For this class period, we did some background research to help us prepare for interviewing users of the Volunteer Center web site. Students worked in pairs on the following three tasks:
- Review the Volunteer Center web site (whatcomvolunteer.org); get familiar with the information available on the site and the functions it provides (don’t need to actually register)
- Find 3 web sites for similar organizations elsewhere. Make a note of what they are (web addresses). Compare the functions available on those sites to the VC. Are there any functions the VC has that the other sites don’t? What about functions that the other sites have that the VC doesn’t? (focus here just on functionality, not layout, appearance, etc.)
- Use the web to find information on…
- Why do people volunteer?
- Why do non-profits seek volunteers
We then shared what we found, which is documented in these notes.