UX Around Us #1: A Church Brochure
Howdy!
It’s been a minute, hasn’t it?
I’ve been thinking about starting a series that analyzes how physical products around us have incorporated adequate UX to better the life of users. I’ve noticed that every time or a majority of time people refer to UX, their main focus is on the digital aspects of UX and not on common everyday items.
UX Around Us will shine light on this everyday products you might have ignored or been oblivious to till now.
I do hope you find it insightful and fun to read.
#1
Kicking off this series is a case of a church brochure. I’m religious. Yes, I am. But this article isn’t about God, and trust me, no matter your belief you’ll gain insights as a designer.
My church is having its dedication this Saturday, and as you might imagine there’s a lot of fuss that goes into moving into a new home. So many activities have been earmarked for that day and a brochure printed to serve the purpose.
Last week Sunday, the brochure was launched and parishioners supported the launching.
The Realization
My mum was one of the people who launched the brochure and when she returned with it, I noticed something different. She came back with two different brochures.
Hold on.
Why does the church have two brochures for the same event? I wondered.
On a closer inspection I found out the most beautiful thing ever.
Before I tell you what I found out, let me explain what the brochure does.
A brochure published for such an occasion contains congratulatory messages from almost every other parish in the archdiocese, goodwill messages from parishioners, photo splash of the church, and readings of the next week.
They include the readings to tempt parishioners into buying. It’s a sneaky marketing practice, honestly, and one day we’ll come back to this.
Back to the brochure
Now you know what a regular brochure would contain, you can imagine how bulky it will be and the fact you’ll need this every day for at least a week or two after the event.
What did I find? Well take a look below.
Please mind my camera. I had forgotten to take the picture all day because of work and I got a dark image.
The church split the brochure into two.
On the left, we have the less bulky printout for the dedication mass and readings until the fourth of June.
On the right we have the bulky brochure with congratulatory messages, goodwill messages, advert placements and a photo splash of children preparing for their confirmation.
Is this a UX move? Yes.
I’m sure the parish didn’t have the term UX in mind when doing this. My thought is that they would have been like
Why not we divide the brochure into two. One part for the main day which will contain images and wishes and the other one for readings.
I assume that was the conversation, but even if it wasn’t, it was an awesome move.
UX in Play
As designers, when we refer to UX, we are ultimately talking about how to make users’ lives better. It’s about developing ideas and products that serves a functional purpose in the user’s life.
What this brochure did was to make life easier. How?
The size of the brochure is large. Trust me. I would have added the weight, but my scale is broken. You don’t want to be bringing it everyday for Masses. Thinking about it even makes my stomach turn.
What they did was eliminate that stress by producing just readings in one place.
Once Saturday comes and goes, the bulky magazine is as good as useless unless you want to reread good will messages everyday. So, any parishioner who purchases the brochure can rest easy and know that they don’t have to haul the entire brochure to church.
A very simple gesture.
Oh, and do you know that the church loses nothing if we don’t take the brochure to church? On the contrary, it doesn’t affect their finance. It’s the parishioner who loses out because they paid and couldn’t bring the brochure for daily Masses.
Summarily,
Your product shouldn’t always be about making profit. Sometimes consider those who use it and how that little change can go a long way to make their life easy.
A church figured this out. You should, too.
Do you think the brochure idea qualifies as a good UX or is it just me?
Feel free to let me know what you think below.
Until the next episode. Be chill.
#NotYourUsualDesignBlog
