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Improving Engagement and Retention in a Global Muslim App
Improving Engagement and Retention in a Global Muslim App
Muslim Pro serves millions of Muslims globally as a daily spiritual companion. This design challenge focused on identifying opportunities to improve engagement, adoption, and long-term retention by addressing usability friction, personalization gaps, and motivational barriers across a diverse user base.
This case study was completed as a design task for Muslim Pro, with the goal of defining product opportunities to explore over a six-month horizon. The focus was on the mobile app experience (iOS and Android), specifically how users discover, engage with, and return to core religious features.
Muslim Pro serves millions of Muslims globally as a daily spiritual companion. This design challenge focused on identifying opportunities to improve engagement, adoption, and long-term retention by addressing usability friction, personalization gaps, and motivational barriers across a diverse user base.
This case study was completed as a design task for Muslim Pro, with the goal of defining product opportunities to explore over a six-month horizon. The focus was on the mobile app experience (iOS and Android), specifically how users discover, engage with, and return to core religious features.
🎨 My Role
🎨 My Role
UI/UX Design
UI/UX Design
⏱️ Timeline
⏱️ Timeline
5 Days
(20 Oct – 25 Oct 2023)
5 Days
(20 Oct – 25 Oct 2023)
🔨 Tools
🔨 Tools
Figma
Figma
👤 Client
👤 Client
Muslim Pro
Muslim Pro
Assumptions
Assumptions
The app’s role is to support and enhance daily religious routines, not replace offline worship.
The app’s role is to support and enhance daily religious routines, not replace offline worship.
These are my hypothesis of the 3 different types of core users who interact with Muslim Pro:
These are my hypothesis of the 3 different types of core users who interact with Muslim Pro:
- Users are Muslim and already motivated to practice or deepen their faith.
- Users have baseline familiarity with Islamic practices such as prayer, Qibla' direction, islamic terms and supplications such as dua, dhikr, and fasting.
- Users have diverse background affecting engagement patterns based on age, language, cultural background and religious proficiency.
These assumptions allowed the design exploration to focus on user experience quality and motivation.
These assumptions allowed the design exploration to focus on user experience quality and motivation.
Limitations
Limitations
- Muslim Pro has a wide database of users who speaks various languages. However, for the case study, I focused solely on implementing the design in English due to the locations of the headquarters (Singapore, Malaysia) that I would work in.
- I assumed that the task is limited around the mobile app for iOS and Android platform.
Understanding the Problem
Understanding the Problem
Based on the Muslim Pro reviews on the app store, we discovered for every 8 positive feedbacks, there are also 8 detractors.
Based on the Muslim Pro reviews on the app store, we discovered for every 8 positive feedbacks, there are also 8 detractors.
😊
😊
Positive feedbacks directly correlates to customer deep satisfaction, some of them expressed their appreciation for specific features such as the call for prayer (adhan notifications), dua references, qibla navigation, etc.
Positive feedbacks directly correlates to customer deep satisfaction, some of them expressed their appreciation for specific features such as the call for prayer (adhan notifications), dua references, qibla navigation, etc.
😠
😠
Detractors are mostly relating to ads or technical issues, such as inaccurate prayer times, not receiving notifications. Users were frustrated by recurring ads or ad friction when navigating between Qibla' and Prayer Times feature.
Detractors are mostly relating to ads or technical issues, such as inaccurate prayer times, not receiving notifications. Users were frustrated by recurring ads or ad friction when navigating between Qibla' and Prayer Times feature.
Empathize
Empathize
- Competitive Analysis
- User interviews
- Identifying Pain Points
Define
Define
- Problem Statement
- How Might We (HMW)
Ideation
Ideation
- User flows
- Low Fidelity Wireframe
Prototype
Prototype
- High fidelity prototype
Evaluate
Evaluate
- If I had more time
Competitive Analysis
Competitive Analysis
To identify opportunities and common pain points, I tried several competitors app. I also compared it with other religion apps.
