BACKGROUND
A large state-owned enterprise approached us with a challenge. As part of their CSR strategy, the company regularly organizes social initiatives - free workshops, training sessions, and volunteering opportunities for their employees. Despite significant investment in these programs, events were frequently cancelled or downsized because not enough people signed up. The company wanted a solution that would increase employee participation and make it easier to run these initiatives at scale.
Client
ENTERPRISE CLIENT, UAE
scope
END-TO-END, RESEARCH, USER FLOWS, WIREFRAMES
Year
04.2025 - 01.2026
Role
UX/UI DESIGN
DISCOVERY
To understand the root cause, I started by mapping how employees currently found out about volunteering opportunities and how the registration process worked. Interviews with employees revealed a consistent pattern: most people had never heard of the opportunities available to them. Event information was sent to company email inboxes - where it got buried, ignored, or lost entirely. Nobody was opening those emails.
For the few employees who did find out about an event and wanted to participate, the registration process itself became a barrier. Sign-up required going through an external government document verification system - a slow, confusing flow that caused many interested employees to simply give up before completing registration. The insight: the problem wasn't lack of interest. It was lack of visibility and friction in the sign-up process.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The company was investing heavily in volunteering programs - but events were regularly cancelled due to low turnout. The root cause wasn't lack of interest. It was lack of visibility, and a registration process so complex that even motivated employees gave up halfway through.
"50,000 EMPLOYEES. VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES SENT BY EMAIL. NOBODY SIGNED UP - BECAUSE NOBODY SAW THEM."
SOLUTION DIRECTION
The company already had an internal super-app - a single platform used daily by all employees to handle a wide range of tasks. Embedding the volunteering service directly into this platform meant zero onboarding friction: employees would find opportunities in a place they already use, and registration could be simplified significantly because all user data could be pulled directly from the company's HR API - eliminating the need for external verification entirely.
For admins, the existing tool for managing opportunities was SAP - with unintuitive views and a fragmented workflow for managing volunteers, tracking attendance, and filling gaps. A dedicated admin panel built around the actual needs of the role would replace this entirely.
DRIVIN ENGAGEMENT THROUGH REWARDS
To address the deeper problem of motivation - not just visibility. I proposed a gamification layer built into the volunteer profiles. Employees earn badges displayed on their profile for participating in different types of opportunities, building a visible record of their social impact within the company. Participation also earns company points that can later be redeemed for vouchers, meals, or tickets to external events.
The goal was to make volunteering feel rewarding beyond the act itself - giving employees a tangible reason to engage, and a sense of recognition within the organization.
KEY CHALLENGES
1. REGISTRATION FOR LONG-RUNNING EVENTS
Some opportunities span months. Users can't sign up for individual days - admins need guaranteed coverage across all sessions. The solution: events are divided into periods, users commit to a full period. If a volunteer can't attend a specific day, they report it through the app - triggering automatic notifications to people on the waitlist.
Real-time capacity is always visible: current registrations, minimum required to run the event, maximum capacity, and waitlist status.
2. MANAGER APPROVAL FLOW
If an opportunity takes place during working hours, the system automatically pulls the user's line manager from HR data and routes an approval request. The volunteer's registration is pending until the manager approves.
3. ATTENDANCE TRACKING - A PROBLEM DISCOVERED DURING DESIGN
During the design process it became clear there was no defined answer to: how do we know who actually showed up? This led to designing a full QR-based check-in system. Admins generate a unique QR code per event that can be printed on-site. Volunteers scan on arrival and departure - logging timestamps automatically. Admins get a full attendance dashboard with per-day breakdowns, and can manually override any no-shows or missing entries.
OUTCOME
Launching the platform fundamentally changed how the company manages internal volunteering:
+20% more volunteers signed up for events within the first 6 months after launchHigher conversion - a structured opportunity discovery system replaced chaotic email communication
Admins manage everything in one place - absences, waitlists, filling gaps - no emails, no lost context
Information flow became predictable - every volunteer can see their status, schedule, and updates in real time
