APP DESIGN | RESEARCH & DESIGN
Research and Design of a Church Mobile App
Members want to be part of a church that provides connection, relevance, growth, and convenience, but feel disengaged because Providence lacks the digital tools to meet their different needs and stages of faith.
Client
Providence is a contemporary, multicultural church based in Brisbane. The church is still in its early years and currently meets in a local school. Its congregation is made up primarily of young working adults, many of whom are regular attendees and volunteers, alongside newcomers. The church has around 80 regular members and is supported by three paid staff members.
Background
I led the design for a faith-based mobile app to centralise communications and event planning for Providence Church. While the original scope included full functionality across sermons, groups, giving, and volunteering, the focus was strategically narrowed to the events feature due to time constraints. This MVP was chosen strategically based on user needs, and designed in a way that scales into a full app ecosystem in future phases.
The Challenge
Providence Church faced several digital challenges:
Fragmented communication across multiple platforms.
A dated and underused website.
Limited tools for coordinating events or serving.
Newcomers found the online presence confusing and unwelcoming.
Regular members and volunteers struggled to stay informed and organised.
“There are many different platforms that we do utilise... that can get confusing.”
User Feedback
Mapping out the entire service experience of the different user groups to uncover key opportunities.
Opportunities
Establish a unified mobile experience for newcomers, regulars, and volunteers
Make it easy to discover and register for events
Build a scalable design foundation for additional features (e.g. sermons, giving)
Reflect the warmth and relevance of the church community through design
I conducted user research for two key reasons. First, as a not-for-profit working with a limited budget, we needed to uncover which features were absolutely essential to prioritise for the initial release. Second, I wanted to validate (or challenge) my assumptions about user frustrations and opportunities, so we could confidently focus our efforts on solving the right problems
Research Methods
Competitor Analysis / Exploratory interviews / Contextual Inquiry / Usability Testing / Journey Map / Affinity Map / Personas / Card Sorting
Insights
Through affinity mapping, I synthesised insights into key patterns that surfaced repeatedly across interviews:
Users were overwhelmed by scattered communication tools
Newcomers felt unsure and anxious about what to expect at church
Volunteers wanted simpler rostering and planning functionality
Most people wanted a visual, mobile-first way to stay updated and feel engaged
Drawing out opportunities from user insights.
Minimum Viable Product
(MVP)
The original brief was to design a full-featured app including events, sermons, giving, groups, and rostering. However, after validating the research with stakeholders, the project pivoted to focus on Events, proven to be the highest-priority area based on user feedback.
The MVP was shaped by these main priorities:
Discover upcoming events
RSVP and view event information
Save events to calendar
View bulletins and announcements
Scalable information architecture and design system
While the MVP focused on events, the app was built to support future modules like sermons, giving, and small groups, allowing the product to grow alongside the church.
Guided by the MVP goals, How Might We statements, and the user flow, I began introducing potential solutions that addressed specific user needs through distinct features. This feature set was then organised into an information architecture, which laid the foundation for the wireframing process.
“As a regular member, I want to easily find what’s happening in church life without jumping between platforms.”
User Flow
The user journey focuses on exploring church life, drawing from the ‘Church Life’ category within the broader information architecture. This category is housed within the Home Page of the app, alongside other key features.
Overview of the user flow with focus on events flow as the MVP.
Wireframing and testing
The user flow guides the creation of initial wireframe sketches, which are then user tested using pointing and hand gestures. Feedback from user is documented next to each component for reference and iteration.
Expanded wireframes illustrating how the app can scale with additional features.
MVP wireframes focused on Events.
Outcome
Research and prototype available for when church budget allows
Created a scalable IA and design system ready for future app phases
Validated product-market fit through user testing with strong qualitative feedback
Short-term goal
Test and refine additional features and gather staff feedback on backend integration.
Long-term goal
Partner with leadership for implementation, and allocate budget for development of MVP. The further goal is to expand into communication tools and personalised content delivery.