Boosting engagement
Product goal
To connect and support members of local church communities, empowering them to live out their faith together.
Project background
With Donkey Mobile we created a white label app for local church communities. Founded in 2019 I had the privilege to be UX lead from the start, designing a native iOS and Android app now used by more than 500 communities. This case study is for one of the app updates within this project.
The result
After two months of pushing the update live to our clients, which was around 350 apps and 100.000 users at the time, these are the results we measured.
Read the full page to discover the process behind this success.
Achieved through the project described in this use-case.
on average per post.
24% of written comments consisted of emoji’s which are now available in the reactions drawer. After the update written comments decreased by only 16%, leaving +8% more than expected.
4/5 stars rated!
In a survey among 598 app users, an avarage rating of 4 out of 5 stars was given to the update and its icons.
UX Research
Research goal:
Creating actionable design guidelines how to increase the amount of interactions and user experience of engaging with posts in our apps.
To achieve this trough research into current user behavior in our apps and the psychology driving user interaction.
Key questions
- What pains do users experience in sharing faith trough the app?
- What kind of interaction will help users most in sharing life and faith?
- How can we improve and measure the effectiveness of our app? (in supporting users sharing their faith).
Methodologies
- User interviews
- Online questionnaires
- Cognitive and Behavioral Research
- Data analysis
- Usability testing (Emotional Response Testing)
Researching current painpoints
What is holding users back from replying to posts? To discover answers to this I implemented a combination of user interviews (10) and an online questionnaire filled in by 300+ app users. Even though our data told us that the average response rate in our apps is 2,5 per post, I needed to know how the users perceive their own behavior. Here is a summary of the findings.
Cognitive behavioral research
A lot of research has been done into what moves people to interact online, what effects social media have on metal health, ethics in design for behavioral modification and and how to improve interaction online. Diving into researches done into social media platforms (Facebook and Instagram) and behavioral modification in mobile applications, these are the insights; (See bottom of this page for all sources used.
Dangers of social Comparison Anxiety
The conclusions of the last section promotes a solution like facebooks like button. But there are dangers to these kind of interactions as noted in these studies;
Researching the current interactions
The subjects of comments, the words used and overall tone of messages can be very different compared to other social media apps. If creating a "reply drawer" with quick comments is the way to go, chances are the icons should be different to encompass this.
By making an export of all comments in all our apps, breaking them up into words and sayings, I could analyze what kind of comments are most common.
Design research
After analyzing all above mentioned data, the next step was to design icons that would encompass all or most of the reactions. Capturing them in a clear way, for users to have quick, clear but most of all "still meaningful" interactions.
Used tools:
- Pen and paper (sketching icons)
- Figma & adobe illustrator (vectorizing the icons)
- Maze (usibility testing)
Question 1
Use one word to describe each icon.Question 2
For which (type of) messages would you use this icon?Question 3
Which icon(s) would you like to see in your app?
User flows
Viewing replies
Leaving a reply
Design iterations
Components
These are the new components I created for this project. They needed to fit in with the existing (atomic) design system and syle guide.
Key takeaways
Insights & Reflections
This project sparked deep discussions on the ethics of persuasive design in social media. When we introduced a reaction drawer, we recognized its potential risks. Our goal was to adapt proven UX patterns from major apps while ensuring they aligned with privacy, ethics, and the safe environment churches require.
- User research and testing played a crucial role in aligning the team on ethically sensitive design.
- We found that relationships significantly influence the effectiveness of triggers—showing who interacts drastically improves the chance for more engagement.
- Social comparison can be minimized but not eliminated. Hiding reactions discourages engagement, while displaying them without numbers still allows users to infer popularity through effort.
Next Steps & Recommendations
- Monitor long-term engagement trends—track posts and written reactions to measure impact.
- Test the "foot-in-the-door" strategy across multiple sample apps, analyzing changes in average posts per userbefore and after the update.
- Conduct further user research to understand when and why users feel discouraged by reaction counts and quality.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of obscuring reaction counts—consider hiding them from everyone except the poster to reduce social comparison.
Sources
Cognitive behavrioral sources:
- Eranti, V., & Lonkila, M. (2015).
The social significance of the Facebook Like button. First Monday, 20(6). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v20i6.5505 - Scott, C. A. (1977).
Modifying socially-conscious behavior: The foot-in-the-door technique. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 7(2), 127–135. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1977.tb02273.x - Dolinski, D. (2000).
The foot-in-the-door compliance procedure: A multiple-process analysis and review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4(1), 14–28. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327957PSPR0401_2 - Mcleod, S. (2020, August 25). Foot-in-the-door technique. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/foot-in-the-door-technique-8721465
- Nicol, S. (2019, October 7). The power of habit: Understanding how habits are formed. Medium. https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/the-power-of-habit-understanding-how-habits-are-formed-e71a138dc40f
Dangers of social Comparison Anxiety sources:
- Nesi, J., & Prinstein, M. J. (2015). Using Social Media for Social Comparison and Feedback-Seeking: Gender and Popularity Moderate Associations with Depressive Symptoms. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 43(8), 1427–1438. This study examines how adolescents use social media for social comparison and feedback-seeking, and how these behaviors are associated with depressive symptoms.
- Qahri-Saremi, H., & Turel, O. (2024). Role of 'Likes' and 'Dislikes' in Influencing User Behaviors on Social Media. Journal of Management Information Systems. This research explores how social media reactions, such as likes and dislikes, can influence users to engage in technology-mediated dangerous behaviors.
- Voggenreiter, A., Brandt, S., Putterer, F., Frings, A., & Pfeffer, J. (2023). The Role of Likes: How Online Feedback Impacts Users' Mental Health. arXiv preprint arXiv:2312.11914. This study analyzes the impact of receiving online feedback on users' emotional experiences, social connectedness, and self-esteem.
