Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful

Fall 2025 - Spring 2026

How can we empower KPB to share meaningful stories about the impact of their partners and volunteers?

Project Leads

Arielle Turullols and Jodie Yang

Team Members

Hannah Chen, April Chou, Silvia Kim, Khushi Thaker, Katie Wen, Emily Zhang

Community Partner

Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful

Context

Working with Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful

Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful is a nonprofit affiliate of Keep America Beautiful that services Pennsylvania, empowering residents to keep their communities clean and beautiful through cleanups, promoting proper waste handling, community beautification, and youth education.

Our goal is to design solutions that make volunteer opportunities easier to find, highlight meaningful community and personal growth stories, and communicate KPB’s mission beyond environmental cleanup. By addressing these needs, we aim to empower KPB to attract new volunteers, deepen community engagement, and more effectively showcase the impact of their work.

Problem Space

KPB is currently facing challenges with volunteer outreach and youth retention, making it difficult to reach new audiences and grow a larger network of affiliates.

We learned that while long-time volunteers are consistently engaged with KPB’s programs, new audiences are often only able to discover KPB through word of mouth rather than finding the organization organically on their own.

Additional Research Questions

What kinds of stories/information resonate most with potential volunteers and community members?
How do volunteers and partners define “impact,” and what aspects of their work feel most meaningful to share?
What pain points or barriers currently prevent new visitors from engaging with KPB’s programs?
How do new visitors currently perceive KPB’s online presence, and what kinds of stories/information would improve their experience navigating and learning about the organization?

Project Overview

We developed 5 new webpage designs, as well as a site architecture redesign with the goal of improving usability and navigation for new users and aspiring volunteers of KPB.

Research

Understanding KPB's ___

Expert Interview with Jodi Klebick and Courtney Stein

We gained insight into SIA Team project timeline and ChangeMaker alumni process. We identified that we need to find a way to address SIA teams’ struggles during the execute step and establish a certain set of guidelines for ChangeMakers to follow if they want to support SIA teams when they finish the program.

Multiplying Good Fall Leadership Conference

We conducted user interviews to understand specific challenges students were experiencing in the project development process. We also gained valuable insights into how ChangeMaker alumni were staying involved in Multiplying Good and their interest in supporting SIA teams.

- - 30 minute interviews with 6 local Student in Action Teams
  - 20 minute interview with ChangeMakers

Modeling

Synthesizing stakeholder needs based on our research

Reframe

Narrowing down the problem space

Upon analyzing our initial research and our user journey map, we discovered that there was a need for ____

How Can We Statements

How might we make it easier for potential volunteers to discover and sign up for opportunities that align with their interests and values?
How might we inspire visitors to get involved with KPB by highlighting how volunteering leads to personal growth and meaningful community impact?
How might we show that KPB’s impact goes beyond cleanups to include education, community, and personal growth?
How can we empower KPB to share meaningful stories about the impact of their partners and volunteers?

Design Goals

Clarify the signup process and communication with coordinators for events and community-based open activities that KPB hosts.
Develop clear calls-to-action throughout KPB’s website in a manner that furthers the users understanding of what KPB is as an organization.
Highlight only the most essential information and prioritize simplicity so that users on KPB’s website do not get overwhelmed.
Ensure consistency of fonts, sizes, and color schemes across web pages to reduce friction for users navigating across the page.

Ideate

Coming up with many ideas

Refined Concepts Storyboards

[fill in ]

Community Partner Feedback

Database

Would be used as a additional resource for students if they are unsuccessful with their own research for resources (would still end up being used a lot)
Director would share the database based on effort they have given in the research phase

Communication Templates

Find a way to automatically CC directors to email within templates
Recommend specific processes communication platforms should have - guidelines
Make documentation of pros and cons of various platforms

Customized Support Plan Guidelines

Could cause students to depend on ChangeMakers too much
Similar newsletter already in place

Build

Building out a solution

Low Fidelity Prototypes

Mid Fidelity Prototype (animated using Google Slides)

High Fidelity Prototype

Test

Getting feedback on our ideas

SIA Team Testing

Multiplying Good Winter Leadership Conference

We tested our high-fidelity prototype with 5 SIA teams. The main points of feedback included the need for incorporating brief profiles and providing easier filtering options. SIA teams also shared that they were interested in working with Changemakers with many specializations and that were financial aid and resource focused.

ChangeMaker Testing

ChangeMaker Focus Group

We provided a demonstration of the use of the Airtable to 9 ChangeMakers. We gathered insights on how to embed the database within the ChangeMaker pipeline effectively. Additionally, we discussed how providing information to be used in the database could become a part of the ChangeMaker graduation process.

One suggestion from ChangeMakers included using Airtable to create automatic notifications for ChangeMakers when a team wants to contact them. Another suggestion was to incorporate a form within the database for communication.

Final Product - ChangeMaker Connect Airtable

SIA Teams

If SIA Teams are interested in working with a ChangeMaker, they can look through ChangeMaker Connect. Using the filters, they can find a ChangeMaker that aligns with their needs.
Once they finalize on the ChangeMaker they want to work with, they can fill out the SIA Team Interest Form.
If the ChangeMaker they want to work with is available, the SIA Team will work with their advisor and program manager to facilitate first contact.

ChangeMakers

After completion of the ChangeMaker program, if a ChangeMaker is interested in supporting SIA Teams, they can fill out the ChangeMaker Interest Form. Their information will automatically be added to ChangeMaker Connect.
ChangeMakers will be given access to the Interested SIA Teams Table, which they can monitor to see if any teams are interested in working with them.
If an SIA team shows interest and the ChangeMaker wants to support the team, the ChangeMaker can work with the program manager to facilitate first contact.

Reflection

Looking back on the work we accomplished

After testing, we experienced technical challenges with the Airtable platform. Initially, we aimed to create an additional contact platform through Airtable to ensure safe, facilitated communication between SIA Teams and ChangeMakers. However, we discovered that the platform could not support this functionality. However, after several rounds of ideation and iteration, we successfully created a form system to manage partnerships between SIA teams and ChangeMakers. This experience highlighted the importance of ideation, as an initial concept may not always be feasible.

Working with Multiplying Good was a valuable experience and being able to meet and connect with so many individuals in the organization and learn about the impact they were making in the local Pittsburgh community was very rewarding. As a team, we identified the importance of collecting and analyzing user feedback data and how it can influence the design goals and objectives of our final product.