Elevation
Church

Elevation Church is a global ministry with a weekly attendance of 26,000 people across 18 physical locations and a massive online streaming and social media presence. The ministry is also home to the Grammy-nominated music group Elevation Worship.

Over the 2019 summer, I was given the opportunity to join Elevation Church's Digital Team and collaborate with a diverse team of designers, developers, and data analysts. Throughout my 3 months in North Carolina, I helped ship two primary projects:

Elevation Connection Center (CC) is a digital platform for people to get connected with the Elevation community through joining/leading small groups (eGroups), volunteering (eTeams), and Baptisms.

As the design team, we reworked the existing architecture and visual design to feel more fluid, welcoming, and enjoyable.

At the time, Elevation Connection Center failed to embody the transparency, clarity, and friendliness that the ministry was known for. The site was overwhelming and users were asked to input large amounts of information with no suggestion of what it was going to be used for.

Privacy Concerns

When users input their name, Elevation CC displays an "Is this you?" page of existing users with similar names as a way to expedite the process for returning users. This design posed a huge security issue since it meant any individual could sign up as anyone else.

Inefficient Process — Welcome Tent Kiosks

A common way new church members get integrated with Elevation is through digital kiosk tablets at Welcome Tents after Worship Experiences on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. With over 400 people in attendance at any one of Elevation's 18 locations, the existing process to get connected is time-consuming and cumbersome, resulting in poor sign-up rates.

Our goal was to make the sign up process for eGroups, eTeams, and Baptism as welcoming and convenient as possible. Our solution comprised of four components:

Users have three primary ways to access Elevation CC. By consciously noting the various ways that people engage with Elevation CC, we realized that we needed to redesign CC so that it could somehow stand alone as its own entity and also act as a transition point from somewhere else.

The current sign-up process asks for an email and name as verification points for returning users. However as mentioned before, both new and returning users are then often routed to a highly problematic identity confirmation page with a list of individuals with similar names.

By mapping out Elevation CC's current flow, we realized that 80% of the processes were the same for eTeams, Baptisms, and eGroups. This meant that the bulk of the issues in all three came from a lack of clarity and efficiency in these concentrated series of actions.

Redesigned Flow

eGroups - Search by List

We redesigned these pages with the goal of bringing more personality and light-heartedness to the process. This prompted us to introduce colored navigation, leader profiles, and an expandable map interface.

eGroups - Search by Location

The new platform also gives users the ability to transition from list view to map view, allowing them to search eGroups by proximity via city or zip code.

Sign Up Process

To avoid the problem of feeling overwhelmed, we designed the process so that users would proceed one step at a time. A big problem in the past Connection Center was the formidable sensation of seeing a page load with ten mandatory input boxes. By breaking it into steps, we were able to solve that issue as well as skip any uncessary steps for returning users, which will be mentioned later.

Security Solution — Verification Code Text

The web app first asks for a phone number followed by a verification code. The request for the phone number serves both as a security caution as well as the first piece of information for the system to confirm.

Scenario 1 — If the individual inputs their phone number, verifies the code, and the system finds a user match, the process is complete. The user is then directed to the confirmation page. That existing user no longer has to redundantly input his/her name, email, and address.

Scenario 2 — If there are multiple existing entries for the phone number, or if it's not found at all, the user is asked for a second piece of information and the process continues.

Baptisms and eTeams

For those interested in joining eTeams and getting baptized, Elevation requires individuals to go through an in-person Meet & Greet. Besides this step, the rest mimics that of joining an eGroup.

Kiosk Mode

Kiosk Mode is solely designed to be used at an onsite Elevation location. Given that large numbers of people line up after weekend Worship Experiences to get connected, our goal for Kiosk Mode was to be as quick and frictionless possible.

Kiosk Mode - Reenvisioned User Flow

Kiosk mode is all about simplification and expediting the time spent waiting in line. Upon filling selecting event/group details, the user completes the rest of the process on his or her own device.

Summary

As 1 of 3 UX designers on the Digital Team, we handed off the designs within two weeks. The project was then shipped later that year in December.

This summer, I also prototyped the first designs for Elevation Church's Apple tvOS app. Elevation reaches thousands around the world and weekly Worship Experiences were already being broadcasted on platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, Elevationchurch.online, and Roku app. On this side project, I worked primarily with Simon (full stack developer) and Corey (UX lead). The app is now on the Apple tvOS store. ☺