THE CORONATION

Engaging 6.5 million people in voluntary actions in the UK during King Charles III's Heart Week required a lot of effort and technology.

Volunteering is challenging even in the best of times. The post-pandemic cost of living crisis has led people to question if they can continue participating in voluntary actions. Being unable to afford travel expenses or having to prioritize paid work are just some of the barriers reported by members of UK institutions to organizations.

With volunteer numbers declining in recent years, King Charles III chose volunteering as the central theme of his reign's celebrations. The message was clear, drawing attention to this important social issue.

Therefore, The Big Help Out project arrived at a crucial moment.

What is The Big Help Out?

ABOUT THE CUSTOMER

The Big Help Out is a voluntary initiative supported by some of the UK's biggest volunteer organizations, including the Scouts and the Royal Voluntary Service, as well as the Shaping the Future with Volunteering group of leading UK charitable institutions involved in volunteering. The Big Help Out is an open project for all, and any organization or individual can participate or register an event through the app.

CHALLENGE

The objective of The Big Help Out is to raise awareness about volunteering throughout the UK and provide opportunities for people to experience volunteering and make a difference in their communities.

This is not a profit-making or fundraising initiative.

THE RELEASE

The campaign encouraged a national day of volunteering on Monday, 8th May 2023, during the bank holiday of King Charles III's coronation weekend.

THE PROCESS

The Challenge

Bringing together the UK's largest charitable institutions with millions of people interested in participating in the project is no easy task. Fleye, due to its experience with previous volunteering projects, was chosen to create the web system and the application for the Apple Store and Google Play stores.

The platforms created should allow the population to view available actions, as well as their location and required activities. After that, volunteers can also apply for voluntary action through a simple registration in the system.

The volunteering opportunities are as diverse as the communities we live in: from grassroots social action and helping out in local voluntary organizations, to regular volunteering roles for large charities or in the public sector.

The 'Big Help Out' will help us tell this story, especially for people who may not see volunteering as something for them.

Sarah Vibert, CEO of NCVO (National Council for Voluntary Organisations)

The Diagnosis

The volunteer app

With the above context in mind, we began our work by focusing specifically on charitable institutions.

Our design team conducted a series of in-depth interviews with the aim of gathering information and understanding the daily routines, difficulties encountered in using existing platforms, and other obstacles faced by people participating in and coordinating social actions.

Volunteering has always been a huge part of what makes this country great - from families looking after evacuees during World War II to neighbors looking out for each other during the pandemic.

In my role, the transparency and visibility of what my team is working on and how they are progressing with recruitment are important for the actions.

There must be more people who'd like to help, but where are they?

Based on the information collected in the interviews and the collaborative processing with the institutions, we defined what the value proposition for the platform would be.

THE PROCESS

The Big Help Out Platform

We understood that the app and web system project should have two main focuses:

1ª FRONT

Creating a seamless experience for the public to easily find volunteer action opportunities that match their interests and are close to their location.

2ª FRONT

Developing a quick registration and application system for volunteer actions that provides clear information on how it works, what needs to be done, and includes a rating system for the institutions.

Therefore, the main objectives were:
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→ Creating a minimalist and fast app that focuses on connecting volunteers with opportunities for social actions on various topics.
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→ Incorporating artificial intelligence within the app to present volunteer action opportunities that are appealing to the user and provide insights based on collected information.
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→ Generating alerts and push notifications throughout the entire flow to assist users in their volunteering journey.

THE PROCESS

Phase 1: Immersion

During the first part of the immersion, we looked at the best practices in the market, conducted tests and first-person journeys, identified opportunities for growth and improvement in both online and offline possibilities. Finally, we collaboratively built a proposed experience for the platform.

It was fantastic to see people coming together to lend a hand in their communities, experiencing how rewarding volunteering can be, and the power it has to make a difference.

George Grima

What we did:
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→ Understanding the business context and market analysis.
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‍→ Interviews and journeys with voluntary organizations.
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→ Mapping the new app and infrastructure on AWS.
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→ Designing, flow testing, and functional prototyping.
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→ Work plan, technology selection, and scope definition.

THE CREATION

Phase 2: Development

In the second phase, our team of developers fully immersed themselves in building the new application, with the support and assistance of the designers who designed the solution. The new app was developed using React Native, Facebook's mobile framework, and took three months for the first phase. As for the web platform, it was developed using React and Node.js, leveraging the storage and performance services provided by AWS.

What we did:
→ Implementation of the app using React Native technology.
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‍→ Integration of the app with APIs from volunteer institutions.
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→ Integration of the app with the intelligence system for insights and recommendations.
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→ Launching the app on the Google Play and Apple Store platforms.
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→ Monitoring the initial usage and making necessary UX/UI adjustments.

Scalability and Security

1.

When creating the platform, one of our main concerns was ensuring the app's ability to support and guarantee a high volume of users, in addition to ensuring the security of their information.

2.

Build an ability to scale resources on demand and can ensure that the application is capable of handling millions of people efficiently.

3.

Use of the AWS cloud infrastructure, which provides us with scalability and robustness, in addition to offering a wide range of security services.

According to research conducted by NCVO, 73% of volunteers say that getting involved in volunteer activities gives them more confidence.
Moreover, over 7 million people claim that they are more likely to volunteer as a result of witnessing the impact of 'The Big Help Out' in action!

An initiative for volunteering

The Challenge

The volunteer app

The Big Help Out Platform

Phase 1: Immersion

Phase 2: Development

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We make an impact on people's lives with technology.