Designing an Impact Reporting Form Experience
End-to-End Product Design
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
TIMELINE
June - August 2025 (10 Weeks)
ROLE
UX Design Intern
THE PROTOTYPE
A live Explorer Home database where Explorers update impact metrics anytime.
THE PROBLEM
National Geographic Society needs a way to measure the impact they make to communicate with donors.
The National Geographic Society (NGS) supports explorers through grants funded by donors. Until recently, NGS lacked a clear way to measure impact, but the Strategic Insights team introduced a standardized metric form to begin collecting consistent data.
The post-project quantitative metric form in Google Doc form.
Except, Explorers Aren’t Reporting Their Impact
Despite the form being mandatory, lots of Explorers weren’t filling it out or providing complete data because of the unintuitive design.
The main complaints were....
“
There’s too much to fill out in this form, it’s too long.
“
Why do I have to fill this out so many times?
“
What is this being used for?
The goal? Reimagine how Explorers report their project impact through the platform they already use, the Explorer Home.
The internal NGS home for explorers! Contains a directory, resources for their grant, and more.
STARTING DIVERGENT
How can we collect impact metrics?
First, I explored a range of concepts with key stakeholders on different ways to collect impact metrics, then identified a few key ideas to guide my wireframes.
The many ideas from the “crazy sixes” (six minutes, six ideas) I did with the CP/DP team.
One key takeaway was that the SSI team had originally structured the form as a strictly linear process Explorers would have to fill out multiple times.
Select indicators
Fill out multiple questions based on selected indicators
Resubmit form whenever there is new data
But instead of a form, wouldn’t a database feel less overwhelming and make more sense for regular updates? So, I changed the user journey.
Select indicators and fill them out on the same page.
Update these metrics or add new ones whenever there is new date.
Considering all of this, I designed a wireframe for the near-term vision.
NEAR-TERM DESIGN
Integrating reporting into ExHome as a page explorers can update at any time.
Considering that this is an active update, instead of a form I imagined it more as a database.
Alert explorers of the form through announcements or an alert on the main page.
Through a Salesforce integration, provide grant details to explorers on the form.
See all the indicators and when one is applicable, open a dropdown to submit data.
Save at any point (encouraging explorers to share data even if their work isn’t “finished”).
WORKING W/ STAKEHOLDERS
Iterating on feedback from the business head
After presenting this solution to the Strategic Insights team lead, I learned their biggest challenge was timing: they needed data as soon as possible, but explorers often withheld submission until they had everything ready. Therefore, I designed this sticky bar to encourage Explorers to submit the partial data the business needed.
See all the indicators and when one is applicable, open a dropdown to submit data.
FUTURE CONCEPT
Giving inherent value to updating your metrics by making them public-facing.
Building on the community hub that the Explorer Home Designer and PM were working on, I imagined a potential future concept where explorers share impact data through the creation of a public grant webpage.
Every explorer has a webpage for their grant with details, metrics, and articles.
Using the new web components created for content producers (another project I worked on), explorers can create their own webpage for their grant following a process similar to using a CMS.
With an article section, explorers can also generate more narrative based reporting.
WORKING W/ STAKEHOLDERS
Getting design feedback from ExHome PM & designer
After feedback from the Explorer Home designer and PM, I learned explorers often felt pressured by the NatGeo brand to constantly double-check their writing. I iterated by adding an AI writing assistant to reassure them and ensure alignment with brand standards.
With data blocks for each impact metric, NGS can collect metrics for SSI’s needs.
WORKING W/ STAKEHOLDERS
Incorporating business needs into the design
The Strategic Insights team required data for specific post-project indicators, so I designed each data block with a dropdown that let explorers submit metrics tied directly to those indicators.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Designing for Stakeholders
In conclusion, it was decided that NGS would go with Formstack for a near-term solution.
WORKING WITH STAKEHOLDERS
Feasibility
I met with Brian Murphy (Director of Product) and Lauren Scheidt (Director of Data) to align on feasibility and data structure. While my proposed design wasn’t shipped during my time at NatGeo, their feedback helped pivot the solution toward a more feasible Formstack implementation.
Even when ideas don’t ship now, the conversations and concepts still hold lasting value:
Working with diverse stakeholders
I collaborated with product managers & designers (design), data directors (technology), and business analysts (business). Navigating these perspectives taught me how to balance organizational goals with user needs.
Contributing to a design system
On the technical Figma side and larger system thinking, I got to learn a lot about working within and adding to a legacy brand's design system.
Designing materially honest interfaces
Most importantly, I learned how to design with transparency for users. With sticky navbars in the near-term and full webpages in the future concept, I designed to impart the inherent value of certain actions.