Rooted

Prototype Link
Describe your project (Max 150 words)

To us, the root of staying human is connection and community. Rooted is a mobile app designed to transform how people connect with volunteer opportunities. With its "Sprout Into Action" ethos, the app matches users to local volunteering activities based on their location, skills, and personal preferences.

Here, organizations can expand their volunteer base, posting opportunities and managing events through an intuitive dashboard. We reduce friction and encourage more volunteers than ever. The app’s gamified approach allows users to track hours and friends, fostering a collaborative spirit of community service. Through seamless calendar integration, Waiver sign offs, and direct messaging, Rooted makes it easier than ever to find, commit to, and document volunteer work.

Whether you're an individual looking to make a difference or an organization seeking dedicated volunteers, Rooted cultivates a vibrant community and empowers users to root themselves into the world. 🌎🌱

Describe your research process and findings. (Max 500 words)

Our journey began with a simple question: “What makes us human?” We concluded that while AI excels at efficiency, it cannot form the genuine relationships and emotional bonds essential to our humanity. This realization drove our hypothesis: by making volunteer work more accessible and socially engaging, we could deepen community connections and celebrate the innate compassion humans possess.

Our user research combined surveys, interviews, and secondary analysis to gather both qualitative and quantitative insights. We focused on the barriers students face in finding, engaging, and tracking volunteer opportunities, alongside common volunteer processes within organizations. A comprehensive survey yielded over 80 responses from college students, high school students, and young professionals. Despite 97.1% of the U.S. population accessing the internet by 2024, only 16.2% of respondents discover opportunities online, whereas 81% rely on word-of-mouth or their schools. This discrepancy spotlighted the need for a centralized platform to enhance volunteer discovery and outreach.

Social influence emerged as a pivotal factor: 93.7% of respondents said they’d be more likely to volunteer if friends were involved, ranking themselves between 4 and 5 on a five-point scale. This confirmed our belief in the power of human connection, inspiring us to incorporate social features into our platform, Rooted. By enabling users to see friends’ volunteer activities—and even compete for the top spot on a friend leaderboard—Rooted harnesses both camaraderie and healthy rivalry to spark engagement.

To delve further, we cold emailed over 50 volunteer organizations and contacted more than 100 leaders of service clubs at Yale. Their feedback highlighted organizational hurdles, including the need for transparent commitment expectations and simpler onboarding processes. One head advising fellow from Matriculate envisioned a user-friendly app with clear sign-up forms and an intuitive calendar, while a respondent from the New Haven Climate Movement recommended an integrated volunteer calendar that aligns with existing event schedules. These insights underscored the necessity for a well-structured, user-centric tool that streamlines volunteer management.

Secondary research on national volunteering trends revealed that although volunteering can boost happiness and self-esteem, Gen Z and Millennials have lower participation rates than previous generations. Studies point to gamification and social incentives as effective strategies to boost engagement, yet existing platforms rarely capitalize on these approaches.

Ultimately, our findings exposed the gap between students’ enthusiasm for volunteering and the lack of accessible, reliable channels. By developing Rooted, we aim to unify volunteers and organizations, offering a streamlined platform that simplifies the search for opportunities, eases onboarding, and incentivizes social interaction. It’s more than ticking a box or padding a résumé—Rooted nurtures genuine connections and personal growth. With each good deed, we lean into the very essence of what makes us human: our capacity to care, connect, and thrive together.

Describe your most important design decisions. What research findings and/or user testing results led you to make these decisions? (Max 500 words)

Our design decisions reflect a human-centered approach that transforms volunteering from an isolated activity into a personalized, socially connected experience that addresses user needs and pain points revealed through our research.

Our first design decision was based on the overlooked feel of the app. We started by formulating a brand guide and choosing relevant colors and fonts. As we went back and forth, we decided that a warm-toned and bright palette best suited our mission of happiness and inclusivity. We ensured that this consistency was apparent throughout the app to strengthen this approach.

Our second main design decision focused on developing a social framework within the volunteering experience. We asked: “how can we create an app that truly fosters community unlike conventional social media platforms?” Thus we dissected only the necessary components to help socialize. For example, removing posting functions that often lead to comparison but engage friends through friendly competition and challenges. By enabling users to view their friends' previous volunteering activities, create volunteer group chats, and rate their experiences afterwards, we cultivated a community-driven approach to civic engagement. One that directly addresses our findings about the fundamental importance of human relationships in volunteering. Building on this social foundation, we incorporated a friendly competition element through a leaderboard system that tracks volunteering hours among connected friends. Through competing in monthly challenges and the ability to instantly invite friends after registering for an event, Rooted makes the volunteering experience more engaging and communal.

Our third design decision established both a structured opportunity listing format and an intelligent matching system based on our research findings. Organizations are required to provide comprehensive details about their volunteer roles, including specific expectations, time commitments, skill requirements, and current status updates. We want to create a simple all-in-one page! Rather than overwhelming users with these detailed listings, the platform analyzes stated interests, skills, and availability to suggest relevant matches. This dual approach was directly influenced by survey responses that expressed frustration with outdated or unclear listings, while also revealing that users often feel disconnected when volunteering in areas misaligned with their interests. One response noted a preference for "artsy stuff" over food banks, demonstrating how personalized matching could help volunteers make more informed decisions and maintain longer-term engagement with opportunities that genuinely interest them.

Our last design decision introduced a calendar system to address the prevalent concern about scheduling flexibility. This feature allows users to efficiently view and manage their volunteer commitments through a centralized interface that integrates with popular scheduling tools (eg. g-cal, i-cal…). This directly responds to the common challenge of balancing volunteering with other life responsibilities. We want to position Rooted as the primary platform for volunteer signup and tracking, establishing partnerships with schools and volunteer award organizations to create a comprehensive ecosystem. Five user testing sessions confirmed our approach, with participants indicating that having all their volunteer information in one organized interface significantly increased their likelihood of maintaining long-term volunteering commitments.