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Overview
Context
Research
Ideation
Usability Testing
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Kaleido

Streamlining content generation for
Non-Profit designers that are wear multiple hats

Skills
UI/UX Design
User Research
End-to-End Design
Team
1 Principal Designer @Adobe
1 Senior Researcher @Google
4 MHCID
Graduate Students @UW
Tools
Figma
Adobe Suite
Timeline
8 Months
Jan- Aug 2025
Overview

Empowering Non-Profit Designers Where it Matters

Kaleido is an internal application that helps humanitarian non-profits (NGO) quickly create and distribute localized and culturally relevant social media content during emergencies. Designed for collaboration with international partners, it uses AI to generate posts and surface insights, enabling faster, context-aware campaign development.

My Contribution

Leading
Interface Design

Led the design process of desltops screen from low fidelity prototypes to final polished output for multiple user flows and stakeholder views.

Mapping Customer Journey &
User Flow

Shaped customer journey maps through ideation sessions with target users , highlighting ways to provide new and meaningful experiences.

Spearheading User Research

Conducted 7 rounds of initial interviews and synthesized existing user friction points into key design decisions, as well as 2 rounds of usability tests to round out designs.

Impact

Collaboration with AI

100%

Of participants liked the use of AI in this space to help with their work and saw a future of collaboration with AI.
Professional Recognition

4+

Of participants liked the use of AI in this space to help with their work and saw a future of collaboration with AI.
Increased Productivity

6-7 Hrs

Of projected hours could be saved per campaign rollout with the help of Kaleido.
User Growth

Integrated Education

For Junior Designers using the tool, allowing for growth in technical skills as the tool is used.
Key Experience Moments

  1. Generate Templates & Dive Into Work

Kaleido, using notes from users, can generate various templates as a starting point for junior designers. Once selected, designers can transfer that template over into any tool they love, and design where they feel most comfortable.
Putting Brand Toolkits To Good Use
Participants valued metadata-rich templates and expressed interest in embedding their own branding during generation to maintain organizational identity.

“I appreciate the like diversity of options…having different [template options] in and of itself is really helpful. I think it's a super clean design, particularly if you're working cross culturally, you don't want overly ornate designs."

- Participant B from User Testing

  1. Collaborate With Team Members Wherever They Are

Kaleido, once added to a call, would quietly sit back and use it's AI to take notes on what is being talked about. Once a meeting is finished, users would be able to access main points addressed in the meeting, with the ability to comment, add and edit information that was written down.
Local Teams Focus on Review
Internal stakeholders' view focuses on commenting. Allowing to tag posts for level of urgency, as well as add attachments, or even upload video comments to get your point across.
Designers Focus on Feedback
Designers, besides comments from stakeholders, would be able to opt into receiving technical feedback from Kaleido's AI, giving designers foundational feedback to improve their work.

  1. Evaluate the Success of A Post

Once a post is complete, users can look into a posts analytics and see how the post performed. Kaleido provides a wide range of post metrics paired with AI-powered recommendations that consider real-world context like global events and regional trends.
Context
Who Is The IRC?

"The International Rescue Committee [is a humanitarian non-profit that] helps people affected by humanitarian crises to survive, recover and rebuild their lives."
-Brightfunds.org

In 2024, the IRC reached 36.5 million people in countries affected by crisis


How Do They Reach Their Audience?

They use promoted social media posts and websites across the world.

What Is The IRC Facing?

Due to budget cuts, the IRC recently laid off thousands of workers around the world.

Our Idea:
What if AI could:
Educate
Junior designers to elevate their technical skills .
Empower
Small teams with limited resourcing to achieve their goals.
Connect
Various teams that are countries and time zones away.
And that's exactly what we set out to do.
Research

Identifying Unique Challenges in the Non-Profit World

To really understand how we could help designers in this space, we took to research the unique pain-points designers at NGO's might be facing with. That research took the form of 3 main initiatives:

Competitive Analysis

3 competitors: UNHCR, OXFAM, IOM

Competitive Analysis

3 competitors: UNHCR, OXFAM, IOM

Competitive Analysis

3 competitors: UNHCR, OXFAM, IOM

Remote Interviews

2 SME in AI + Ethics, 5 NGO Designers

Remote Interviews

2 SME in AI + Ethics, 5 NGO Designers

Remote Interviews

2 SME in AI + Ethics, 5 NGO Designers

Co- Creation Sessions

2 NGO Designers

Co- Creation Sessions

2 NGO Designers

Co- Creation Sessions

2 NGO Designers

Our 3 Key Findings That Led Design Thinking

  1. Human Oversight is a Non-Negotiable for NGO's
We aim to design with AI for collaboration, not automation.

“With a human in the loop, that would sort of validate an AI output before sending it to a client or a beneficiary.”

