In 2019, the YV staff was tasked with “expanding” the Bible app to be more than just a Bible. The idea was to take other elements of a faith walk and incorporate them into the app, ie.. community, prayer, worship, journaling and more. While being excited about “expansion,” I did feel a bit of concern with adding features to “expand” the app, but not truly enrich the user’s experience. I had the idea to utilize the popular content digestion format of Stories (Snapchat, Instagram, etc.) as a way to create a cohesive “quiet time” feature that incorporates multiple spiritual disciplines into one experience. Since launching in 2020, Verse of the Day Stories has had over 353 Million “story completions”, is now supported in 11 languages, and will add 5 more languages in September 2022.
Concept Sketches
I started by getting onto paper what I felt would be the most inviting experience for users. Before we narrowed down the scope for MVP, the original idea was that each user would have a personalized, dynamic story that would refresh daily. As we got into the design process more, it was evident that the most efficient way to build and test this would be to create a singular story around YouVersion’s Verse of the Day.
Early Prototype
The proposal for creating this new experience in the app required lots of testing since this would be introducing a new media type into the app. We developed a simple prototype to be able to test how the idea would be received.
One major element of a Story is a 2-3 minute video from a communicator giving a short devotional lesson. The prototype was also used to show communicators all over the world the feature and invite them to be a part of sharing God’s Word with a global audience.
Upon launch, the Verse of the Day Story was comprised of 7 main modules that could be navigated between by tapping on the right or left of the screen.
Video Devotional: A communicator sharing a short devotional around the verse of the Day. Communicators include: N.T. Wright, Nona Jones, Christine Caine, Craig Groeschel, Lecrae, Kirk Franklin, Sadie Robertson and more.
Verse of the Day: This module is shareable and designed to be engaging. The gradient behind the image subtly moves to create a peaceful screen for meditation.
Reflection Moment: The user is challenged to reflect on the verse and answer a question relevant to the theme of the day’s teaching. There is also an option to add a personal note instead of clicking on one of the pre-filled out answers.
Written Devotional: When designing this feature, I wanted to ensure that we leveraged our library of “Plans", daily written devotionals. This module pulls in a plan day from a relevant plan and gives the user the opportunity to save and start the plan later. It’s a great opportunity for onboarding to one of YouVersion’s biggest features.
Prayer: The content writers at YouVersion develop a written prayer to pair with the rest of the devotional. The prayer can be saved and accessed in the prayer section of our app.
Verse Image: A specially designed image is put in the Story. This can be saved and shared from this screen.
Completion Moment: This wraps up the Story for the day and gives an option to share the entire story.
Story Stats + Growth
Since launching in 2020, Verse of the Day Stories has had over 353 Million “story completions”, is now supported in 11 languages, and will add 5 more languages in September 2022.