Responsive Application DESIGN: Gamifying Grassroots Engagement & Fundraising
The Home Depot
This case study focuses on a 2-year residency with The Home Depot's top public affairs team.
Amid a global pandemic, heightened political polarization, and evolving corporate responsibility expectations, our goal was to leverage modernized technologies to reinvigorate their corporate political action committee (PAC) and nationwide political engagement program.
Leveraging the time-tested principles of experience design, we created a strategy anchored around gamification, professionalization, and personalization of the program's brand, which led to the development and launch of a proprietary web-based application that we leveraged to drive real-time engagement with associates and key stakeholders.
The “PAC App” was pivotal in the execution of the most lucrative fundraising campaign, and the most impactful grassroots engagement campaign in the program's storied history, earning it the Public Affairs Council’s 2022 “Outstanding Corporate PAC“ award.
WORKFLOW
-
Amplify PAC/Grassroots program engagement and impacts by professionalizing and personalizing membership via gamification and education to cultivate leadership and generate enduring, impactful public affairs engagement.
-
Technical | Application needed to ensure compatibility with existing IA systems and vendor-managed technology stacks. Additionally, ease of mobile use on iOS, Android & Windows.
Stakeholder | To maintain system integrity and uninterrupted real-time engagement tracking, it was essential to provide Board members and interdepartmental leadership with personalized user profiles that were architecturally segregated from the core data stack to prevent interference with touchpoint data collection.
Compliance & Security | How will we manage user authentication? What is the minimum PII that needs to be collected to ensure personalization, and how will data privacy be ensured in line with regulations like GDPR, CCPA given vendor access to data collected?
-
Store Manager Sam: A dedicated store manager frequently on the move, Sam needs quick, mobile-friendly access to the PAC Captains Application to stay updated between managing store operations and leading a dynamic retail team.
Executive Emily: As a corporate executive with a packed meeting schedule, Emily requires a streamlined, efficient interface for the application that provides brief, high-level overviews and easy navigation for quick check-ins during her limited free time.
Warehouse Leader Will: Overseeing a large team and adhering to strict OSHA regulations, Will needs a safe, compliant way to interact with the app during regulated breaks, with features tailored for quick, effective communication without disrupting his responsibilities on the warehouse floor.
Lobbyist Laura: On the go and heading into critical meetings, Laura requires the app to offer real-time, state-specific engagement stats at her fingertips to effectively represent and leverage associate campaign involvement during high-stakes discussions on the Hill.
-
We designed and developed a UX framework and gamification structure for a proprietary, responsive web and mobile application. Targeting 400 users, the application was devised to leverage real-time campaign engagement and impact data to initiate unique player journeys and promote organization-specific goals with various gamification tiers and reward systems.
-
• Met with government affairs leadership and Board members to clarify project goals, set timeline expectations and secure resource support for all needed phases of development
• Conducted user-centered research and to assess existing internal development capacities and vendor capabilities while mapping out timeline to MVP
• Wireframed and prototyped information architecture (IA) and application interface screens to ensure clear communication with development team members
• Translated design strategy and wireframes into actionable sprints and roadmaps for IT support partners
• Coordinated teams of security engineers, developers, and vendors to make design vision a reality in under 6 months