Manya Singh
Seattle, WA
Mitti Good Gifts: Gifting for Good
Shipped | E-commerce Website on Shopify designed for Mitti
Overview
ORGANIZATION
Mitti Social Initiatives Foundation
ROLE
User Experience Designer and Developer Intern
Duration
5 Months (April 2021 - Aug 2021)
Team
Subashree Krishnan (Mitti Strategic Advisor), Nikhil Iyengar (Design Mentor)
my Tasks
Stakeholder Interviews, Persona Generation, Competitive Research, Information Architecture, Wireframing, User Guides and Forms, Usability Testing
The Problem
During COVID-19, the shift to remote work and event cancellations disrupted opportunities for people with disabilities (PWDs) to showcase their creations.
My Project
I helped create the e-commerce website of 'Mitti Good Gifts' for products made by PWDs. Launched in 2021 in collaboration with 50 nonprofit partners and 2.5k PWDs.
Impact
2.5k
PWDs gained economic independence
30k
Products sold in the 1st week.
70%
Higher efficiency of backhand inventory management
About Mitti
Mitti Social Initiatives Foundation, a non-profit based in India, empowers people with disabilities (PWDs) by fostering economic independence. With 45+ cafés employing hundreds of PWDs, the organization has created spaces of inclusion and opportunity.
The Mitti team which also runs another initiative called Mitti Cafe
What Mitti Wanted
To support PWDs
The goal was to empower people with disabilities (PWDs) by providing sustainable economic opportunities. The Mitti Good Gifts website would serve as an online marketplace, showcasing and selling products made by PWDs.To shift the gifting culture
Wanted to shift the gifting culture toward more conscious and impactful choices—promoting "gifting for good" in support of a meaningful cause.
Understanding The Stakeholders
NGOs
Goals: Make it easy for NGOs, including those led by people with disabilities, to upload and manage product data with consistent quality.
Design Considerations: Provide simple, step-by-step workflows and standardized templates to ensure ease of use and accurate product listings.
Mitti Team
Goals: Showcase the cause effectively while ensuring smooth collaboration with NGOs.
Design Considerations: Create backhand systems for easy NGO onboarding and data management. Balance storytelling with functionality.
Consumer of website
Goals: Deliver a shopping experience that is accessible, enjoyable, and connects users to the mission behind the products.
Design Considerations: Create backhand systems for easy NGO onboarding and data management. Balance storytelling with functionality.
How I Made It Happen
Website: On shopify
Physical touchpoint: Maker Story Cards
Handling the backhand : Guides and Google Forms
Website
Step 1: Site Map
To align all stakeholders and consolidate diverse ideas, I created a site map that organized the website's structure to meet the needs of the Mitti team. This served as a shared reference point, ensuring clarity and consensus. Throughout development, the site map also became a crucial tracking tool to monitor the progress of pages at different stages.
Part of the site map
Step 2: Wireframing and Organizing
A key challenge was managing products from 50 nonprofit partners, each with inconsistent naming conventions—even for identical items. This resulted in over 120 product categories. By consolidating and streamlining these into 10 well-defined categories, I brought clarity and structure to the platform.
Before starting Shopify development, I designed wireframes to organize content placement and prioritize key elements. The focus was on subtly showcasing the causes supported by Mitti, while creating a seamless and user-friendly shopping experience.
Product categories for the website
Step 3: Development on Shopify
Focused on accessibility and user-friendliness, using a minimalistic design for a seamless experience.
Some of the screens of Mitti Good Gifts
Physical Touchpoint
Maker Story Cards
Introduced maker story cards within product packages to recreate the sense of face-to-face interaction, as physical presence was limited during Covid-19. This innovation allowed buyers to discover more about each product and the diverse makers, effectively bridging the gap between the digital platform and the human touch.
One side of the maker story card
Backend Guides
Guides for Content Submission: Created detailed guides specifying text and photo requirements for NGO partners. These were designed for easy understanding, even for non-tech-savvy individuals, to ensure high-quality content.
Structured Data Collection: Converted guides into Google Forms to organize data systematically and capture essential details consistently.
Enhanced Product Onboarding: Adjusted forms to include separate, clearly defined sections for product details, which improved consistency and made it easier for Mitti’s onboarding manager to add new products.
Left: Some of the guide topics, Right: how the Do's and Don'ts were depicted in the guides.
Takeaway
Accessibility ≠ One-Size-Fits-All – Designing for NGOs, PWDs, and consumers taught me to balance structure with flexibility.
Structure Enables Scale – Free-form submissions caused chaos; guided templates and clear workflows streamlined operations.
Storytelling Should Simplify, Not Clutter – Overloading users backfired. "Maker Story Cards" made emotional connections seamless.
Real-Time Feedback is Critical – Next time, I’d integrate instant validation for NGOs/PWDs to improve consistency and engagement.
Want To Know More?
This project was part of work done for Mitti Social Initiative Foundation during an Internship. Get in touch for more details.
Mitti Good Gifts Website: The site has been updated
Mitti Social Initiatives Foundation: Parent company
User Testing Session: Connect with me for more details about this.