Homepage redesign of Milaap, Crowdfunding Website (4M+ users)
ROLE
Product Designer
IMPACT
25% increase in “start a fundraiser” clicks
Enhanced brand trust and consistency
DATE
Jan-Mar 2022
DELIVERABLES
Homepage Redesign
Heuristic Audit
OVERVIEW
Milaap, India’s largest crowdfunding platform, has helped raise ₹2,100 crore for 660,000+ fundraisers, supported by over 10M+ donors across the world. Constantly aiming to take the concept of online fundraising to more and more Indians.
The brand needed a homepage redesign to drive more people to start a fundraiser and maximise user engagement.
Using data-driven insights, interviews, and analysis of competitor brands, I created a new homepage experience that led to a 25% increase in user clicks on the "Start a Fundraiser" button.
What were the challenges to solve?🚩
To start the project, the team provided me with 4 problem statements based on earlier research and hypotheses.
High % of people leave the homepage without taking any action. High bounce rate.
Inconsistencies in design system being used- lowers the overall brand trustworthiness.
Currently, homepage of Milaap appeared intense & uninviting.
Users are unlikely to donate because of the ineffective design of campaigns listings.
Old Designs
User and Business Goals
Lower the bounce rate. Drive a higher number of people to start a fundraiser from the homepage.
Develop a basic design system that ensures consistent user experience across the website.
Brand Milaap as a community coming together to help (a positive impression).
Campaign card design must motivate and drive users to donate.
Tip to Milaap from users who raise funds is bigger than tip from donors 💰
If you observe, the most prioritized goal for the homepage redesign was to drive users to raise funds.
But why? We aimed to design solutions primarily for this user group to maximise revenue and business impact.
Our primary target audience was "users who want to raise funds."
Deep Dive into Crowdfunding 🌏
Next, I collated a lot of essential qualitative and quantitative data to understand more about how things work in crowdfunding. Insights:
Fake campaigns and frauds
Seeing the success of campaigns, and the ease of making quick money without any real effort, fraudulent people too are increasingly starting fake campaigns and fundraisers.
Users unsure whether they can raise funds online
Some crowdfunding campaigns run for weeks, with no guarantee of success in raising the required funds.
Crowdfunding inspires hope and goodwill among people
The success of these crowdfunding platforms proves that calamities indeed bring humans together. It provides a true fighting chance and health for all.
Past impact by crowdfunding platform helps people to decide
Reputation is key. To avoid wasting time on the wrong platform, people look at what campaigns and ideas have had the most success. Are they aligned with what you’re attempting to achieve?
Critical crowdfunding aspects
Analyzing competition👀
Studied leading Global and Indian crowdfunding platforms to benchmark Milaap against successful models.
Global Brands
Homepages of Gofundme ($9B), Classy ($3B), Givebutter & DirectRelief provide an efficient homepage experience.
Interactions and typefaces used on Gofundme's homepage are subtle & highly effective in conveying primary action to be taken.
Almost all brands have a minimalist homepage that is easy on the eyes and conveys only the critical stuff upfront.
Global competitors appeal to the users both emotionally and rationally. Sections like "How it works" eases user doubts and make them believe in the platform.
Indian Brands
Indian crowdfunding brands Ketto, ImpactGuru, and GiveIndia are putting up a strong fight.
GiveIndia's home page has an attractive, clean look and feel.
Displaying all the features & tools of the crowdfunding platform on the homepage is a good strategy.
Most brands show sections like “impact numbers”, “what people say about the platform” & “success stories” on the homepage. (to drive user decisions)
Understanding & talking to Milaap users
Telephonic calls were effective when assessing the needs, frustrations and goals of people who have raised funds using Milaap and donated to campaigns in the past.
I made 50+ user calls from the database provided. Due to NDA and the anonymity of users, I cannot attach the call recordings.
User Interview calls
I reheard the recordings after the interviews to identify pains and scope of improvements on the homepage.
Hotjar & Data Analytics 📱
Insights revealed which sections users clicked on, which features they engaged with, and where they dropped off. This data allowed me to pinpoint critical design improvements.
Hotjar: 9 insights (last 6 months-668 user sessions)
Google Analytics: 4 insights (last 3 months)
For confidentiality purposes, the data has been obscured.
Hotjar & Analytics Insights
Heuristic evaluation of old design ✔️❌
In-depth analysis of the old homepage revealed areas violating multiple usability heuristics, causing friction in user journeys.
Let's examine them in detail. Shall we?
Colour: A Calming Experience 🎨
Problem:
Red dominated the old design, which, while bold, often conveys feelings of danger and urgency.
Not ideal for a fundraising platform. Inspired by global and Indian brands, I aimed to create a calming experience better suited for users dealing with life challenges.
New colour palette
Redesigning the homepage⚔️
Design approach? The new homepage was crafted using insights from:
Research Analysis
Competitor Benchmarks
User and Business Goals
Analytics and Interviews
Brainstorming & Client Feedback Sessions
By combining these, I designed a welcoming homepage with the goal to convert traffic & drive users to start a fundraiser!
Refining Through Feedback 🔄
The journey to the final design in Figma involved multiple rounds of iteration.
After 5 versions and collaborative feedback from the brand, I refined the design to reach an optimal solution.
Each version included Loom video updates for clear communication and alignment. Want to have a snapshot?
I had to back my design decisions and communicate effectively to stakeholders involved
Learnings💫
Redesigning the homepage taught me a lot. With each iteration, review, and design tweak, the experience became more seamless and meaningful for the audience.
1. Communication with the stakeholders is vital:
I learned this the hard way. The timeline set for this redesign was 4 weeks, but it got delayed by 1 week due to additional stakeholder feedback and last moment design changes. I ensured that the target timelines were achieved for the next project at Milaap- Donor App Design without delay.
How did I do that? By scheduling regular meetings to discuss the project's expectations, goals, design shortcomings and future roadmap.
2. You need to know your target audience:
Initially, when I started redesigning the homepage, I created solutions assuming that both our users- people who want to "start a fundraiser” & "donors” have the same priority.
After the first design review, PM helped me understand that we need to design for the "people who want to start a fundraiser" from the homepage. (use case from where we generate the highest revenue). Now I knew who I had to design for!
Hey there, thank you for making it to the end! 🙌⚡❤️
Ready to dive deeper? Want a closer look at the website?
Let’s connect and I’ll walk you through the design decisions I took while designing the homepage.