KKitabisa, a leading crowdfunding platform, connects donors to causes they care about. However, donor retention posed a challenge.
While many users donated out of personal beliefs or religious fulfillment, these motivations were beyond the platform’s control.
The team hypothesized that creating a sense of emotional engagement through a "hook" model could encourage more frequent donations.
The key question became:
How might we empower Kitabisa users to donate routinely and actively?
Amen feature as post-donation experience improvement
Company
Kitabisa
Duration
3 months (2020)
My Role
Researcher
Responsibilities
Research Plan, Concept Testing, Focus Group Discussion, Usability Testing
Impact
The emotional engagement feature had significant outcomes:
Retention increase: The growth of user retention within three months of release.
Viral Marketing: The feature sparked widespread attention on social media, generating valuable user-generated content.
Behavioral Change: Donors engaged more frequently with the platform, with many expressing positive emotional connections to the feature.
Approach
My approach was grounded in research and iteration. I divided the project into two phases:
Exploration: Understand donor behavior and motivations through desk research and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs).
Validation: Test concepts using prototypes and refine based on donor feedback.
Journey/ Process
The journey began with desk research, revealing that 80% of donors were transactional, motivated by short-term goals like supporting medical cases.
Many sought spiritual rewards, such as answered prayers, aligning with the potential of a "prayer and Amen" feature.
Initial FGDs validated this idea, showing that donors appreciated the familiar, social-media-like interaction of writing prayers and receiving Amens.
Hook model theory discussed in FGD
In the validation phase, the team created a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) by modifying an existing comment feature to encourage prayer-writing.
Experiments confirmed donors’ willingness to share their prayers.
Subsequent FGDs with high-fidelity prototypes provided deeper insights into emotional value and usability, while usability testing ensured the feature was accessible and intuitive.
Tweaking existing comment feature into prayer-writing as MVP
The final implementation seamlessly integrated the prayer and Amen feature into the donation flow.
Donors could write prayers during the donation process, and others could engage by adding Amens, fostering a sense of community and emotional connection.
Testing final design within donation flow.
Result
The project delivered a transformative feature that:
Integrated a "prayer and Amen" system directly into the donation process.
Created a social and emotional reward mechanism to enhance donor engagement.
Supported Kitabisa’s mission by encouraging frequent, meaningful donations.
These outputs not only strengthened donor retention but also highlighted the importance of aligning product features with users' emotional and social behaviors.
The feature’s success showcased the potential of human-centered design to drive impactful, scalable changes in user behavior.