- Participant D from Gen. Research

  1. Respect the Need for Human-Centered Visuals
Our tool must support, not replace, emotionally resonant, authentic visuals.

“I cannot use AI generated images as is because... It's ethically wrong...”

- Participant D from Gen. Research

  1. Empower Local Voices in Creating Ethical Content
The design process must continue to value local expertise.

“A lot of it is informed by refugees of those specific crises or leaders within those communities... conscious of the boundaries that those specific cultures might have.”

- Participant B from Gen. Research

Ideation

The Main Obstacle Uncovered During Ideation:

Users Have No Issue Designing Content In the Tools They Use

Designing a new tool would be ineffective and would have to compete with existing platforms that designers already love….

We thought:

What if our tool got designers designing faster by focusing on the before and after of content creation rather than during?

In doing this, we allowed designers to stick with creating in whatever platform they prefer, while focusing on easing the holistic design process by streamlining and bridging previously isolated parts of the creation process.

We mapped the end-to-end emergency content creation process, allowing us to visualize the workflow and identify opportunities where we could reduce friction.

My Lovely teammates and I posing during our ideation session ;)

Usability Testing

Simplifying Design for Users

We conducted usability tests with some designers previously interviewed for initial research to see how they interacted with the main flow and where design could be streamlined.

Our Key Takeaway:

During initial research, we understood from users that the humanitarian space was very sensitive, and so much of our designs became focused on making sure users had multiple checkpoints to achieve their goals. However, we quickly learned that due to the nature of the space, making the content creation faster was more sought after, due to the time sensitive nature of the work.

Specific Usability Changes Made

Before: Comments and Checks
Participants noted that multiple review steps can feel duplicative, suggesting streamlining by leaning on the commenting system for feedback and approvals.
After: Comments and Checks
New page placed more emphasis on commenting and internal collaboration to take care of any steps, as well as adding Kaleido comments that take comment on potential accessiblity and other technical issues
Before: Posting Page
Seeing all social posts aggregated at once—across every outlet—was overwhelming, signaling a need for more focused or customizable views.
After: Posting Page
Updated posting page focused on providing essential information to the user first, and tucking other features behind tabs to minimize clutter and visual strain.
Before: Metrics Page
Users emphasized prioritizing certain engagement signals and data in both individual and overview dashboards, with a call for clearer, more meaningful data visualizations.
After: Metrics Page
Finalized metrics page highlighted what participants viewed as essential information to a posts success, as well minimizing visual clutter that seemed to distract users from the purpose of this page.
Reflection

What did I learn?

Design for Design Sake
Throughout this project, one of the most important lessons was that a very flashy and colorful page, while visually appealing, can be less user friendly than a simple, direct layout. Learning this helped me become more successful in designing for this project.
Be Messy, Trust the Process
This project spanned 5 months and had multiple twists, turns, dead-ends, and obstacles. Thanks to this project I learned to love the process, and think on my feet to pivot to new ideas and new iterations.

What Would I Have Done Differently?

Scope Small & Grow From There
This project was a lot of work due to how it was scoped, given a second chance, I would like to focus in more on the before of content creation and if given more time, go up from there and explore the after as well.
Find More Users
Due to the fact that our space was dealing with designers in the humanitarian space, that had recently been gutted, it was very hard to find participants. Given more time, I would like to find more people to ideate and test our designs with.

Made with so much emotional support :)

Ricardo Sanoja Alarcon

Made with so much emotional support :)

Ricardo Sanoja Alarcon

Site works best on a laptop!

Ricardo Sanoja Alarcon