Findings
Findings
Noor App
Noor App
- Noor offered personalised report of usage activity.
- Noor offered language and translation according to preferences from onboarding.
- Noor offered integration with other devices such as bluetooth (play verses in the car).
Muslim App
Muslim App
- Muslim & Hallow focused on features relative to prayer & activities of worship.
Hallow App
Hallow App
- Hallow used engaging and visually appealing interfaces to drive hierarchy.
- Hallow offers themed sessions – curated playlist.
- Hallow offered challenges to engage more users over longer periods of time.
- Hallow offers private circle feature for selected users.
Understanding Users
Understanding Users
To gain an understanding of the Muslim Pro user behavior and motivations, I conducted an interview with my relatives and friends who use Muslim Pro. My goal is to gather insights into their behavior, motivations and pain points that prevent them from using the app regularly.
To gain an understanding of the Muslim Pro user behavior and motivations, I conducted an interview with my relatives and friends who use Muslim Pro. My goal is to gather insights into their behavior, motivations and pain points that prevent them from using the app regularly.
In an ideal scenario, I would additionally employ at least one of the following quantitative methods:
In an ideal scenario, I would additionally employ at least one of the following quantitative methods:
- User segmentation for balanced response rate and diverse participant pool
- Surveys and analytics to help uncover usage patterns and trends to identify pain points to improve on.
Sadiah, 66
Sadiah, 66
Retired civil servant
Retired civil servant
- Main language of communication is Malay
- Has only Muslim Pro app installed
- Uses Muslim app to read and listen to recitation of Quran, find doa, find kiblat
- Motivated to become a better muslim and more devout.
- Has a deep understanding of Islam.
- Prays more than 5 times a day along with sunat prayers and sunat fasting as well.
- Likes to show support for Muslim causes
- Likes to recite Quran in groups
- Consistently studies Quran along with a teacher on Facebook Live
Abdul, 76
Abdul, 76
Computer Technician
Computer Technician
- Main language of communication is English
- Has a few Muslim apps installed
- Goal is to be able to read Quran fluently
- Because of language and communication barrier, rarely engaged in Muslim lessons.
- Has basic knowledge of Islam
- Recently started attending Islam classes by english-speaking tutors.
- Mostly uses desktop to search Youtube videos of how to read Quran
- Considers himself disciplined but still find it hard to pray on time
- More motivation to pray when in groups, so goes to the mosque regularly
Siti, 29
Siti, 29
IT Professional
IT Professional
- Main language of communication is Malay and English
- Has a few Muslim apps installed
- Mostly uses apps to read and listen to recitation of Quran, find kiblat
- Goal is to be able to read Quran on the go, anytime, anywhere.
- Prays 5 times a day, reads Quran and duas when free.
- Likes to stay productive with work, even throughout the weekends
- Prefers to engage with Muslim app at her own time.
Findings
Findings
- Most users are already using one or more Muslim app
- Different spectrum of users – users who spends time/are motivated to improve, users who are busy and have a specific goal, users new to Islam or its practice who do not know where to start, users of varying age range.
- Users have varying command of language, cultural background, and quality of life, which may affect their overall engagement session with the app.
- Most users engage frequently for short periods of time
- Users primarily use basic functions such as Athan, Quran, Duas or Qiblat feature
- Users found ad disruptive and get more and more frustrated with the waiting time, decide to abandon the app.
- Elder users spent more time going through each screen, unaware of certain visual information e.g. “more” icon
- Users were unaware of more features in the “more” icon
- Users were unsure which information to focus on in order.
- Users found the landing screen to be cluttered with unnecessary data
- Users expressed desire to be guided
- Users expressed desire for practical features e.g. notification for days recommended for fasting
- Users express lack of motivation to engage with the app regularly as they have other app to use for basic features (reading Quran)
Identifying Pain Points
Identifying Pain Points
I summarized the user interviews to identify UX issues that frustrate the users & block them from getting what they need.
