An Unexpected Pivot That Could Impact 200k+ Users
Complete overhaul of a subscription management platform to improve usability, streamline workflows, and enhance overall user experience. The goal was to create a more intuitive and efficient platform for both administrators and end-users.
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
2006
E-commerce
$1.578 billion (2019)
5,000+
CONTEXT
Challenge
FamilySearch's Get Involved app helps users transcribe historical records through indexing. Despite the spiritual and genealogical importance of this work, the app struggled with low adoption and retention among younger users (ages 15-30), threatening the long-term sustainability of this volunteer effort.
The Task
Deliver research-based recommendation to make indexing more engaging for young adults
The Recommendation
Integrate the Get Involved app with the new Together app
But, if that isn't feasible, add gamification and social features to the Get Involved app—common patterns to boost engagement in younger audiences
This case study walks through how these recommendations came to be…
DISCOVER
Listening Before Solving
Leading a Research Strategy That Would Uncover Emotional Drivers & Blockers
I developed our team’s research approach to understand how young adults perceive the Get Involved app, identify what motivates them to engage (or disengage) in family history activities, and generate insights to inform a more engaging indexing experience.
This plan included:
Secondary research on mobile app engagement patterns
An interview guide I created to ensure alignment across our team
Observational studies with think-aloud protocols followed by interview questions with 16 college students
Here are some themes we explored and insights we gained in our research:
Through the data synthesis workshop I led, we discovered opportunities for connection through gamification and social features:
"Make it like LinkedIn games—play against friends, visual progress"
"Make it like LinkedIn games—play against friends, visual progress"
"Make it like LinkedIn games—play against friends, visual progress"
DEFINE
Who are we designing for?
Problem Statments I Co-Developed
Writing out statements like this is a key part of my design process because it guides decisions during the project and helps evaluate impact afterward.
Persona
IDEATE
Exploring Features That Would Make Users Come Back
Guided by the problem statements, our team generated a wide range of concepts—from mini-games to social group leaderboards, to ensure our solutions would truly motivate ongoing engagement.
My Contribution
🧠 I led the team in grounding our ideas in motivational psychology, particularly Self-Determination Theory (autonomy, competence, relatedness)
📈 Introduced a value-feasibility matrix to prioritize ideas based on user impact and development viability (see below)
🤔 Facilitated the team decision-making process to align features with core user needs
The prioritization process ensured we moved forward with the most meaningful and actionable features:
Individual and Group Activities, such as streaks and monthly targets, accompanied by badges to make indexing more social and rewarding
Rotating inspirational quotes to remind the user of the significance of this volunteer work
Progress bar and time estimates to provide the user visual feedback on their progress and to make indexing feel more accomplishable
“Groups” tab, where users can create or join groups with family or friends to participate in indexing activities together
PROTOTYPE
Bringing the Prioritized Ideas to Life
Low-Fi Wireframes
Here are a few examples of some concept sketches I drew up:
Progress visualization
Time to complete task
Social challenges
Before moving to high-fidelity prototyping, we shared our concepts with our FamilySearch point of contact. While she was excited about the direction, she encouraged us to be cautious of potential guilt-driven engagement or addictive mechanics. Based on her feedback, we refined features like streaks to be optional goals users could choose, rather than default pressure points.
Hi-Fi Prototype
Utilizing Family Search's design system and implementing feedback from our low-fidelity sketches, I built a comprehensive prototype in Figma that included all of our prioritized features:
We were about to start testing this prototype with users until I learned about FamilySearch’s new Together app…
Screenshot from Apple's App Store
THE PIVOT
One Question That Changed Everything: “Does Get Involved need to be its own app?”
Though it wasn’t made for indexing, the new Together app addressed the exact needs our research had uncovered—social connection, purpose, and a sense of ongoing engagement. It even contained exact features we’d already prototyped such as family groups, activities, streaks, and more.
That’s when I asked:
“If Together already offers what young adults want, why rebuild it in Get Involved?”
My Recommendation to Stakeholders
I advocated for exploring app integration with the FamilySearch team, arguing that:
Users already struggled with app fatigue across FamilySearch's ecosystem
The newly released "Together" app already includes social features that users want
Integration could solve adoption issues more effectively than feature additions
Research Round 2: Letting Young Adults Tell Us What The Better Experience Is
We officially pivoted our focus from adding features to Get Involved to seeking the solution for a more engaging indexing experience for young adults. Here is an overview of the research I helped our team accomplish with only two weeks left in our timeline:
Research Question
What is the likelihood of young adults participating in sustained indexing with the apps remaining separate as they currently are, compared to if they were integrated?
Mixed Methods Approach
Qualitative
15 moderated user sessions with both apps (Together & Get Involved)
Quantitative
32 survey responses on app preferences after using both apps
The Results Were Clear: One App, Not Two
Quantitative Results
Qualitative Validation
DELIVER
Delivering Strategy, Not Just Screens
Final Recommendation to Stakeholders
At the end of the semester, my team and I delivered a detailed artifact packet of our work along with a presentation to both the Together app and Get Involved app teams at Family Search. Based on research, we recommended the following strategic shift to increase indexing engagement among young adults:
Primary Recommendation
Integrate Get Involved’s indexing functionality into the Together app to create a more unified and engaging family history experience for users.
Because…
Together already provides the social features young adults crave
Integration reduces app fatigue and cognitive load
Significantly increases the likelihood of sustained engagement in indexing among young adults
But if Integration isn't feasible….
Secondary Recommendation
Implement gamification and social features designed in the prototype.
The presentation was received well by both the Together and Get Invovled teams at FamilySearch. They are currently assessing our recommendations.
IMPACT
Impact of the Strategic Question I Asked
My initial question about app architecture led to:
"Second row it like LinkedIn games—play against friends, visual progress"
"Second row it like LinkedIn games—play against friends, visual progress"
"Second row it like LinkedIn games—play against friends, visual progress"
Long-term Impact for FamilySearch:
Reusable and reliable data on a population they had never researched for indexing specifically
Started a conversation about app consolidation and user experience consistency across their product ecosystem
REFLECTION
UX research doesn't just answer the questions we're asked—it questions whether we're asking the right questions
If I had more time...
Explore what the unified app experience would look like and conduct usability testing on it
Do more research with diverse age groups to understand cross-generational implications of integration
Collect data on current adoption and retention rates of Get Involved app among young adult users to compare after either integration or feature implementation
My Key Learnings
Question Assumptions
Sometimes the problem isn't what it appears to be
Think Systemically
Consider the entire product ecosystem, not just individual apps
Always Advocate for the User
Be willing challenge stakeholder assumptions