Chasdei Lev NGO Dashboard
Chasdei Lev is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping families achieve financial stability and growth. Their unique approach pairs each family with a mentor for six focused sessions, complemented by a budgeting app to support their financial journey.
Project Scope
This project was part of a comprehensive system redesign, split across three parallel UX teams:
- A dashboard for families
- A dashboard for mentors
- An administrative dashboard for organization managers (our focus)
Beyond the UX challenges, this project demanded strong cross-team collaboration. We needed to align on visual language, terminology, and structure to ensure system consistency across different user interfaces and needs.
Our goal was to transform how Chasdei Lev manages their mentor-family relationships, transitioning from scattered Excel files and WhatsApp groups to a centralized, efficient system.
The Challenge
Before our involvement, the organization operated without a structured management system. Communication between managers and mentors occurred exclusively through WhatsApp messages, while meeting notes were scattered across various Excel files in Google Drive.
"I honestly have no idea what's going on – I just rely on what people tell me."
Key Problems
- No visibility on mentor capacity and availability
- Manual data entry leading to missed follow-ups
- No centralized tracking of family progress
- Inability to measure program effectiveness
- Lack of structured documentation system
How Might We...
Create a centralized, user-friendly dashboard to streamline mentor oversight, track family engagement, and give directors the control and visibility they need?
Research & Discovery
Competitive Analysis
Our research focused on analyzing established platforms to identify features that could be adapted for nonprofit use. We particularly examined two key platforms:
Team Tailor
Monday
Key Research Findings
System Gaps
- • No clear way to see mentor availability
- • No tracking of family progress
- • No differentiation between volunteers and paid staff
- • No visibility into the nonprofit's overall impact
Metric Requirements
Beyond traditional data points, stakeholders emphasized the need to track "soft metrics" including:
- • Family satisfaction levels
- • Mentor quality assessments
- • Program engagement indicators
Stakeholder Interviews
- ✓ 1 NGO Director
- ✓ 2 Mentor Managers
- ✓ 3 Active Mentors
Key Quotes
"I don't know which mentor is available unless I call each one."
"Sometimes I forget to send my session summary. It's all manual."
Core Insights & Problem Definition
After synthesizing our research and stakeholder interviews, we identified four critical areas that needed to be addressed:
Communication Flow
Private WhatsApp chats led to lost context and no visibility between teams
Documentation & Data
Inconsistent record-keeping scattered across Google Sheets and multiple platforms
Mentor Oversight
No distinction between active/inactive mentors and no systematic way to track availability
Performance Tracking
Lack of global KPIs and inability to measure impact across mentors and families
Design Challenge
"How might we give managers a clear, real-time view of their organization and teams?"
This central question guided all of our subsequent design decisions and solutions.
UX Strategy & Research
Research Process
Our comprehensive research approach involved creating detailed user personas, journey maps, and user flows to deeply understand both the administrative and mentorship aspects of the organization.
Initial Research
- • User persona development
- • Journey mapping sessions
- • User flow definition
- • Early wireframe creation
Iterative Testing
- • Low-fidelity wireframe validation
- • Structure and flow testing
- • High-fidelity prototype testing
- • Detailed UI feedback collection
User Personas
We developed detailed personas to represent our key user groups, focusing on their unique needs, pain points, and goals within the system.
Journey Maps
Our journey mapping revealed critical touchpoints and opportunities for improving both the mentor and management experiences.
Empathy Map
We used empathy mapping to better understand the emotional and practical needs of our users, particularly focusing on the challenges faced by managers in overseeing the mentorship program.
Key Findings & Solution Evolution
Usability Testing Insights
Through two rounds of testing, we validated our approach and gathered crucial feedback:
- Initial wireframe testing confirmed our basic structure and navigation
- High-fidelity prototype testing refined UI elements and interactions
Feature Evolution
Key feedback led to important feature additions:
- Integration of soft metrics tracking (mentor satisfaction scores, engagement rates)
- Development of individual mentor performance dashboards
- Addition of motivational content tracking features
The Solution
Solution Architecture
We designed a comprehensive user flow that maps out how managers interact with the system, from high-level overview to detailed mentor and family management.
Key Features & UX Rationale
Macro-to-Micro Dashboard
Supports manager mental model: scan → drill into specific issues
Mentor Status System
Clear tags showing active/inactive/available status to reduce assignment guesswork
Integrated Communication
In-app chat replacing WhatsApp to preserve history and context
Soft KPIs Module
Tracking human-centered metrics:
- Mentor satisfaction ratings
- Motivation video engagement
- Dropout ratio analysis
UI Design & Implementation
Design Approach
The visual design process encompassed creating a comprehensive system including layout, component system, color palette, iconography, and data visualization styles. We intentionally crafted a distinct visual language for the admin dashboard to provide managers with a professional environment that matched their mental model, differentiating it from the family and mentor interfaces.
Key Design Decisions
Macro-to-Micro Navigation
Users can view high-level statistics and drill down into detailed information through dropdowns and modal views
Data Visualization
Custom-designed charts and graphs to display trends, metrics, and performance indicators
Interactive Elements
Every data point is clickable, allowing deep-dive exploration into specific records
Communication Integration
Built-in chat system replacing external WhatsApp communications
Core Dashboard Features
• Active families by stage tracking
• Monthly and yearly savings trends
• Real-time mentor availability status
• Weighted family satisfaction scores
• Mentor performance metrics
• Historical record tracking
Final Dashboard Implementation
Explore the interactive prototype to see how all these features come together in a cohesive experience:
View Interactive PrototypeImpact & Outcomes
Before
- 🔴 Manual Excel filtering
- 🔴 Multiple WhatsApp threads
- 🔴 Email follow-ups
- 🔴 Unclear mentor availability
After
- 🟢 Centralized dashboard view
- 🟢 Real-time status tracking
- 🟢 Automated logging system
- 🟢 Performance analytics
Key Results
Reflection & Next Steps
Personal Reflection
"This was my first time leading both research and design for a complex system, and I really valued the experience.
I learned how to listen carefully to non-digital users, how to align across cross-functional teams, and how to translate a messy, real-world problem into a structured and scalable product.
I also had the chance to work across three UX teams and help ensure visual and conceptual consistency across the entire ecosystem.
I'm especially proud of how we balanced hard data with human needs — giving the managers clarity, while also supporting the emotional side of their work through tools like satisfaction metrics and communication flows.
If I had more time, I'd love to go back and measure long-term impact — to see how the dashboard changed behavior and improved decision-making over time."