I summarized the user interviews to identify UX issues that frustrate the users & block them from getting what they need.
💸 Financial
💸 Financial
- Recurring subscription is not worth the basic features used
- User sees ads as a marketing ploy rather than support for the cause
- Need to compare cost and benefits before subscribing
- Users feel financially manipulated by ad frictions especially between important features such as Qibla' and Prayer Times.
👨💻 Productivity
👨💻 Productivity
- Lack of focus – unsure which information to focus on
- Lack of guidance – spent a lot of time scanning the page to make sense of the information
- Lack of motivation – other than main features, user scanned through the app but felt unnecessary to use other features
💬 Process
💬 Process
- Too much scrolling on information they don’t need
- Navigation structure is very niche and lacks clarification (user doesn’t understand what ‘tracking’ means)
- Disconnected from onboarding – User don’t know where to go after onboarding.
🎧 Support
🎧 Support
- Lack of internal knowledge e.g. to how to begin reading Quran
- Lack of guidance in terms of structure
Problem Statement
Problem Statement
- Users have different needs and motivation due to language or cultural background.
- Users have different proficiency in Islam.
- The lack of personalised experience limits user engagement.
How Might We...
How Might We...
- Tailor app experience for global, diverse users
- Make the app more engaging and motivating to use?
- Make it more intuitive and accessible for users with different proficiencies navigate the app?
- Suggest personalised recommendation to enhance user engagement
Ideation
Ideation
To address the pain points, I identified the following flows and concept that can be expanded and explored:
To address the pain points, I identified the following flows and concept that can be expanded and explored:
Homepage Redesign
Homepage Redesign
Onboarding Personalisation
Onboarding Personalisation
Community Features
Community Features
Hi-Fi Prototype
Hi-Fi Prototype
Onboarding Personalisation
Onboarding Personalisation
As a first time user, I want to personalise my experience
As a first time user, I want to personalise my experience
- User prompted to set language, goals to personalize experience
- Guide user upon setup e.g. onboarding users that are learning Quran
Measurement of success:
Measurement of success:
✓ Increase user engagement
✓ Increase user engagement
✓ Increase user adoption
✓ Increase user adoption
Homepage Redesign
Homepage Redesign
As a recurring user, I want to track my ibadah
As a recurring user, I want to track my ibadah
- Quick tutorials to guide first time users
- Quick search for recurring users to find and perform task more quickly
- Navigation section limited to not confuse the user
- Show user statistics and progression to encourage user engagement
- Tailor goals to daily, weekly, or monthly according to user usage pattern
Measurement of success:
Measurement of success:
✓ Increase user conversion
✓ Increase user conversion
✓ Increase user retention
✓ Increase user retention
Community Features
Community Features
As a user, I want to engage with the Muslim community
As a user, I want to engage with the Muslim community
- Happening Now – Find Muslim streamers
- Recite duas or Quran together
- Space for users to find and build community
Measurement of success:
Measurement of success:
✓ Increase user engagement – time spent on app by interacting with the app features more
✓ Increase user engagement – time spent on app by interacting with the app features more
✓ Increase user retention
✓ Increase user retention
Final Prototype
Final Prototype
Evaluate
Evaluate
If I had more time...
If I had more time...
- Plan on research more – who makes up for the majority of users
- Perform simple usability testing – test the idea
- Explore accessibility for elderly, especially I have an assumption that there is more "pious" elder users and would like to validate it.
- Spend more time on ideation
Key Takeaways
Key Takeaways
- What does it mean to be Muslim? Many converts had some prior knowledge, and almost as many are new to the religion.
- Goal of Muslim Pro as a home for all things Muslim – as community or as resource?
- Created survey form, tried to distribute but didn’t get enough respondents
- Language can be a huge barrier with the diverse pool of users
- We need to consider more accessibility for elderly users
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