Designing for Donor Transparency and Trust
Design Outcome
A research-driven concept dashboard
A research-driven concept dashboard exploring transparency, impact clarity, and donor trust.
Overview
Simbi Foundation is a Vancouver-based nonprofit supporting access to education for refugees in Uganda and India.
This project focused on designing a donor dashboard to help donors better understand the real-world impact of their contributions, and to explore how donor communication could move beyond one-way updates toward a more transparent, trust-driven experience.
Completed during my internship, this work remained at a concept and validation stage. While the dashboard was not launched, the project emphasized aligning donor expectations, organizational goals, and realistic MVP scope through research, prioritization, and early usability testing.
Team
1 Product Manager, 2 UX Designer, 1 Developer
Duration
3 Months
Aligning organizational goals and donor needs
Simbi communicated impact at an organizational level, while donors looked for clearer visibility into what their own contributions enabled.
This gap became especially visible as donors sought a clearer connection between their individual contributions and tangible outcomes across programs in Uganda and India.
To ground design decisions in real donor expectations, I conducted both market and user research. Competitor analysis clarified how impact is commonly framed across nonprofit dashboards, while a donor questionnaire surfaced what donors value most when evaluating transparency and trust.
Who our donors are
More than half of our donors are over 54, highly educated, and value financial transparency, especially access to detailed reports.
How donors understand impact
Many competitors have built their own donation-impact models, clearly visualizing what each dollar achieves.
How donors prefer to engage
About 70 percent of donors want to engage with more diverse media, such as photos, videos, and stories that bring their impact to life.
These insights became the foundation for how we visualized impact and designed a more personal, transparent donor experience.
Framing what
Framing what matters most
The primary challenge was deciding what deserved focus in a donor platform being designed to build trust through transparency and make the impact understandable.
To clarify priorities, we first mapped the full landscape of potential features that could create value for both donors and the organization. This early exploration, called the Truck Version, captured a complete vision of what the dashboard could become.
Exploring the full scope helped distinguish features that genuinely supported donor engagement from those that diluted focus.
MVp Strategy
Clarifying the Criteria
Working closely with product, marketing, and customer relations, we refined the concept into the Skateboard Version, an MVP centred on transparency, personalization, and clear success criteria for validation.
This version balanced user needs with technical and organizational constraints while laying the foundation for future growth.
Cross-team discussions surfaced many ideas, some of which risked stretching the product’s focus. For example, introducing campaign promotions would have shifted the dashboard toward marketing rather than donor engagement. I guided the conversation back to personal impact, ensuring each feature served both donor value and organizational goals.
Making impact
Making impact instantly clear
With the core features defined, the next step was to shape how information is presented. Prioritizing impact over parity was essential to transform the dashboard from a dense information hub into a clear, impact-driven experience. By focusing on visibility and flow, the redesign made data feel more personal and easier to understand.
challenge
In the early layout, all modules carried equal weight, which made it difficult for donors to focus on what mattered most. Impact data was hidden among secondary information, reducing clarity and engagement.
INFORMATION HIERARCHY
Above-the-Fold Optimization
To make the impact immediately understandable, we restructured the dashboard layout to surface impact summaries above the fold. Key insights appear immediately upon entry, while supporting content follows a natural reading flow. This approach helps donors understand their contributions at a glance and encourages deeper exploration without overwhelming the page.
The refined hierarchy surfaces key insights first, improving clarity and focus while streamlining how donors navigate the dashboard.
Turning transparency
Turning transparency into story
Research showed that donors value transparency, but data alone were not enough to build trust. About 70 percent of respondents wanted richer, more human content, such as stories, photos, and videos that bring their contributions to life.
We introduced a dedicated Media space within the dashboard where donors can explore real project updates through photos, videos, blog posts, and podcasts. This addition connects transparency with storytelling, showing not only the numbers but also the people and places behind them.
Visual storytelling transforms information into connection, helping donors feel closer to their impact.
The Media space supports the foundation’s goal of communicating impact more authentically and helps donors form a stronger emotional connection to the results of their support.
Designing beyond
Designing beyond assumptions
To validate the dashboard’s usability, we created both desktop and mobile prototypes to ensure a seamless experience across devices. Hover states were added for desktop, while mobile interactions relied on swiping and dragging gestures to navigate key sections.
Issue 🧩
Description
Solution ✅
Unclear navigation between BrightBox and Scholarship
Many users didn’t realize they could switch between programs. We assumed the tab layout was intuitive, but testing revealed otherwise.
Replaced tabs with pill buttons to make switching more visible and encourage exploration.
Visual overload reduced discoverability
The number of modules and colors distracted users from noticing other features.
Simplified the layout by removing unnecessary icons, reducing colour variation, and tightening information density.
User testing helped us identify blind spots, simplify complexity, and inform a cleaner, more intuitive experience.
Unclear navigation between BrightBox and Scholarship
Switching from tabs to pill buttons improved clarity and increased interaction across both modules.
Visual overload reduced discoverability
A cleaner, more focused layout reduced visual noise and helped users process information faster.
Measuring success
Measuring success and moving forward
As the dashboard was still in a pre-launch stage, this phase focused on defining how earlier design decisions would be validated if the product moved forward, rather than measuring live product performance.
To stay aligned with initial research insights, a follow-up donor survey will be used alongside usability findings to assess clarity, confidence, and overall satisfaction with key tasks. These signals wil guide ongoing iteration and ensure the dashboard continues ot reflect donor needs.
Task-1
Log in and find where you can view the total impact of your donations.
Task-2
Switch between the BrightBox and Scholarship programs to compare your contributions.
Task-3
Locate the most recent update or story from the Media section.
Task-4
Find and open a financial report related to your donations.
Task-5
Identify where you could reach out or submit feedback to the organization.
Task-6
Describe your overall impression of how the dashboard presents your impact.
Representative tasks used to evaluate clarity, confidence, and overall task success across key donor journeys.
Leading design
Leading design through collaboration
Designing for a product with more than 20,000 users introduced a new level of responsibility and cross-functional coordination. With a small team, my partner and I shared ownership of the design direction and worked closely with developers, stakeholders, and marketing to move decisions forward and bring the product to life.
Regular design reviews and presenting during scrum meetings required me to clearly articulate rationale and stand by decisions grounded in data and user needs. These conversations helped align priorities across disciplines, resolve trade-offs, and build trust as the product evolved.
Working in an agile environment reinforced the importance of adaptability and shared understanding. Iterating quickly, responding to feedback, and revisiting decisions collaboratively ensured the design remained aligned with both user needs and organizational goals as scope and complexity grew.
