Role: Design Researcher - Design Department Lead
Timeline: Jan 2021 - March 2021
Design Team: Professor Oscar Betancur, Paul Runko, Emi Higashiyama, Rana Rizcalla, Leanne Renee, Maria Fontes, Jingkun Duan, Kendall McKinnon, Liney Arciniegas, Akua Taylor, Sarah Pennington
Our nine-person team represents seven different countries and seven design disciplines.
Design Thinking
The process framework for creative problem solving can include many tools, including visualization using the Double Diamond framework. This divided our process according to the way of thinking required at each stage. Shifting back and forth between convergent and divergent thinking, or narrow and focused to broad and open, we discovered the problem, defined the partner’s needs, developed potential solutions, and delivered final concepts.
Design Statement
Utilizing existing and emerging technologies, and within the next 10 years, how might we create an inclusive virtual spiritual community that is welcoming to the diverse Gen Z cohort?
Project Brief
The ELCA is committed to activating people while inviting everyone to know the way of Jesus, but current membership and engagement are declining at alarming rates. In an effort to explore new ways to engage younger audiences, specifically Generation Z, a partnership with SCAD was initiated to tackle the mystery of reviving waning interest in church.
What followed were ten weeks of intensive research, ideation, and problem-solving exercises. The result is a framework of an inclusive virtual spiritual community where all generations (not just the young) are invited to find meaning, purpose, and belonging.
Background Research
Barna is a research group that focuses primarily on church practices and trends. The “dying church” is a phenomenon experienced by all denominations, and so the ELCA is in good company when it comes to wanting to understand the Gen Z cohort. This shared problem is also well-documented in popular media, so we spent our first week referencing these sources, familiarizing ourselves with these church trends, and understanding how these affect Gen Z.
Eras Map
Eras maps chart the growth and progression of value propositions of an industry. In this case, the development of the ELCA’s role in society.
Looking back at the history of the ELCA, we found a consistency in the church’s forward-thinking nature. Separating from conservatism and taking strong stances on progressive social issues are just two examples of ELCA’s past actions that would appeal to Gen Z. Looking forward, an inclusive virtual community within this innovative organization is exactly what Gen Z needs, even if they don’t know it yet.
Field Research
Based on the hypotheses we formed from our background research, we set out to validate these hypotheses by talking to Gen Z individuals. Insights from the interviews we conducted and the survey we shared pointed to genuine human connection as the primary driver for this generation.
Interviews
Interviewees lived in various parts of the US, some having experienced cross-country or international relocations -- one overwhelming theme was very clear: the desire for high-quality relationships with others.
1. What does “church” mean to you?
2. What do you think church should mean?
3. What is your ideal communication method?
4. If you could have the ideal church experience, what would it look like?
5. Where do you feel you can most be yourself?
With these five main questions as a guide, we conducted interviews with Gen Z individuals. The goal of the interviews was to understand how the youth view church communities outside of the church building.
Interviewees were mainly from the 18-25 age group, and their most significant insights revolved around forming their own identity and value systems as separate from their parents. Those in the high school age group were primarily concerned about associating church with friend groups.
Surveys
The survey was conducted to understand and validate how the Gen Z cohort uses social media, determine if the activity meets their expectations, and analyze the way it makes them feel. The quantitative results were clues to online content consumption and virtual community participation.
Personas
Through both background and field research, some patterns of data points became abundantly clear. Understanding drivers of both pain and motivation opened up trains of thought to explore opportunities to solve the proposed design challenge. The personas, therefore, are non-fictional amalgamations of data represented as fictional characters. These characters, then, became the basis for planning scenarios and user experiences.
Clustering
After writing these questions, we sorted them by common themes and arrived at the four value pillars of our VR experience:
ENGAGING
SPIRITUALLY SUPPORTIVE
INCLUSIVE
SUSTAINABLE
Keeping these values in mind at all times kept our ideas relevant to the ELCA’s vision for this project and the positive potential of virtual reality.
We brainstormed the various aspects of a user experience for a creative matrix (left). With our converged HMW questions on the y-axis and the five Es on the x-axis, we systematically categorized how a user might be enticed, enter, engage, exit, and how to extend the experience.
Converging
With many sticky notes cluttering our Miro board, we sorted all the ideas based on difficulty (time and cost) and user and business value, which gave us strategic wins and high-value ideas to keep. The luxuries and quick wins we set aside because they were either too costly and/or without significant gains.
