Increase volunteer applications by 25% and reduce manual scheduling time by 40% for a nonprofit with a scheduling web app
Bread & Roses is a community-focused non-profit that coordinates over 50,000 volunteers to fight food insecurity through programs like food outreach and emergency pantries. In the fall of 2024, my team helped Bread & Roses build a scheduling web app to solve a critical operational challenge: their manual scheduling process was time-consuming for staff and cumbersome for new volunteers, which slows down the organizational efficiency.
As the solo designer, I led the end-to-end conceptualization and design efforts, collaborating closely with the project manager, tech lead, and a team of 10 student engineers. Using agile practices - sprint planning, workshops, and weekly standups - I delivered 7+ major product flows on time, resulting in a fully shipped 0-1 product in May 2025.
Date
Sep 2024 - May 2025
Role
Solo Product Designer
Skills
Interaction Design, Visual Design, UX Research, Systems Thinking
Team
1 Project Manager, 1 Tech Lead, 10 Developers, 1 Product Designer (me)
TL;DR
The project at a glance
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The Problem
THE CURRENT BACK-AND-FORTH COORDINATION IS TIME-CONSUMING AND INEFFICIENT
Volunteer coordination relies on a manual process spread across phone calls, emails, Google Forms, Google Calendar, and spreadsheets. While this approach works with the current limited resources, it creates extra work for staff and gives volunteers little control over the sign-up process.
The Solution
A NEW WAY TO MANAGE VOLUNTEER SIGNUPS
A centralized system that streamlines time-slot scheduling for both volunteers and admins, while enabling admins to mass-communicate schedule changes.
EARLY RESEARCH
How the current workflow looks like
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To understand how volunteer coordination currently works and where breakdowns occur, I initiated stakeholder interviews with operations and fundraising staff, reviewed existing tools, and mapped the end-to-end volunteer-staff workflow.
Where breakdown happens
To be updated
IDEATION
Tackling paint point 1: Limited volunteer autonomy in time slot sign-ups
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Volunteers currently have limited control over selecting their own time slots, so staff must manually assign them based on availability, resulting in extra back-and-forth coordination and scheduling delays, especially during busy periods.
Taking care of the edge cases
I collaborated with the clients and my PM, tech lead to craft the end-to-end workflow diagram. We seek to create a system that ensures smooth coordination between staff and volunteers.
Early Ideation
How should the time slots be displayed?
The clients proposed a calendar view (option 1) because it closely aligned with their organization's current workflow using Google Calendar. However, my PM and Tech Lead were concerned about the technical complexity of building and maintaining a full calendar view. Thus, I ideated on some quick wireframes to suggest alternatives.
In the end, we agreed on a combined calendar and event cards view (Option 2), which keeps a familiar time-based layout while being easier to build and making event details clearer to scan.
However, after some discussions and early user testing, I found that an event-based selection experience did not match how volunteering actually works.
❌ On the admin side, there is usually one volunteer shift per day, with volunteers coming and going at flexible times, so creating and managing multiple events added unnecessary complexity.
❌ On the volunteer side, volunteers mainly wanted to choose a time that worked for them rather than select a specific event or program, since activities are not fixed.
Based on these insights, I shifted the design toward a flexible, time-based sign-up experience that better fit both staff workflows and volunteer needs.
✅ Admins do not need to manually add events to the calendar for signing up.
✅ Volunteers can flexibly sign up for time slots that fit with their schedule, as well as add any comments on a case-by-case basis.
Handling individual vs. group signups
To be updated
IDEATION
Tackling paint point 2: Staff has no centralized database to track volunteer attendance and log hours
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Showing Volunteer List
Based on user research, staff need a system where they can manage a large database of 50,000+ volunteers.
In the past, the lack of an organized system caused significant issues. Volunteer records were kept in a book, meaning they had little to no contact information - just faces and names, if recognized. This made it hard to track who volunteered and when. The lack of phone numbers and emails also created challenges for fundraising and communication, as the team couldn’t easily reach out to volunteers with relevant information or last-minute requests.
I used a table view (Option 3) instead of cards (Option 1, 2):
❌ Card layouts limited these workflows, as they did not scale well for bulk selection or comparison across many volunteers.
✅ A table view improved the scannability of the information and enabled efficient multi-select and management actions.
DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS
Launching a centralized scheduling and operations platform for the nonprofit
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Final Design Showcase
Time Slot Registration (Individual)
Time Slot Registration (Group)
Records of Volunteer Hours
Taking care of the edge cases
Admins Modify The Time
By default, all time slot signups will open for the whole day from 10 am - 6 pm (except for Sundays and Fridays, and holidays). On some special occasions, if the admins want to modify the time/date they are open, they can do so with a "Customize Event' functionality.
Empty State - Making Negative Positive
Building a robust design system
I developed a 0–1 design system using the components I created. Since the non-profit already had a branding guideline, my focus was on expanding it into a more robust and scalable system that ensured consistent visuals across all screens.
Testimonials
The successful outcomes of the project
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Impacts
SInce the launch of the site, we have recorded substantial numbers
Press Release
I was honored to be featured by Tufts on Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn for this year-long project that supports real community needs! This experience has definitely deepened my passion for designing for social impact, something close to my heart as a UX designer.
Read more about our work and my contribution in this article link!
Positive Feedback
"We came in with a general idea of what we wanted, but An and the team really guided us through the entire project. They helped shape the vision by offering insight into what would be most accessible and user-friendly, and they were incredibly thorough, thoughtful, and professional every step of the way. It truly felt like a collaborative partnership, and they made the whole process feel smooth and exciting.”
Development & Communications Manager
“We were so impressed by the work the team did. The amount of time, passion, and skill they dedicated to helping our organization is really inspiring. It speaks volumes about their character and commitment to making a difference. We’re incredibly grateful for the opportunity to work with them!”
Development & Communications Manager at Bread & Roses
REFLECTION
What I learned
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Connect with devs early and often
This was a unique project for me in that I was truly involved end-to-end throughout the production. From the start, I regularly had dev validation discussions with my PM and Tech Lead, which proved incredibly fruitful in uncovering tech limitations that influenced my design decisions. In the past, I've often waited too long to get Engineering's input, which has led to issues or delays further downstream. I felt I did a good job asking all the right questions when I had the opportunity, leading to a smoother process overall. I also maintained an open line of communication throughout the build to clarify any questions, which led to a smooth launch and a refined final product.
Let research challenge assumptions
Initial design directions were influenced by existing tools the organization was familiar with, such as Google Calendar. However, stakeholder conversations and early user testing surfaced that these familiar patterns didn’t actually reflect how volunteers worked day to day. Being willing to pivot away from a familiar mental model in favor of a flexible design approach helped ensure the final solution aligned with real operational needs rather than perceived assumptions.
Design for scale, even in small teams
Although Bread & Roses is a small nonprofit, they manage a large and growing volunteer base. This pushed me to think about scale early, particularly when designing admin-facing views and data management tools. I was truly involved in the end-to-end process, which requires me to apply rigorous systems thinking skills to my design process.
