Process
Recognizing the workflow disconnect
The first step was identifying that our initial "Transactions" interface, while technically sound, wasn't actually solving the right problem. Through user feedback and adoption metrics, I realized that nonprofit officers needed more than just better data visibility—they needed their actual workflow supported. I communicated to the team that we needed to pivot from a data-display tool to a workflow-optimization tool. This meant stepping back from our technical solution to understand the human processes that our interface should serve, rather than forcing users to adapt to our system.
Mapping the ideal workflow
I focused on working directly with nonprofit officers to understand their day-to-day donation processing workflow. Through collaborative sessions, I discovered their four-stage process: assignment checking, categorization/tagging, verification, and CRM handoff. Rather than assuming what they needed, I observed how they actually worked across Excel, Salesforce, and DAF portals. This revealed that their mental model was state-based—they thought in terms of "what stage is this donation in?" rather than "what data does this donation have?" This insight became the foundation for redesigning the entire interface around workflow stages.
Rebuilding around user states
Once I understood their actual workflow, I redesigned the interface to match their mental model. I created four distinct tabs that corresponded to their workflow stages: Overview, Needs Review, Ready for CRM, and Waiting for Payment. The key technical challenge was implementing optimistic updates so that when a donation moved between stages, the interface would immediately reflect those changes across all tabs and counts. I also added the contextual detail panel to provide comprehensive information without losing workflow context, eliminating the need to navigate away from their task list.
Validating workflow efficiency
After implementing the new workflow-based interface, I worked with nonprofit officers to validate that it actually improved their process. We measured processing time reduction (from 5-7 minutes to ~3 minutes per donation) and gathered qualitative feedback about the elimination of context switching. The validation showed that officers could now complete their entire workflow within a single interface, and the real-time updates helped them maintain awareness of their progress through the donation pipeline. This confirmed that the pivot from data display to workflow optimization successfully addressed their actual needs.
Impact
- 60% reduction in processing time: From 5-7 minutes per donation to ~3 minutes
- Eliminated context switching: Single interface replaced 4+ separate tools (Excel, Salesforce, Word, DAF portals)
- Scaled across hundreds of nonprofits processing thousands of donations monthly
- Improved workflow completion rates: Officers could now complete the entire donation review process within one system
“The workflow feels natural now - I don't have to remember where I left off because everything is organized by what needs to happen next.”
- Developer after changes were implemented
Reflections
This project reinforced that successful design engineering requires looking beyond technical requirements to understand the human workflows that technology should serve. The transformation from a data-display interface to a workflow-optimization tool demonstrates how user research and iterative design thinking can turn a technically sound but practically limited solution into something that genuinely improves people's daily work lives.
Key Learnings:
- User workflows trump technical elegance: A beautiful interface that doesn't match user mental models will fail regardless of technical sophistication
- Pivot when necessary: Being willing to fundamentally rethink an approach based on user feedback is crucial for creating truly useful products
- State management complexity pays dividends: The technical investment in optimistic updates created a seamless user experience that made the workflow feel natural practically limited solution into something that genuinely improves people's daily work lives.
Conclusion
The most rewarding aspect was seeing nonprofit officers who had been skeptical of changing their decades-old processes become advocates for the new system once they experienced the time savings and workflow improvements firsthand. This project showed me that the best design engineering solutions don't just work technically—they make people's work lives genuinely better.