Helping people find food assistance fast and clear up busy hotlines

The San Antonio Food Bank (SAFB) is home to one of the largest service areas in Texas, serving 29 counties and up to 120,000 individuals each week. To effectively serve such a large population, it is crucial for SAFB’s website to provide a seamless, frustration-free experience for all users. A mindfully designed website will let users quickly find the help they need.

Overview

Research

I started looking for user pain points by reading through SAFB’s Google Reviews. When users are dissatisfied with their service or lack of service at an establishment, a common reaction is to leave a review to voice their complaints. I found a handful of reviews that expressed displeasure about phone calls and voicemail.

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From there, I checked out San Antonio Food Bank’s official website to see what factors could be contributing to negative user experiences.

Insights

• People’s primary motivation for going to the website is to find food. However, the “Get Help” CTA on the Home Page lacked clarity on the available food assistance options.
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• There is no information about Mobile Pantry, Food Fair, and Local Food Pantry services. I emailed SAFB and they told me to call the phone number so they can look up food pantries for my ZIP code. Many hoops needed to be jumped through to receive information as a resident without disabilities; this can be frustrating for a person who is hard of hearing, deaf, or mute.
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• There is a communications bottleneck when customers go to the website to seek more information and are immediately directed to call the hotline number to “Get Help.” On the “Get Help” page, five buttons direct the user to call the same hotline number. As a result, the phones are inundated with calls so not everyone can be helped during high-volume call times. The voicemail becomes full, and people are left unheard.

Needs Statement

Users need a way to find relevant information on the website so they can make quick decisions to receive help from the San Antonio Food Bank.

Ideation

After brainstorming possible solutions and organizing them on a Prioritization Grid, I narrowed down my focus to the following:

1. Clearly list most relevant Primary Actions / CTAs on the Home Page.
2. Clearly list all options for Food Assistance, along with eligibility and registration steps for each option.

Paper Prototyping

Wireframes

I designed two digital wireframes to quickly guide users to their goal. The goal I picked was to register for a Drive Through Food Distribution, because according to reviews on Google, this is the most common way for residents to receive food. Both allow for the user to find relevant and useful information without making a phone call.

User Testing

I printed out the wireframes and presented them to a few members of my community, all of whom were San Antonio residents. I gave them the following prompt:

Pretend you experienced a family emergency and need to use the San Antonio Food Bank to pick up some food. Show me how you would navigate the website to begin this process.