Give A Mile

Project Context

Give A Mile (GAM) is a registered charity that provides flights of compassion for loved ones to be together during times of critical illness, terminal illness, palliative care or hospice. The organization is run by a group of dedicated volunteers who believe strongly in the power and importance of being with family at the end of life, and their goal is to help connect families who cannot afford to make that trip. Give a Mile connects families through crowdfunded flights by purchasing tickets with donated frequent flier miles, travel loyalty points and cash. Donations cover round-trip flights, travel fees and taxes. 

Discovery and Research

In 2021, Give a Mile had an independent UX Researcher conduct a combination of interviews and usability test sessions with a total of twelve clients, donors and health care providers. Participants’ affiliations with Give a Mile ranged from donors, flight heroes, hospice nurses, to corporate partners. These exploratory research sessions helped narrow the key areas of focus. 

Common tasks that were tested on the old website included:

• Donating to GAM via general donation
• Donating to a flight story
• Becoming a flight hero
• Requesting a flight

A number of issues came up in this initial research, largely focused on navigation. These issues showed that improvements were needed throughout the website to ensure that users were able to easily complete important tasks, like requesting a flight and making donations.

Analysis

I reviewed the UX research and interviewed stakeholders to establish a list of organizational and website issues that needed to be addressed. I narrowed my focus to problems which best fit into the scope of the website redesign based on time, resources and budget. While Give a Mile’s social media reflected current content and design standards, the actual website design content had not been updated in 8 years, since the website’s initial launch.

Numerous content updates were needed to align with the current focus and branding of the organization. Making sure that potential flight recipients and healthcare providers had a quick, clear and confidential path to request a flight when in need was also a top priority.

Unpacking the Donor Flow

I created a donor flow map to identify areas of friction. The stakeholders and I worked together to evaluate and prioritize each pain point, then brainstormed potential ways to reduce or eliminate these that fell within the scope of work.

Revised Information Architecture

I held several workshop sessions with stakeholders to uncover the pain points in the current site map. I then redesigned the site map to help reduce donor and client confusion. I ultimately shifted the primary donation focus away from donating specifically to flight stories to making broader donations that could be used where support was most needed by the organization at any given time.

Flight Stories: Reinventing the donor experience

We worked with Give a Mile stakeholders to reimagine a cleaner, simpler, more engaging donor experience.

Old Flight Stories

On the website these stories looked similar to a travel website or a Go Fund Me campaign. GAM was using client stories called “Flight Stories” and the “Flight Hero” program to inspire donations and create a sense of urgency.

New Flight Stories

The new flight stories tell a more personal tale through descriptions written in second person voice and utilize actual images from flight recipients. The urgency to donate is still there, but modern updates to the design and content of the collective stories encourage users to get involved in the donation process.

Wireframes

I translated my first sketches into mid-fidelity wireframes in Figma. We reviewed and revised two rounds of wireframes before I handed these off to the WordPress development team for implementation.

New Site Launch

The new Give a Mile site went live in fall of 2021 with a more modern, warm, and engaging look and feel. Overall, the goals of the project were achieved and Give a Mile continues to grow and meet their flight goals.

Though many aspects of this redesign were successful, some unresolved issues remain.  Limitations of airline partner agencies’ point programs currently create challenges in presenting certain information on the donation page.