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Human Factors in Experience Design · Fall 2025

Beantown Baby Diaper Bank

Heuristic UX evaluation using 118 nonprofit engagement criteria to improve donor trust, volunteer recruitment, and donation flows

Key Findings

Finding 01 Trust signals strong

Mission, 501(c)(3) status, and donation infrastructure already communicate reliability — the foundation to build on.

Finding 02 Impact is hidden

The site rarely shows what donations actually do for families, which weakens emotional connection and urgency.

Finding 03 Paths to help are fuzzy

Donating, volunteering, and learning more require extra clicks and hunting, instead of one clear, guided journey.

Finding 04 Roadmap is clear

With the rubric, we could show exactly which changes would most improve donor trust, recruitment, and donations.

Overview

Beantown Baby is a diaper bank organization. As part of Bentley University’s Human Factors in Experience Design course (Fall 2025), I collaborated with a team of 20 researchers to conduct a heuristic evaluation of the organization’s website. The goal was to identify usability gaps and deliver actionable recommendations to improve transparency, engagement, and conversion for donors and volunteers.

My role

As a member of the research team, I contributed to designing and executing the evaluation using usability guidelines from the Nielsen Norman Group. I helped assess the site against criteria that matter for nonprofit engagement: donor trust, volunteer recruitment, and donation flows.

Scope & method

  • Heuristic evaluation - Applied Nielsen Norman Group guidelines for nonprofit and charity websites to the Beantown Baby site.
  • 118 UX and nonprofit engagement criteria - Started from 116 original guidelines, removed items that only applied to chapters/affiliates, and added new criteria for Instagram and social presence; evaluated donor trust, volunteer recruitment, and donation flows.
  • Gap analysis - Identified usability gaps that could hinder transparency, engagement, and conversion.
  • Scoring rubric - Scored each guideline as green (complies), yellow (somewhat complies), red (does not comply), or n/a (not applicable), then translated yellow/red items into concrete recommendations.
  • Actionable recommendations - Developed strategic improvements to address the highest-impact yellow and red areas.

Executive summary

What is working well

  • The organization name, Beantown Baby Diaper Bank, clearly communicates the purpose of the nonprofit.
  • The website establishes credibility with a clear mission statement, visible 501(c)(3) status, and local media coverage.
  • The donation button appears on every page and is very easy to find.
  • The donation process is supported by trusted third-party payment providers.
  • Brand colors are used consistently throughout the website.

Recommendations for improvement

  • Strengthen emotional appeal and create a more authentic connection with supporters.
  • Elevate the overall look and feel to increase trust and engagement.
  • Add a native, integrated donation option to reduce friction.
  • Incorporate language that clearly communicates the impact of giving.
  • Provide clear, intuitive pathways for people to get involved.
Download full evaluation guidelines (PDF) The complete XD385 heuristic guideline set we used to score Beantown Baby’s site across 118 nonprofit engagement criteria - ideal for stakeholders who want to see the detailed rubric behind the recommendations.

Outcomes

Our team synthesized findings into clear, stakeholder-ready deliverables and presented the results and strategic improvements to Beantown Baby stakeholders, supporting the organization’s ability to build trust, recruit volunteers, and streamline donation flows.

Stacked bar chart showing Beantown Baby’s ratings by category (Homepage, About, Leadership, News, Social presence, Donations, Volunteers, Donation process, Selling products, Relationships, Guidelines) split into green, yellow, red, and n/a segments.
Ratings by category (BTBDB): how different parts of the site performed across our green / yellow / red criteria, highlighting where the homepage, donation process, and donor communication needed the most UX attention.

Annotated evaluation slides

To communicate our findings in a way that felt concrete and actionable, I helped build an evaluation deck that walked Beantown Baby through what was working, where donors might get stuck, and how to strengthen trust across the experience. Here are a few of the slides we used with stakeholders.

Slide showing the Beantown Baby homepage with colored callouts describing strengths of the navigation, donation link, and mission statement, plus opportunities to add an emotional tagline.
Homepage snapshot: highlighting existing strengths and clearly framing opportunities to deepen the emotional connection with donors.
Slide focused on the homepage hero and mission section with annotations explaining what is clear and what could be more engaging for visitors.
Mission section: translating detailed heuristic notes into simple language that stakeholders can act on quickly.
Slide analyzing the media page with notes about how videos and news coverage can better support the organization’s story and calls to action.
Media coverage: showing how existing press and video content could do more work to tell the Beantown Baby story and invite support.
Slide summarizing strengths of the current donation experience and where donors receive clear confirmation and tax information.
Donation confirmation: calling out what already builds trust, like clear tax language and immediate receipts.
Slide evaluating the online donation form with comments about donation amounts, impact communication, and payment options.
Donation form: pairing UX best practices with concrete recommendations to make giving feel easier and more meaningful.
Slide reviewing email follow-up, media content, and confirmation touchpoints with notes on how to better connect communications to donations and volunteering.
End-to-end journey: mapping how emails, media, and confirmation pages can work together to sustain long-term donor relationships.

Skills & tools

Heuristic evaluation Nielsen Norman Group guidelines UX criteria design Nonprofit UX Team research Stakeholder presentation Human factors

Impact

Identified 47 high-priority UX issues across a 118-criteria evaluation framework. Findings were synthesized into a prioritized action roadmap covering critical wins for donors and volunteers, and presented to nonprofit stakeholders with clear next steps for implementation.

Interested in this work or want to go deeper? Connect on LinkedIn or send me an email — I'm happy to walk through the full study, share the paper, or just talk research.

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