GoFundMe launches a new look, with better accessibility and UX

GoFundMe has overhauled its digital offering, with user experience (UX) the core reason for the change.

The idea was for better usability and share-ability by improving load times via a mobile-first design, underpinned by greater transparency and storytelling.

Chief technology officer at GoFundMe, Chi-Chao Chang, said the fresh look and new product features aim to create a seamless experience for its millions of campaign organisers and donors across Australia and the world. This now includes a modern and mobile-first design, with new colour palette and photo-journalistic style to showcase individuals making a difference on the platform, while streamlining the UX.

New technology powers faster page load times for donors to quickly take action, regardless of Internet speeds, alongside improved accessibility for those in remote locations. 

“GoFundMe’s fresh look and new product features were spearheaded by our strong and creative product, design and engineering teams based in the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego. Our tech teams used frameworks and technologies widely adopted by developers in the open source communities and commercially supported by AWS,” Chang told CMO.

“Increasing the page load speed has been a top priority for my teams as it not only helps organisers raise money faster, it creates a more seamless experience for our users, especially as we are experiencing an increase in traffic to the site on a daily basis.

“We are constantly looking for ways to make fundraising fast, easy and effective so we wanted to create a fresh and modern look with improved technology across the site so people can raise money quickly when they need it most. We wanted to improve both the technical architecture to speed up load time, as well as rebuild the page to deliver a better experience for our community."

The mobile-first design enables greater accessibility and usability for GoFundMe's community to specifically share campaigns via integrations with WhatsApp and email, and there's an always-there donation button to help make fundraisers more successful.  

“Sharing a story broadly is the key to social fundraising so it’s important we provide the communication channels people use every day," Chang continued. "We’ve seen the next generation of change-makers spread the word across numerous platforms and directly with their friends so we needed our sharing capabilities to match that behaviour.

“It’s imperative we always think about how we are creating features and design elements that will make fundraising easier and faster for our community."

For instance, while increasing page speed not only results in more donations, it also helps organisers with weaker Internet connections, such as those after a natural disaster.

Social proofing has emerged as a critical factor in validating campaigns for potential donors as well, so GoFundMe is also now highlighting community members within donor networks to encourage potential supporters to keep the momentum going.

“Social proofing, transparency and continued storytelling all emerged as critical trends among our community to encourage further donations, increase trust among social networks and help people feel a part of a campaign’s journey,” Chang said.  

GoFundMe has done early testing by a slow ramp up, and is live testing with current users to optimise speed, tweak designs and add more social sharing options.

“We will continue to be testing new features on the fundraiser page over the next few months to ensure the best experience for our community,” Chang said. “Our redesign has been well received by experts and veterans in the giving world.”

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