Chirag: Platform for Crowdsourcing Volunteers in India

Abstract

Chirag is a human-centered platform concept designed to strengthen volunteering in India by connecting NGOs, organizers, and volunteers through a more usable and centralized digital experience. The project began with the observation that India has a strong culture of volunteerism, but existing platforms often make discovery, coordination, and execution harder than they need to be.

The research process included surveys, NGO interviews, and heuristic evaluation of existing tools to understand where friction actually appears. That needfinding showed the problem was broader than matching volunteers to causes: organizers also face heavy administrative work around securing permissions, communicating with institutions, and tracking funding for events.

The final high-fidelity prototype therefore focused on both sides of the ecosystem. Volunteers get a clearer path to events that match their interests, while organizers get lightweight operational dashboards that reduce cognitive load and repetitive admin work. The design was iterated across multiple prototype rounds and validated through structured HCI evaluation.

What I Built

• Needfinding showed that volunteer matching was only part of the problem; organizers also struggled with permissions, funding, and communication overhead.
• Iterative prototyping validated that dual-sided dashboards could reduce friction for both volunteers and NGO organizers.

Impact

• Expanded the solution from a simple discovery tool into a more realistic volunteer-operations platform.
• Shows human-centered product design with thoughtful AI assistance applied to real administrative pain points.