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LinkedUp Church

Mobile App Redesign
Emphasizing the community aspect of church by enabling in-app event sign-ups and community building.
Role: Research, UX/UI Design
Timeline: July - September 2022
Tools: Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Procreate, InVision, Google Forms
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Background
LinkedUp is a church that is passionate about connecting people to God, their Purpose, Family, and Community. 
My task was to increase the functionality and productivity within the app without sacrificing the personality of the organization.

The Challenge

How can we increase the need for  the app and clarify clear
a call-to-action?

The Solution

Add in community building features such as in-app event sign ups and an in-service guide to encourage engagement with services.

Research

I started off my conducting a survey of over 300 people who attended Sunday service. Over 67% of users reported not using the app at all and deferring to the website or provided QR codes to engage with the church online.  Here are some additional insights gained from the survey:

64.2%

52.5%

72.2%

of users solely use the app for online giving and live viewing.

of users rate their experience with the app as a 3/5.

of users report that the application does not help them achieve their goals.

also discovered that most users would like more interactive features that allow for more community and engagement.

Some examples listed were: friends feature, in-app note-taking, and the ability to share messages.

User Interviews

I conducted 4 user interviews asking questions on usability, goals, and features.

What features would you most like to see in the LinkedUp application?

"Personalization, a way to keep up with events and groups. Easier way to follow along during service; i.e note-taking and connection card access?

What is your main goal when using the LinkedUp app?

 Most reported only using it to access a direct link to the YouVersion app notes.

What do you like about the current app?

It has most of the features that I want, it helps me navigate the website better as it provides direct links to where I am trying to get.

User Insight Statement

Churchgoers need a visually appealing app with organization, clear direction, and calls-to-action in order to both help them find their target and also introduce them to new experiences. When visiting a new application, usability is highly imperative to the user finding information quickly and encouraging the continual use of the app. 

 

During the survey, I discovered that 64.2% of users download the app in order to watch live and donate. Further, I discovered that 78% of users would be open to engage more with the church if their app experience felt more personal.

 

In order to best help the users accomplish their goals and encourage new experiences, I will focus on clear navigation and focal points on the home page to ensure exposure to the main user goals including, Events, Connect, Student Ministries, Watch, and Online Giving. I will also maintain the church’s color palette to ensure not to erase the personality. Doing this will allow the product to gain more use and provide help to users in addition to better organization on the back end for the church to keep track of members, events, and classes.

User Personas

Based on the information gathered through surveys and interviews, I put together three user personas for our intended audience.

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Using Mobile Phones

Success Criteria

Organize

Organize information to create a clear hierarchy in order to direct users towards their goals.

Simplify

Reduce the amount of unnecessary information and crowded images to lessen strain and confusion when navigating the app.

Introduce

Introduce or remind users of new experiences and events that might not have been known about before.

Business Goals

Maintain LinkedUp App’s personality and main visual components while creating an opportunity for the organization to grow and build its online community. Additionally, the redesign will provide an organized method to keep track of members, events, connect groups, and dream teams by allowing users to input their own data.

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Sketches

Sketching out my ideas was very helpful in figuring out the organization and hierarchy of the information. It also allowed me the space to think harder and truly be intentional about the design choices.

To create an application that users like Grace, Cameron, and Elizabeth can easily accomplish their goals and find any additional information, I brainstormed and sketched as many screens I could think of for each main page until I settled on these final layouts. 

My main goals for these sketches were to facilitate easy navigation through an organized layout and a clear visual hierarchy.

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Lo-Fi Wireframes

Taking the above sketches, I translated them into 6 main screens that I used as a guideline for the entirety of the high fidelity designs.

The main goal was to maintain the overall feel and elements of the current app and organize that same information into user-friendly interface.  Using these wireframes, I was then able to conduct some user tests before finalizing the design.

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Lo-Fi Wireframes

Taking the above sketches, I translated them into 6 main screens that I used as a guideline for the entirety of the high fidelity designs.

The main goal was to maintain the overall feel and elements of the current app and organize that same information into user-friendly interface.  Using these wireframes, I was then able to conduct some user tests before finalizing the design.

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Home Pages

In order to ensure the best user experience, the main goal for the home pages was to include all the most-used features while not making it look overcrowded.

Taking from the survey research, the most-used features include event sign-up, giving, live-streaming/sermon viewing, connect features, and student ministries.

I also opted to add a bookmark feature on the message titles to allow users to save their favorite messages in order to reference them later.

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Hi-Fidelity Wireframes- Onboarding

Following user-testing and interviews, the main concerns were lack of personalization and organization. In order to combat this, I added a quick onboarding process that the user is allowed to skip if they want. 

If they choose not to skip, they are encouraged to sign up which allows the church to gain more information about their members.

It also allows more personalization within the app such as bookmarked sermons and personal notes.

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In-Service Guides

Based on the information gathered from my interviews, I realized that while everything was very clean and organized, it needed more personalization.

 

Therefore, I added an In-Service Guide that will only pop up during Sunday Services for users to easily follow along with notes, online giving, and even submit connection cards if they were too uncomfortable in-service to stand up and do it in person.

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Giving & Events

Giving is an essential part of church and many church goers show they love and appreciation through monetary gifts, especially those that might not have the extra time to volunteer or attend events.

It was important to include an easy to use giving experience and for those who want to maintain a schedule, we added the 'Frequency' option under recurring to allow the user to choose how frequent they would like to give.

We aren't in the business of tricking people, so I also made sure to include an option up front of when to end the giving.

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Connect
Quizzes

In addition to the In-Service Guides, I created a customized quiz in order for users to find the best Connect Groups and Dream Teams suited to their needs and schedules in order to add an even more personalized feel to the app.

Due to the wide range of ages and races that attend LinkedUp, our goal was to make sure that everyone can feel included and welcomed in one way, shape, or form through the app.

Final Walkthrough

Style Guide

Typography

Poppins

A

A

A

A

Light
Regular

Medium
Bold

A

A

A

12pt

14pt

16pt

18pt

20pt

24pt

36pt

Scale type sizes up greater values at an exponential rate due to small scale of mobile devices

Colors

#9D2B31

#418194

#F1AE48

#403560

#1F1E1E

#FFFFFF

Reduce main color opacity by 25% to achieve lighter hues in order to ensure consistency throughout design

Navigation Tabs

Buttons

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User Feedback

“Wow, this looks great! I love that I immediately see upcoming events and recent sermons, it encourages me to scroll through all of the events to see if I’m interested in any. The in-service guide is super helpful and hard to miss. I love the idea of an online connection card, I always feel left out while watching online because it’s hard to find the card on the website, so I really like how this simplifies everything.”

Old vs. New

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Areas for Improvement

Socialization

As the app grows, I’d love to add more of a social feature to the app including friends, messaging, and more detailed profile pages.

Animations

Add more animations and transitions in order to improve the seamlessness of the app.

Create

I would love to introduce a feature that allows users to create their own small groups for sign-up in addition to signing up for others.

Reflection

This project was near and dear to my heart as I was able to work on improving an app that I use every week. With it being a solo project, I learned heavily on research and data to avoid imposing my own opinions into the adjustments. Another challenge would be avoiding scope creep. I often found myself wanting to keep adding more and more features, but realized that it would be much more effective if I focused that energy on the main goals. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project and found joy in the challenge.

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Let's Connect! I'd love to get to know you! 👋🏾

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