Engineering Digital Solutions:
The Wild Center’s Volunteer Program
Overview
The Problem
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, The Wild Center lost 75% of its volunteer base. As a non-profit organization with limited full-time staff members, The Wild Center’s volunteers are essential to successfully driving The Wild Center’s mission and services to the Tupper Lake community and beyond the Adirondacks region across the world.
The Solution
Our job as Digital Media Studies scholars at the University of Rochester was to partner with The Wild Center and engineer digital solutions to support their volunteer program. Through meetings and research with the Center's staff and volunteers, we settled on two primary deliverables: an updated volunteer webpage and a marketing campaign.
Meet the Team
Digital Media Scholars at the University of Rochester
Miles Vilke
Audio and Video Engineer
& UX Researcher
Katie Ho
Communications Manager
& Editor
Leann Kuchler
Website Designer/Developer
Leann Kuchler
Website Designer/Developer
Dustin Paden
Visual Designer
& UX Researcher
Jeremy Reguer
Creative Support Contributor
Meet the Client
Staff and Volunteers at The Wild Center
The Wild Center
Located in Tupper Lake of the Adirondack Mountains, The Wild Center is a non-profit, natural history and science museum that provides the local and global community with a variety of exhibits and programs. The Wild Center’s volunteer program is essential to operating their programs, and enables them to expand their programs. Our team primarily worked with a team of five from The Wild Center:
Ruth Burnell
Volunteer Coordinator & Development Director of Operations, Data, and Volunteers
Nick Corcoran
Volunteer Coordinator & Education Services Coordinator
Nick Gunn
Marketing Director
Jen Tremblay Moore
Marketing & Communications Manager
Kerri Ziemann
Program Director
Process
Work Flow
Our project's workflow started with need-finding, which informed our development of a new volunteer program webpage and marketing campaign for social media and print, all aiming to boost The Wild Center's volunteer program.
Need-Finding
Boost
Volunteering
Update
Webpage
Marketing
Campaign
Communication
Our team of digital media scholars developed three strategies for strong communication with our client, The Wild Center's staff and volunteers. First, we held Google Meet meetings every other week with The Wild Center staff, sharing agendas beforehand, taking notes during the meetings, and distributing notes afterward. Second, we maintained email communication for planning, connecting with additional staff and volunteers, and exchanging digital assets. Third, we made three in-person visits to The Wild Center for bonding, content creation, and presentations.
Need-Finding
Surveys
We collected quantitative statistics via two surveys: one designed for the center's volunteers (15 responses) and another designed for visitors (9 responses).
Insights:
60% of volunteers were 65 years or older
➞ Need to include younger volunteers
90% of volunteers lived less than 15 minutes away
➞ Need to welcome volunteers in the greater region and remote locations
20% of volunteers preferred non-email communication
➞ Need to offer more options including text, phone call, and in-person meetings
Only 2 volunteers found out about the center via website
➞ Need to build stronger webpage and social media
Interviews
To deepen our understanding of the people and stories at the heart of the volunteer program, we had one-hour long interviews with
3 volunteers and 4 staff members.
Insights:
Volunteers
➞ Specific details behind volunteer roles
➞ Application and on-boarding user experience
➞ What keeps volunteers coming back
➞ How The Wild Center can better support volunteers
Staff
➞ Specific details behind volunteer program staff
➞ Staff side of training volunteers
➞ What success look like for this project
Site Visit
Our first visit to The Wild Center was in November, 2023. On this trip, we met The Wild Center's staff in person, learned about the 18 volunteering opportunities across all departments, and experienced the volunteering orientation process from online sign-up all the way to hands-on helping.
Building A New Webpage
1. Ideate
How can we show more information?
How can we make applying faster?
How can we target a younger audience?
Our main goal while ideating was to create a website that is visually engaging, informative, and simple to navigate.
Design & Iterate
Wireframing
During our ideation phase we fell in love with designs that utilized opportunity cards to display information about what volunteering at The Wild Center looked like. We wanted the user to interact with these cards to develop a connection between the opportunity and the person. One design featured a carousel of opportunities, and the other included a hover interaction.
