Video streaming for the Christian community

View Prototype

Role 🙋🏻‍♀️
UX/UI Designer
Tools 🛠
Figma
Project Type 🗓
Non-client, Add a new feature
Project Timeline ⏳
4 weeks
Adding a new community aspect
The RightNow Media app offers a library of bible study video resources, or you can treat it as the Christian version of Netflix mixed with Coursera.
The media platform offers a wide range of content that are meant for people to study in groups, however, there aren't any features within the platform that are aimed for community engagements
THE PROBLEM
The platform is missing features for community interactions. People also find it difficult to search for content, and wish they can have a more personalised experience on the platform.
A preview of the final product
Desire to engage with their community
The option to start a group study within the platform encourages people to be more involved in the study and keep each other accountable. Group members receive an invitation, where they’ll be able to track study progress, receive reminders etc.
An easier way to discover content
Users are able to learn more about the different studies that others have completed, recommended or started and as a result makes it easier for users to discover content that’s relevant to them
Display of more relevant information
Users are a bit overwhelmed by the amount of content showing on the Home Page. By showing community metrics such as number of views and recommendations, users are able to learn how their community is reacting towards different content..
A more personalised experience
By setting up their own groups in the platform, users are able to personalise their group study experiences
My Process
Screener Survey
Market Research
Competitive Analysis
User Interview
Platform Testing
Affinity Mapping
POVs, HMWs
User Persona
Venn Diagram
Feature List
Prioritisation Matrix
Sitemap
Task Flows
Sketch
Mid-fidelity wireframes
High-fidelity wireframes
Week 3-4
Testing
Usability Test
Frequency-Severity Matrix
Final Iterations
It’s not just about my experience
It all started with working on this app that I use often and really value its content and brand
However, my own experiences doesn’t represent the experience of the RightNow Media users
User Interview participants
Therefore, I interviewed 6 participants who use the platform at least once a month to learn more about their experiences
Surprised by the % of frequent RightNow Media users
RightNow Media has often been promoted by my church, therefore I would have thought it would be easy to find user interview participants within my church communities
I was surprised to find that not a lot of people are actually using the platform, or use it often enough
In order to ensure I’m able to gain reliable insights, I did 2 rounds of screening via instagram story and google survey
My aim is to understand from the 6 user interviews
What do people benefit from having a RightNow Media subscription
How RightNow Media fits into users’ daily life
How people engage with RightNow Media
What and why people would consider alternatives to RightNow Media
From assumption to presumptions
Getting to know RightNow Media’s limitations better
Platform testing for additional insights
Apart from interviewing the 6 participants, I also got them to navigate through the mobile app by giving them 2 scenarios to observe how people engage with the platform
Platform testing scenarios
You are recently a bit overwhelmed by work and want to find a video that would help give you some guidance on overcoming this circumstance
Explore Christmas themed content to study and share with your friends
1. Desire for community engagements
100% participants shared the desire to have more community aspects added to the platform
Despite the content the platform offers are mainly for people to study in groups, the experience on the platform doesn’t offer features aimed for community engagements
Adding community features to the platform would improve the overall user journey
Compared to other needs, I prioritised adding community features to the existing platform as addressing other needs would only bring about small impacts
A new community page is added to the platform where users get to connect with others who go to the same church. Create groups with their friends and fellowship groups to do studies together
Users are also able to see different platform activities from other users within the same church community such as what studies they did, groups they created, content they recommended etc.
However, it is also important to take note of privacy preferences when it comes to community features
Users also have the option to set their activities to private and the same applies to group activities
2. Improving discoverability of content
It was evident from user interviews that searching content on the platform was more challenging than I expected, mainly because the search results weren’t showing information that would help users determine the quality and relevance of the study
Community Page gives users access to what studies others have done, their likes and comments
Users are also able to reference view and recommendation metrics when exploring a new series
This helps provide a more reliable, efficient and community based way of discovering content
3. More effective display of information
60% participants are overwhelmed by the amount of content showing on the Home Page
In addition, most of the title names aren’t showing the full name which makes it difficult for users to interpret the content at first glance
Video titles are displayed in 2 lines rather than 1 line
In addition, users are able to see view and recommendation metrics to help them learn more about how their community is responding to the different studies
4. A more personalised experience
80% participants mentioned how they wanted to have a more personalised experience on the platform. Especially how the Home Page features studies for Kids, Men or Parents that are irrelevant to some people
The church main page (or Island ECC page) now shows recommendations made by different groups within the church community
People who go to the same church would be able to find the recommendations relevant. Compared to the initial design showing only studies recommended by the church
Meet Irene
The passionate community builder

View Define Phase Details

From indecisive to precisive
With Irene (the user persona) in mind, I was able to come up with features focusing on adding a community aspect to the platform
I reminded myself to focus on a topic where I can improve the overall user journey instead of small impacts.
I decided to focus only on features that
Add a community aspect to the app
Some of the features include
Create groups, make friends, view other users’ comments & ratings, activities
70% participants shared a need for this
Sign up to watch video series as a group
50% participants shared a need for this
Video series display to show full title name and ratings
50% participants shared a need for this

View Prioritisation Matirx

Making minimal changes to the existing sitemap
While adding the new features, I was also intentional about not making too many changes to the existing sitemap as I would want users to still find the interface familiar to them
The only change made was replacing the "Kids" page in the tab bar with the "Community" page
The 3 task flows
User interview participants have brought up the importance of discoverability of content, therefore I created 3 task flows to explore as many of the community features as possible to ensure the new features are easy to interpret and navigate to

View Sitemap, Task Flow

Aligning with existing design system
With new buttons and icons added, I ensured they align well with the existing design system
E.g. icons used in tab bar and buttons should all be outlined (vs. filled)
With the new community features in mind, I was able to create from sketch to high-fidelity prototypes
It was important when sketching to ensure that new features go well with the rest of the existing interface
When moving from sketches to high-fidelity prototypes, I had to ensure to align the font and icons used for the new features with the existing design system
I then invited 6 participants who are frequent users of RightNow Media to test out the app by giving them 3 different scenarios. And from the testing sessions I realised
The need to start a new group study from the group page
Participants prefer to start a new group study via selecting their group from the Group Page
“I would want to start a new group study by finding my group first”
The need to view more community metrics on the Home Page
Participants would like to see more community metrics on the Home Page
“There are so many options and you don't even know how to decide what's good. But see other people's activity, you can trust their recommendations”
The need to know Church page shows community recommendations
Participants thought the Church page is only showing recommendations maintained by Church staff
“The Island ECC page gives me an impression that it is more about the organisation than the community itself”
The need for a personalised activities feed
Participants wanted to have a personalised view of the activities feed, where they can choose to see activities from people or groups they're more interested in
“It would be nice to have a close friend function similar to instagram where I can just view activities of people I care more about”
The Final Product
Feedback makes you better, faster, and stronger.
Katy Cowan
What I learnt
Design for impact
When in doubt, focus on what improves the overall user journey instead of small impacts
Identify the target audience scope in the beginning to help recruit research participants
Effective UI writing helps users achieve their goal more efficiently
What I Enjoyed
Good to great
Leveraging a platform I enjoy using to make it better
Constructive feedbacks from DesignLab facilitators, classmates and my mentor
What I’d Do Differently
The future users
Interviewing non RightNow Media users might uncover some valuable insights
If I had more time, I would want to work on some high value-high effort features such as customised notes, cross group interactions.
Thanks for reading all the way till here!
Wanna check out my other projects?
RESEARCH
DEFINE
IDEATE
PROTOTYPE
TESTING