Prototype 2: Prayer Logging

My second prototype was a wireframe for a website that would take some of web's most user-friendly features and apply them to the ritual of prayer. I chose to focus on prayer because it's varied and mysterious nature posed a challenge for adaptation to digital design rubrics. I tried to use this prototype to think through how I would apply existing digital amenities and formats such as  e-mail and voice capture to this ritual and vice versa. 

MAJOR STUDIO FINAL: RESPONSIVE GOD

My ideation process began with a few initial thoughts as a base: So many of our commodities, especially our digital commodities are responsive and user-friendly. As traditional Christian religious practices such as exegesis, Bible-study, and dialogue are mapped onto digital platforms like smartphones, laptops, and other portable devices, will they be entirely responsive? Will they be able to adapt entirely? What, if anything, is lost when we adapt these religious rituals to the modern digital environment and ourselves?

Prototype 1: Portable Stained Glass Light box

I began by creating a simply box made of card stock. The top of the box was cut in a pattern to allow light out. I would then place my phone inside of the box turning it into a light box that could create a stained glass effect, inspired by religious imagery.  Had I continued the design, I would have added to it so that it responded to certain voice commands and volume, so that an individual or group could pray and the box would respond to certain religious "keywords" such as "Amen" or "Dear Lord". However after receiving feedback and testing the light box, I realize that I wanted a device that would better challenge prayer rituals and incorporate network communication.

Feedback:

The voice visualization was too abrupt and needs to better connote calm, serenity, lightness

Add elegance to prayer visual

Make it clear when another person has joined the prayer application

I need to make clear the Christian context of the project so the intended user is clear OR

I need to expand the application so that it takes more religions into consideration

Muslim and Christian users seemed to more intuitively navigate the application as compared to Buddhist or secular participants

People who were not currently practicing a religion but were raised in a Christian or Muslim household were more easily able to navigate the app

I need to ground in the context of my personal practice and Abrahamic traditions as to not reinforce hegemonic discourses that center Western Christianity. 

Prototype 3

I further developed this idea of a "website" into an application for portable devices that could be used by those who practice prayer -- in a Christian, liberal context -- on the go and outside of church. I wanted the application to be as responsive to the user as most popular apps are. I also wanted the design to reflect a juxtaposition of the way many Christians practice these rituals in physical space versus how it is done in a digital arena. 

USER TESTING 

Questions:

Do the visuals and graphics connote/create a tone that is spiritual, supernatural, or ethereal?

How much prompting do the users need in order to interact with the application?

Testing:

Presented the users with the opening screen of the application which took them to the voice visualization.

FINAL ITERATION

The final iteration of the application included two main features:

1) first the user is brought to the opening page where they are allowed to select one of three personality customized prayers.

2) they are directed to that page and from there can enter the "prayer page" where their voice is visualized

3) when others join more "beams" will be added to the page creating a joint visual 

The final was built using Javascript, features like Node and Sockets.io, and javascript library P5js

Link to GitHub: