Mercy Ships

Overview

Mercy Ships is a global humanitarian organization that runs hospital ships off the coast of West Africa with a volunteer crew from over 60 nations. The organization was in the process of building its newest vessel, the M/V Global Mercy, and wanted to build a campaign around its public announcement. The ship would more than double the organization’s surgical and training capacity.

With this global campaign, Mercy Ships wanted to increase global visibility, securing earned media coverage, reach new volunteers and donors in our 16 nations, and inform them of the Global Mercy announcement to begin their journey with Mercy Ships. We created a campaign called #WorldProblemsFirst that required a Hub separate from the main Mercy Ships website.

In this project, I worked with the agency team and was the Product Designer and UI decision maker.

research

I partnered with the Recruiting team within Mercy Ships to identify pain points in the recruitment process that could be alleviating with this Hub site. Based on application data, there were several key positions that were historically hard to fill for the HR team. They were as followed:

Anesthetic Assistant
Anesthesia Provider
Baker
Biomed Tech
Chief Engineer
Cook / Galley Staff
Deck Hand
Dental Hygienist
Maintenance Coordinator
Mechanic Fitter
Opthalmic Clinical Tech
Plumber
Second Engineer
Second Officer
Senior Chef
Sterile Processing Technician
Third Engineer
Vehicle Mechanic

In addition, we found that we had the most success, which is measured by job performance and longevity in the role, with individuals in the 25-35 age bracket. That is the target market we decided to focus on for the Hub design.

When looking up external data, we found that a majority of volunteers are in their twenties and thirties (1), which meant we were right in the range of who we wanted to target.

In addition, we wanted to research motivations for volunteering. We found that more compelling motives include experiencing another culture, meeting new people, and advancing one's career prospects (2).

1. Lough, Benjamin (2015). "A Decade of International Volunteering from the United States, 2004 to 2014".

2. Lough, Benjamin J.; McBride, Amanda Moore; M. S. Sherraden (2009). "Perceived effects of international volunteering: Reports from alumni". Center for Social Development, Washington University.

User Personas

I built a User Persona to synthesize the research gathered in our research. Through this persona, we were able to understand the user’s motivations, needs, and potential backgrounds. This persona highlights a potential Mercy Ships volunteer, which helped us determine our design decisions.

Design

Wireframing

After the flow was solidified, I worked with the agency to determine wireframes for the site. We wanted a modern, responsive design that told a story as our users engaged with the site. With videos, animated photos, and tight copy, we wanted to make sure our users stayed on the site as much as possible.

Campaign Playbook

Once internal parties were in alignment, I created a Campaign Playbook in which the agency and internal creative teams used to influence content and the HUB.