Communities Feature

the challenge: how to streamline users finding allies

A frequent user and business need for this company was that potential users didn't know who to ask to be their accountability partner and that pastors of churches wanted a way to match up members of their congregation. I set out to explore the user flows of each of these three personas: pastor (aka account owner), user (aka hero), and accountability partner (aka ally). These user flows had to seamlessly coexist because one person could potentially function in all three of these roles. I also had to resolve how to integrate with our current system and fully protect user privacy throughout the process.

the specs

Who I Worked With

Nate Schlosser

John Parkinson

My Role

UX Design (Primary)

discovery

Where we started

The Communities project was in development when I was brought on to explore this potential feature. It was meant to exist as a secondary product for Covenant Eyes and capture the unreached audience of the church community. Covenant Eyes' flagship product had a user request allies from their own life and go from there but this feature would allow pastors to match up allies and oversee a cluster of relationships within their church aka Community.

Persona Needs

Owners: Pastors wanted visibility into their congregation and for that information to be collected all in one place. Many of the pastors we interacted with were leaders of small churches where they were doing much of the one-on-one discipleship. Visibility was crucial for them to keep track of everyone who needed them.

Allies: These people were willing to help out their fellow church members but didn't always know how to communicate that or to offer that help without having been asked. They needed a way to announce that they were here if anyone needed them.

Heroes: Asking someone to be your ally is a stressful, hard conversation and often made harder when someone doesn't have an automatic person come to mind who fits that type of relationship. Heroes needed guidance on how to choose an ally as well as a way to ask for one if they didn't have anybody in their life already.

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IDEATION & DESIGN

Working out design ideas

I spent multiple weeks iterating possible user flows to ensure maximum clarity and ease of use. Some of the factors I explored were:

How much ownership should accounts manager have? Managers wanted maximum visibility and control over their community but that needed to be balanced against hero and ally needs for privacy and autonomy.
How much information to give users at each phase? Information architecture was key on this project. There was a ton of information that each of the three personas needed to know to be successful in this process as well as some complex system steps. It was important to ensure that they were only given the information necessary to complete the next step to reduce their decision fatigue and cognitive dissonance.
What information do we need to know from users? Privacy is always an important factor but especially when the company is dealing with sensitive issues like porn recovery. I had to balance protecting user privacy and only asking for what information we/the account manager needed with the desire to delight the user with a customized experience.

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Feature one: Partner Checklist

The company's Member Care department provided feedback that a frequent user complaint was that they didn't have anyone in their life who would work as an ally. I created a simple checklist with some explanation and suggestions to spark ideas.

Feature two: Raise the Hand

Feature one: Partner Checklist

Heroes' dashboards gave them an option to 'raise their hand' if they needed an ally or if they wanted trainings that their church has made available. These were sent to the manager's dashboard so they had a birds-eye view of everybody who was looking for help and could immediately take action from that dashboard.

Feature three: Available Allies

Feature four: Hero List for Each Ally

Once heroes signed up for the Community, they could see a preview list of available allies and begin a chat to get to know them. They could also request that ally straight from the dashboard, which would auto-generate a ping to that ally for them to approve or decline.

Feature four: Hero List for Each Ally

Similar to the manager dashboard, allies' dashboard had a list of everyone they were holding accountable. Especially in small churches, a strong ally could be in accountability relationships with ten or more people. This dashboard lets them see everyone and get alerts if someone needed help.

conclusion

This project was killed before I could move into higher fidelity prototypes and testing due to leadership shifts and reprioritization of developer assets. Ultimately, we found that the Communities concept was too bulky for the company to undertake at that time and we weren't certain enough that we could build a system that sufficiently protected user privacy while still being useful to churches.

I learned to ask better questions as a result of this work. I'd had some concerns about those issues when I was brought on but didn't speak up since I was the least experienced designer on the project at the time. If I did it again, I would ask more questions upfront and if stakeholders still insisted on the work moving forward as is, I would find the best solutions I could but keep showing the pain points of my discoveries along the way to try and inform some of those decisions.

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"adding allies" App feature

the challenge: how to streamline users finding allies

the specs

discovery

Where we started

Persona Needs

IDEATION & DESIGN

Working out design ideas

Feature one: Partner Checklist

Feature one: Partner Checklist

Feature one: Partner Checklist

Feature two: Raise the Hand

Feature one: Partner Checklist

Feature one: Partner Checklist

Feature three: Available Allies

Feature four: Hero List for Each Ally

Feature four: Hero List for Each Ally

Feature four: Hero List for Each Ally

Feature four: Hero List for Each Ally

Feature four: Hero List for Each Ally

hero and Ally Workflow

Account Owner and Ally Workflow

conclusion

"adding allies" App feature

the challenge: how to streamline users finding allies

the specs

discovery

Where we started

Persona Needs

IDEATION & DESIGN

Working out design ideas

Feature one: Partner Checklist

Feature one: Partner Checklist

Feature one: Partner Checklist

Feature two: Raise the Hand

Feature one: Partner Checklist

Feature one: Partner Checklist

Feature three: Available Allies

Feature four: Hero List for Each Ally

Feature four: Hero List for Each Ally

Feature four: Hero List for Each Ally

Feature four: Hero List for Each Ally

Feature four: Hero List for Each Ally

hero and Ally Workflow

Account Owner and Ally Workflow

conclusion

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