Online Service Experiences for a Faith-based Organization
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, churches in Canada had to swiftly move their programs online. One of the main challenges of online church is in delivering the services remotely while fulfilling the believers’ spiritual and social needs. A church service is the believers’ weekly gathering (which used to take place in church buildings). It may be consisted of song worship, prayer, communion, sermon, and announcements.
In this project, I worked with a local church to enhance their online service experience by providing an in depth understanding of the believers’ perceptions and behaviours regarding online services. My recommendations helped them to incorporate new elements and improve the visual design of their online services.
In this project, I worked with a local church to enhance their online service experience by providing an in depth understanding of the believers’ perceptions and behaviours regarding online services. My recommendations helped them to incorporate new elements and improve the visual design of their online services.
Methods
I conducted both quantitative and qualitative research including YouTube data analytics and semi-structured interviews. The YouTube analytics revealed user behaviours as logged by the YouTube platform. The YouTube data of online services between March 15th 2020 and October 18th 2020 were downloaded and plotted. The data analysis focused on the premiere views, which is when the online service was first premiered on YouTube on Sunday morning. The YouTube premiere feature allows the service video to start playing at a pre-determined time for all viewers. While the online services are still publicly available on the YouTube channel afterward, the premiere data captures most of the church congregation’s watching behaviours.
The semi-structured interviews provided qualitative feedback on the online services. I interviewed 7 people from the congregation (4 male, 3 female, age ranges from 20’s to 50’s) through convenience sampling. Interviews were conducted on Zoom and each lasted about 30 minutes. Participants included people accessing the online services through TV, laptop, tablet, and smart phone.
I started with a list of questions but let the participants guide the direction of the conversation so that the interviews focused on what matters to them the most. The questions include the participants’ perception and expectations of online services as well as feedback on the visual design and flow of the services.
The semi-structured data was analyzed through affinity diagram to understand the overall themes in their feedback, see figure below:
The semi-structured interviews provided qualitative feedback on the online services. I interviewed 7 people from the congregation (4 male, 3 female, age ranges from 20’s to 50’s) through convenience sampling. Interviews were conducted on Zoom and each lasted about 30 minutes. Participants included people accessing the online services through TV, laptop, tablet, and smart phone.
I started with a list of questions but let the participants guide the direction of the conversation so that the interviews focused on what matters to them the most. The questions include the participants’ perception and expectations of online services as well as feedback on the visual design and flow of the services.
The semi-structured data was analyzed through affinity diagram to understand the overall themes in their feedback, see figure below:
Results
I will highlight some of the key results in this section.
Access
I was first interested in how people access the online services. Overall, 42% of the total views for the YouTube channel were on mobile phones and 33% were on desktops, see the breakdown of devices below. This was a surprise given the nature of the online service tends to be text heavy, but this result also points to the need of ensuring that the texts are readable even on smart phones
Access
I was first interested in how people access the online services. Overall, 42% of the total views for the YouTube channel were on mobile phones and 33% were on desktops, see the breakdown of devices below. This was a surprise given the nature of the online service tends to be text heavy, but this result also points to the need of ensuring that the texts are readable even on smart phones
Punctuality
One of the major challenges of airing services online is that there may be more distractions and responsibilities at home so people cannot attend the service on time. The data confirms this difficulty experienced by the congregation. As shown in the figure below, there's a rapid growth of device joining worship in the first 15 minutes of premiere. On average, 32.2% of the devices joined on time, and the number of devices quickly raised to 90.4% after 15 minutes. The number continues to grow slowly, and 98.5 percent of devices have joined by the first 30 minutes of the services.
One of the major challenges of airing services online is that there may be more distractions and responsibilities at home so people cannot attend the service on time. The data confirms this difficulty experienced by the congregation. As shown in the figure below, there's a rapid growth of device joining worship in the first 15 minutes of premiere. On average, 32.2% of the devices joined on time, and the number of devices quickly raised to 90.4% after 15 minutes. The number continues to grow slowly, and 98.5 percent of devices have joined by the first 30 minutes of the services.
