the app's home page.
3. Allows people to sign up for paid workshops. The class schedule will be automatically transferred to their in-app calendar for convenience.
4. People can get regular updates about sustainability news and CERES activities through the 'Stories/articles' section, where articles get published regularly.
5. People can donate to CERES.

How we built it

We held 15-minute interviews with 3 potential users, such as volunteers or people interested in volunteering but haven't had the chance to. We investigated the challenges of getting involved with community events/volunteering.

Then, we built a high-fidelity prototype and conducted 5-minute user tests with 3 users. We then integrated their feedback into the final version of the app.

Challenges we ran into

As users ourselves, it was initially tough for us to understand the business' website and the services they provide.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud to have built an app that will be extremely useful to CERES community members. We put in a lot of research (reading annual reports, interviewing users, and a lot of social media and website stalking), so we believe that our app's strong point is in its usability and not only aesthetics.

What we learned

Building an app, tailored to users in an unfamiliar area within a tight timeframe posed was a challenge. We aimed to avoid solely relying on intuition and instead prioritize user input and data-driven decisions.

What's next for CERES

The app will be helpful to the current community members since they already have an engaged audience (let's get them even more engaged!) Then, it will help attract new volunteers or community members.

Built With

• figma