Prototype Testing: Round 1
Using 3 different designs of the website, we tested for speed of navigation, access to information, and intuition across different demographics. Participants enjoyed our hover card design more than the other three, and it also led to the fastest application time.
Prototype Testing: Round 2
Our final prototype brought to life our vision of a volunteer program that is diverse in its opportunities and demographics. In addition, we found a need for a mobile version so that the design is more accessible on touch screens.
Implementation
Tools: WordPress & Oxygen
View the test site here.
In order to keep the webpage sustainable, we developed our prototype into The Wild Center's existing website account in WordPress. In doing so, The Wild Center will be able to make changes using a software they currently know and with our webpage design as a template.
The biggest roadblock during implementation was developing a mobile version of the webpage. Although we already had a mobile version designed before this stage, during implementation we found that it would be impossible to change the layout of the design the way we envisioned in our prototype. In doing so, we used the layout as a constraint for developing a tablet and mobile-friendly version.
Producing a Marketing Campaign
Brainstorm
In our brainstorming phase, we strategically developed video content by establishing marketing goals and content pillars to guide us in creating dynamic social media and long-form videos, alongside visually impactful posters and banners.
Marketing Goals & Ideation
Video Content
Pre-Production
In February 2024, we visited the site to capture video and photo content for our volunteer webpage and publicity campaign. We created a production schedule, practiced with our equipment to ensure consistent media capture, and adjusted plans when our trip was condensed into a single weekend. After briefing The Wild Center staff on our plans, we aligned our schedule with their needs.
Saturday Film Schedule
Sunday Film Schedule
Production (Site Visit #2)
During our 36-hour production trip, unforeseen challenges like staff illness, adverse weather, and time constraints arose. Flexibility was key as we adjusted schedules and prioritized content due to heavy snow, ultimately capturing essential footage with the support of The Wild Center staff.
Post-Production
In the weeks after our trip, we organized and reviewed our footage and photos, then divided editing responsibilities and began post-production. However, due to the nature of our second visit, technical issues arose, leading to some content loss. In order to resolve this, we worked with Rick Godin, The Wild Center’s photographer and videographer, in order to reshoot the necessary footage. After multiple editing rounds and client feedback, we finalized our content.
Volunteer Program Video
Vega Interview
Otter Trunk
Graphic Design
Identity Assets
We modified The Wild Center's existing word mark and logo with a "Volunteer Program" sub header to distinguish the volunteer program and fostering pride amongst volunteers.
Print Publicity
We sketched, iterated, and designed an lively poster and banner to promote The Wild Center's volunteer program's opportunities. These materials direct potential volunteers to learn more on social media via our video content and apply on our webpage.
Results and Impact
Deliverable Hand-Off (Site Visit #3)
With a final visit in May 2024, we gave a presentation on our work, provided The Wild Center with the documentation necessary to maintain the volunteer webpage, and handed off our final deliverables to The Wild Center team.
Impact
We look forward to checking in with our client next year to measure an increase in volunteers as a result of our project deliverables. In the meantime, testimonies from our client following our final presentation and the top award from the University of Rochester's Digital Media Program capture the immediate and anticipated impact of our work on The Wild Center's volunteer program.
Client Testimonials
"I really think… that there'll be an increase in numbers of volunteers, awareness of the program, and hopefully also expanding who is volunteering" - Kerri Ziemann, Program Director
"Everybody seemed to be accepting of each other and each other's ideas" - Carol Denit, Volunteer
"You really looked deeply into what The Wild Center is and what it's all about and what we want to accomplish… you have created something new for us and something innovative and something you know that we needed" - Rick Godin, Photographer and Videographer
"I love everything that they did… If I did not work here and I watched that video that they created, I would come here and volunteer." - Hillarie Logan-Dechene, Executive Director
Digital Media Program Award
This project was distinguished by the University of Rochester's Digital Media Studies Program Award for Outstanding Capstone Project, the achievement that recognizes one senior capstone team for their outstanding commitment and success.
Contact
Volunteers are
at the Heart of
The Wild Center
2024 · University of Rochester · Digital Media Studies · The Wild Center Volunteer Program