A volunteering app connecting volunteers and NGOs, to bridge the educational gap for underprivileged children.
The goal of this app is to create an education platform that connects volunteers to teach, with NGOs in need of teachers, as well as to promote volunteering by making the app simple, accessible, and fun.
After finishing my architecture degree, I changed my career path to UX/UI design and have been working from home since 2021 due to the pandemic. Since I had free time outside of work and on weekends, I wanted to volunteer to teach because I enjoyed my experience volunteering for AIESEC to teach kids when I was in college. So, naturally, I began looking for volunteering organizations to teach online in order to sign up for one, and I expected a lot of options and an easy process — but to my surprise, I could not find any until I found one through a friend on Instagram.
The websites showed "Current cohort full, needs to wait another month or few more months to join."
Complicated sign-up processes that discouraged sign-ups.
No responses after filling out forms.
Non-functional or broken websites.
Websites that weren't catchy and hence, were not making people want to sign up.
Volunteers often did not know job details until after signup.
My approach followed a user-centered methodology to address the volunteering gap within the given timeline.
Issue identification, context research
Market analysis, domain learning, competitor research
User interviews, NGO insights, volunteer insights
Synthesis, problem prioritization, solution ideation
Wireframing, UI design, usability testing, iteration
While the economy of India has appeared to have boomed over the last 25 years, most growth has been in urban areas where large multinational corporations base their software development headquarters. In spite of all this, by the government estimate, out of 200 million children in the age group of 6 to 14 in India, around 59 million do not attend school. Of the rest, who are currently in school, four out of every 10 children beginning to attend school will drop out before completing their primary school education.
A study in 2002 found that these conditions in India are partially due to educational poverty, defined as the deprivation of basic education and literacy. Only 6% of the income from poor households is invested in education and health, while the majority is spent on other necessities such as food and fuel.
In an article by India Today, there is some light on why education is still a distant dream for many underprivileged children in the country. According to the report, one of the primary reasons is an extreme shortage of qualified and dedicated teachers.
Despite the fact that the pandemic caused a decline in volunteers owing to a variety of personal factors, it also gave rise to a new normal — remote, or virtual, presence in different sectors. People have been participating in remote activities due to the multiple advantages, whether they are at job, school, or even volunteering.
I devised potential solutions to the problems that I could deduce from the assumptions. However, these would have to be validated later through qualitative and quantitative analysis.
Due to time constraints, I designed the experience and interface for the volunteers' part of the app only. There are way more aspects to consider for this area itself, and I've done a very surface-level study as of now — but I'm sure developing this idea further would help a lot of children break out of the poverty cycle that's run in their families for years.
This particular app would require a user study on three potential user groups: NGO, non-volunteer, and volunteer.
I interviewed a manager and leader at U&I (the NGO I volunteer with), several current volunteers, and a few non-volunteers to understand motivations, blockers, and pain points.
Recruiting volunteers is hard — outreach is mostly through college campaigns, which are limited and require permissions. Volunteers often leave due to time constraints or long recruitment processes, and a lack of motivating factors or recognition reduces volunteer retention.
Most volunteers found opportunities through friends or social media stories. Many enjoyed remote teaching because it removed travel friction and still felt rewarding, though long sign-up processes almost made some volunteers give up.
Many aren't comfortable with technology or don't know where to look for volunteering roles. Time commitment is a major concern — short, flexible opportunities are more attractive, and some would volunteer only if the commitment was small or better recognized.
Synthesizing secondary and primary research revealed clear opportunity areas: reduce onboarding friction, provide clear status updates, offer flexible class formats, and create motivating recognition for volunteers.
Before moving into wireframes, I mapped the journey the research and proposed solutions pointed to — from a volunteer's first moment of intent, through sign-up, matching, and teaching, to the recognition that keeps them coming back.
Mapping it this way made the priority order clearer: the first two stages — discovery and sign-up — were exactly where my own attempt to volunteer had broken down, which is why the wireframes below put the most weight there.
The flow below is the one the wireframes were actually built against — sign-up through to an applied, trackable status, with the matching decision made explicit instead of silent.
The important shift from the original problem is the "Matched?" step: instead of a silent gap between applying and hearing back, the status is always visible on both branches — which is exactly what the usability testing feedback below asked for.
I produced hand-sketched wireframes and iterated multiple times to determine content hierarchy, card layout types, and a thumb-friendly tab bar. The final interface uses clear card patterns for opportunities, an accessible tab bar (3–5 primary items), and an onboarding flow that reduces friction.
Color palette: vibrant yet subtle, to keep the app lively but professional. Typeface: Helvetica, for clarity and neutral readability.
I ran usability tests with three participants who completed key tasks (apply for an opportunity, view status, cancel an upcoming session). Key feedback and changes:
→ Added a clear "Status / Classes" pathway and a button next to Applied to take the user to the Classes screen.
→ Changed copy to confirm: "Are you sure you want to cancel the upcoming class?"
→ Moved Matches to be the default landing content so users see matches first.
After these refinements the flows were clearer, and users felt more confident applying and managing their volunteer commitments.
There are many additional product and research directions — NGO-facing workflows, admin dashboards, offline/low-bandwidth support, partnerships with colleges and corporates. This case study focused on an MVP for volunteer onboarding, matching, and flexible class delivery.
The proposed V-Ed platform reduces friction, improves discoverability and recognition for volunteers, and adds flexible mechanisms (live + recorded classes) so more people can contribute to education access.