ABC...Q
From the converged creative matrix we pulled our ideas and sorted them into tiers. The chart is read as a continuum, with the furthest left column being for immediate ELCA implementation and the furthest right being ideas for them to consider later on. The middle two columns show the ideas that could be implemented with further development.
VR World Building Platforms
With numerous VR platforms already available (along with an expected proliferation) and their growing avenues of application, we evaluated the most popular and user-friendly platforms based on the needs we identified through ideation. After researching the costs associated with each platform, the gear required, how the worlds are built, and who the typical users are, the evaluation showed us that AltspaceVR was the most viable option for the ELCA right now, with the potential for Unreal Engine to be used in the future.
Factoring in technicalities and logistics, we also needed to ensure that the visuals matched our vision for the ELCA’s VR experience. We chose AltspaceVR again based on the platform’s existing offerings.
User Testing
Considering the newness of the platform, it was only fitting that our user testing is performed first by our team. Using a pre-built AltspaceVR world as if it were TelePREZ, we engaged with the platform as newcomers, taking note of our pain points and excitements alike.
Our recommendation is preceded by others already experiencing AltspaceVR for gaming and as a social platform -- and particularly as a gathering space for those seeking spiritual community. Although the ELCA does not believe in “competition,” especially related to the core mission of sharing news of God’s love, there are those seeking community in other organizations. If the ELCA is not actively claiming space in the VR world, then Gen Z will turn to other resources instead.
Market Place Analysis
“We are one church in many metaverses.”
Virtual reality is nearly untapped by spiritual and religious groups, but not entirely. Pastor D.J. Soto began preaching through AltspaceVR in 2016, and has since planted five churches across the metaverse.
Now, in 2021, VR Church has almost 400 weekly attendees, 50% of which would not identify themselves as Christ-followers. Through multiple online platforms, VR Church is not only reaching those far from church--they are reaching those far from God.
VR Church Initiatives:
Key Insights
1. Is present on Twitch, Discord, AltspaceVR, VRChat, RecRoom, Facebook Horizons
2. Participates in VR sacraments
3. Accepts Bitcoin and Ethereum for tithing
4. Profiled by Wired Magazine, USA Today, CNN, BBC
5. Currently developing Virtual Reality Seminary
Marketing Plan: Keeping in line with mobile-first opportunities, an integrated marketing strategy that emphasizes connection and community is necessary to supplement the ELCA VR experience.
Although the primary engagement strategy is with the use of VR technology, driving traffic will require other methods of engagement. Our proposed solution, therefore, is podcast-centered for an integrated marketing strategy that amplifies connection and community. Supporting that audio-primary structure is a visual component that rounds out the omnichannel approach.
Playbook that includes:
1. Content strategy
2. Content production plan
3. Measurement strategy
Podcast
"Love Your Neighbor"
The ELCA podcast is a center for user-generated content and a supplement to connections made in the VR experience. On the first day of each month, the theme for the next month’s podcast is announced, starting a nationwide call for submissions. The deadline is the 25th. There will be one challenge constraint, e.g. “you must interview an ELCA member outside your congregation,” or “you must interview someone from a different generation,” or “you must interview someone from another school.” With that month’s theme and rule in mind, the sky is the limit for ELCA youth to contribute to and extend meaningful conversations.
Social Media Omnichannel
Style Guide
Imagery for the omnichannel approach is a riff on the ELCA’s current colors and font as pulled from the logo. By dropping the saturation and warming the colors, they are now more youthful and inviting. We then loosened up New Century Gothic to find an equally playful handwritten font. Any promotional material, such as the podcast’s social media accounts, will be designed according to these visual guidelines.
What's Next?
Everything we know about Gen Z leads back to one thing: they crave connection. As digital natives, they are no strangers to seeing what someone is posting online, but without an authentic relationship, scrolling social media not only becomes a mindless activity -- it starts to feel inauthentic. To remedy this disconnect, having a virtual reality destination could encourage dedicated presence and relationship formation in a generation used to floating from app to app. Although both visually and aurally immersive, the true power and magic of a VR experience are that it is fully interactive.
Here they can feel grounded in space, express themselves authentically with little effort, and make connections with people they otherwise may not have been able to meet. Activated by these connections, they can contribute to one of the monthly ELCA “Love Your Neighbor” podcasts, or perhaps start attending an ELCA congregation. We will have succeeded if Gen Z views ELCA as a welcoming resource they can turn to for meaningful relationships in their digital world.
