Designing a platform for real-world help
2019–2020
UX, UI, and brand for Znesnáze, a Czech crowdfunding platform for people in difficult life situations — today over 642M CZK raised, 4,877+ successful campaigns, and more than 613,000 donors.
Intro
We joined before there was a name, a brand, or a single screen.
The brief was: build an MVP that lets people in difficult life situations raise money from others. Currently the existing process ran on email and spreadsheets, donors hesitated at exactly the wrong moments, and the people who most needed help were the least comfortable asking for it.
So we didn't start with a website. We started with a question that shaped everything that followed: how do you make asking for help feel normal, and giving feel safe?
Team
Design (pospolu.design)
Matej Hlavacek, Zavis Pexidr, Ales Novotny
Client (Nadacni fond pomoci)
Cestmir Horky (director) and his team
Context
Znesnáze began as an initiative of Nadacni fond pomoci, the foundation established by Karel Janecek. The ambition was direct: make it easier for people in genuinely difficult situations to receive help from others. At the time, the Czech market had no platform that combined transparency, trust and ease of use in a single fundraising experience. People were willing to help — but the path from "I want to help" to "I helped" was fragmented and unclear.
We were invited to shape the platform from the ground up: product strategy, user experience, naming, brand identity, and the MVP itself.
Challenge
Crowdfunding platforms don't succeed because of technology. They succeed because people trust them.
Every donation is a small act of faith. Donors need to believe their money will reach the right person. Fundraisers — often at the lowest point of their lives — need to be guided through an emotionally hard process without feeling exposed. And the foundation needed to run all of it transparently and credibly, at a pace that could get an MVP live without cutting the corners that build (or break) trust.
There was a second challenge hiding behind the first. The existing operation was almost entirely manual, and that fragility had to be designed out, not papered over.
Some parts of these case studies are intentionally private. If you're a recruiter or potential client, feel free to request access at hi@matejhlavacek.com.
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