In-person vs. online services
From the interviews, the participants’ comments further illustrate the differences between in-person and online service. The in-person service setting provides better atmosphere for them to get into the mood of worship. The in-person setting also allows for more accountability, e.g., people feel bad about being late to the service.
On the other hand, the online service provides advantages such as allowing for better note-taking and re-watching. Participants commented that they can have full access to the service later when they cannot attend at the premiere time. However, the home environment has more distractions and is more casual, which may be the reason that people cannot attend on time. The online services were perceived as lacking interaction and the feeling of worshiping together.
Through brainstorming with the participants, we came up with ideas to improve the engagement and interaction for the services. For example, the filming of individual segments can take place at the church to give a sense of worshiping together at church. The chat feature and greetings specifically for new guests can give a warm touch to the service. Furthermore, the church can host prayer time after service on Zoom.
Visual design
I elicited feedback on how effective the visual design of the service videos is. The original ratio of speaker to text was 1:1 giving them equal weight. However, the participants commented that the main content is the text, especially for the sermons. They perceive the sermon as a way to learn more about theology and the preachers act as a messenger to deliver the content. Thus, the textual content should take on more space and the speakers’ videos can be smaller.
From the interviews, the participants’ comments further illustrate the differences between in-person and online service. The in-person service setting provides better atmosphere for them to get into the mood of worship. The in-person setting also allows for more accountability, e.g., people feel bad about being late to the service.
On the other hand, the online service provides advantages such as allowing for better note-taking and re-watching. Participants commented that they can have full access to the service later when they cannot attend at the premiere time. However, the home environment has more distractions and is more casual, which may be the reason that people cannot attend on time. The online services were perceived as lacking interaction and the feeling of worshiping together.
Through brainstorming with the participants, we came up with ideas to improve the engagement and interaction for the services. For example, the filming of individual segments can take place at the church to give a sense of worshiping together at church. The chat feature and greetings specifically for new guests can give a warm touch to the service. Furthermore, the church can host prayer time after service on Zoom.
Visual design
I elicited feedback on how effective the visual design of the service videos is. The original ratio of speaker to text was 1:1 giving them equal weight. However, the participants commented that the main content is the text, especially for the sermons. They perceive the sermon as a way to learn more about theology and the preachers act as a messenger to deliver the content. Thus, the textual content should take on more space and the speakers’ videos can be smaller.
Impacts and Lesson Learned
This research produced many data and insights into the congregation’s perception and behaviours of the online services. More importantly, it revealed the needs to improve engagement and interaction for churches hosting online services on YouTube, especially during this COVID pandemic. The behaviour data and feedback also provided guidance into how to better design the visual and flow of the online services. Many of the suggestions have been adopted to better address the congregation’s needs at this local church.
Although the online service captured all activities of an in-person service, many elements of attending an in-person service were still missing. For example, when people first enter a church, they are usually greeted by receptionists and new guests are welcomed. At the end of the services, there are opportunities to connect and mingle with others as well as to pray together for support. Online services hosted through YouTube need consider how to engage the congregation and provide the warm human touch to fulfil the congregation’s spiritual and social needs.
Although the online service captured all activities of an in-person service, many elements of attending an in-person service were still missing. For example, when people first enter a church, they are usually greeted by receptionists and new guests are welcomed. At the end of the services, there are opportunities to connect and mingle with others as well as to pray together for support. Online services hosted through YouTube need consider how to engage the congregation and provide the warm human touch to fulfil the congregation’s spiritual and social needs.
My Roles
- Support board’s decision making by providing insights on online church experiences through conducting qualitative and quantitative user research
- Conduct end-to-end research by defining research questions, designing user study, recruiting participants, conducting data collection & analysis, reporting to stakeholders, and implementing changes related to the visual design of the service videos