Homebase App
Senior Year | Fall 2023
An exploration into a mobile application for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale and further. This project explored creating a more accessible way to house all details surrounding the organization and its programs, giving parents and members an easier way to access and manage their information.
Project Background
What is the Boys and Girls Club?
The Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) is a National organization with multiple chapters, including Arizona’s Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale. The goal of the BGCA is to create an experience that places success within reach of every young person who enters their doors, helping put each member on track to graduate high school with a plan for the future, demonstrate good citizenship, and live a healthy lifestyle. (BGCS)
To make their goal a reality, the BGCA hosts programs and events nationwide and across individual chapters. Some notable programs include the BGCA Youth of the Year program, the Leader in Training (LIT) Volunteer Program, the Keystone Teen Leadership Development Program, and many more.
Part of what makes the BGCA organizations so great is their commitment to children and their futures, the bonds they cultivate, and the growing community they have facilitated and spread nationwide.
How can we help?
While examining the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale (BGCS), we identified aspects that could inhibit the organization from achieving its goal and problematic areas for parents and members to easily interact with the organization.
Due to the sheer scale and amount of activity surrounding the BGCS, it can be intimidating to keep up with all the programs and events. In the past, the organization has made several attempts to streamline information and parental access. However, we found that repeated changes were part of the issues and the previous solutions had overlooked details that community members considered vital.
To address this, we wanted to craft a finalized solution. An application that hosts information, promotes accessibility, displays programs, and more while being easily adjustable and adaptable to the users to strengthen the community.
Goals to Reach
To craft an effective home-based app we identified the required information and features. I met with three previous BGCS leaders; 2 former Youth Development Supervisors and 1 former Branch Director, each still working with the BGCS on the Corporate Level. The details discussed included;
– Major emphasis on ease for sign-ins and sign-outs
– Large emphasis on information availability
– Events and information updates/changes need to be easier to access
– General account information, profiles, payments, and more should be easier for parents and members to access and change
– Ability to track participation and volunteer hours much more efficiently
In addition to the ability to access the common resources and track information for the BGCS, there was a large push to improve access to organizations’ parental resources and training, which the previous leaders felt was largely overlooked and should be more prominent and accessible.
Key Features
Identifying the flow
Examining the organization and its processes we can deduce what areas have issues and the causes.
In interviews, we found sign-out permissions including non-guardians, information availability, account services, tracking volunteer hours, and permission slips all were emphasized for the application.
Overall, what did we learn? The parents and children who wished to be more active or a greater part of the BGCS community would enjoy a more centralized and convenient way to access and manage everything.
Home Page
The first thing users see when they open the application. The top bar includes necessities such as:
– Settings bars for profile information, contact details, payment management, and all details regarding the members.
– Files for keeping track of documents, invitations, previously signed permission slips, and related forms.
– Interactive calendar that displays events based on preferences such as early release days, club closures, volunteer events, and daily programs & clubs,
– Message tabs for reminders and customizable alerts.
The front page would also display cover photos, updated by the organization to best represent the BGCS. Member cards are displayed for scanning and showing notices such as account holds. Next are event tabs displaying current and future events, programs, deadlines, etc.
Finally, organizational resources such as community information, detailed activity and schedule maps, parental resources, and a journey tracker for volunteer programs.
Home Page Flow
Member Scans
Each profile leads to their scanner barcode and notifications for sign-ins and sign-outs are available in settings, a feature favored in several interviews. Members with notices and warnings on their accounts will show up on their scanners. Swipe through scans to access more cards (for larger families).
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Settings tab for information, profiles, and memberships, accessible directly through the application instead of the main website.
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Calendar for marked days, events, closures, and displaying alerts.
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Filter made to clean and adjust events displayed on the home page. Members can customize to display relevant modules.
Manage Everything in One Place
The menu features focus on details such as emergency contacts, pick-up permissions, account info, and member information, and holds settings to manage the app such as notifications and more.
Differentiate emergency contacts and general pickups, manage notification types (favored for more active members and volunteers), and manage child information such as allergies, groups, and active status.
Parental & Community Resources
An important detail to highlight was the multitude of resources the BGCS and BGCA offer. These resources provide opportunities beyond the buildings and aim to improve the lives and relationships of the organization’s parents and children.
This information is considered very important and far too often overlooked. The ability to reach these materials and resources is a high, priority, and having them accessible from the home page and at the users’ fingertips can lead to improvements in the community and member knowledge.
Want to give it a try?
To the future:
Fully Flushed-out Settings
Continuing into the settings tab to properly implement all member services and resources included taking a deeper look at payments. Payments would be set up to centralize everything from basic memberships to prepaying for events such as bake sales and field trips.
Community Page and Featured Members/images
The community tab would be formatted to be updated along with the official website, displaying details and news from all corners of the organization such as Youth of the Year Winners, Donor updates, and corporate events.
Fully Organized Programs Guide
Complete the program guide to display all programs available year-round, not just currently active ones. From this tab, you can filter by grade, season, requirements, type of activity, and more. Updatable by the organization and individual branches, it would offer a deeper view into everything the club offers.
My-Journey and Volunteer tracking
The vision for this feature would be similar to setting up profiles for members that would display their experience in the clubs and programs such as if they participated in First Lego League or went to a holiday event. Volunteers could track their points/hours and parents can keep up with their progress.