No Name Kitchen

Introduction

No Name Kitchen (NNK) aids people on the move near the EU's south-eastern borders by providing essential items like food, clothing, and hygiene products to those living in forests and abandoned factories, where refugee camps often fall short.

Problem Statement

Due to the language barrier and technical constraints, it is extremely difficult for No Name Kitchen volunteers to communicate effectively with those in need.

Goal

Design a solution that would help volunteers to overcome the language barrier and manage their inventory more efficiently.

MY ROLE

User Interviews
User Testing
Interface Design

TIMELINE

3 weeks
May 2021

TOOLS

Figma
Miro
Adobe Creative Suite

Key features

In a 5-day UX Design Sprint with No Name Kitchen Volunteers, we brainstormed and crafted a web-app solution to address their most significant challenges. Following the sprint, I collaborated pro bono with the NNK founder to implement their feedback.

Multilingual web-app form

🚩 Challenge: The NNK volunteers communicate with the people on the move primarily via Facebook Messenger. There is a lot of back and forth, because not everyone can speak English.

🚀 Outcome: Using a simple web-based form, people in need get asked to fill an online form which allows them to choose their preferred language.

Prioritization of requests based on individual needs

🚩 Challenge: With so many Facebook requests and messages, it's tough for volunteers to sort out who needs help first. Information tends to get jumbled.

🚀 Outcome: The form was designed to ensure that the highest-priority inquiries, such as those from injured or pushed-back individuals, appear at the top of the volunteers' lists.

Easy touse inventory management

🚩 Challenge: NNK volunteers currently face difficulties in maintaining a clear inventory of available clothing and their sizes, resulting in unmet promises.

🚀 Outcome: Users now have the opportunity to select from in-stock items and will be informed if something is temporarily unavailable.

Day 01—empathise

I started by gathering information and identifying the main challenges.

By interviewing various members of the organisation, I was able to understand their main challenges. User journey mapping helped me visualise how all parties communicate.

🧠 Key learning: The language barrier hinders understanding people's needs and their locations. In a high volume of requests, urgent cases may be overlooked.

Day 02—define

User journey mapping helped me to identify the main challenges.

We transformed challenges into How Might We questions and, by prioritizing them for our sprint focus, identified the primary problem areas.
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🧠 Key learning: The core issues included a language barrier, absent inventory management, and a lack of an efficient request prioritization process.

Day 03—ideate

In addition to crazy 8s, we used idea napkin to generate solutions.

This led to the concept of a straightforward web-based form enabling users to choose their preferred language and request assistance.

🧠 Key learning: With a frequent volunteer turnover, we had to prioritize an easy-to-use backend, leading us to export all data into a Google Sheets spreadsheet.

Day 04—prototype

Today was all about crafting.

I began by creating a moodboard and establishing branding elements. Then, I transformed the wireframes into a prototype.

🧠 Key learning: Due to time constraints and the complexity of the numerous icons required, I had to choose online-available icons and rapidly work on making them visually consistent.

Day 05—test

Lastly, the prototype was tested with the volunteers and NNK founder.

Today, we reconnected with No Name Kitchen volunteers and their founder, Rick, to test the prototype. Testing notes were categorized into Likes, Ideas, Pain Points, and Questions, and following the testing, we prioritized and implemented the most critical pain points and ideas.
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🧠 Key learning: Some people don't know what is their medical status. The volunteers wished to be able to ask that using simple icons or images.

After the sprint

I collaborated with NNK founder pro bono to implement all feedback.

Post-sprint, I reached out to the founder and expressed my desire to incorporate all the feedback, providing them with a ready-made solution for implementation.

🚀 Outcome: Ready to be implemented Figma prototype.

Key takeaways

1—Sometimes, the best solutions are not the prettiest.

Initially, I aimed for large, detailed icons and multiple options in the item overview, but after realizing many users couldn't scroll due to broken phones, I found the best solution was a one-page layout with grouped categories.

2—It's vital to understand the organisation's processes.

After interviewing volunteers from various departments, including the founder, and creating a user flow, I uncovered significant process issues at NNK that were previously unnoticed by the organization.

No Name Kitchen: Connecting Volunteers with People in Need