Always
PROJECT TYPE
Individual project
DURATION
8 weeks (Aug. 2022 - Oct. 2022)
ROLE
User Research / UX / UI design
TOOLS
Figma / Notion / After Effects
INTRODUCTION
In China, ancestor worship is a tradition that has existed for thousands of years. Traditionally, this involves visiting the graves of relatives on special holidays and performing rituals like burning paper, which can cause pollution. However, with the rise in environmental protection standards and various regional restrictions, this practice is gradually fading. At the same time, the younger generation's interest in ancestor worship culture is decreasing.
Always is an online worship app that, while inheriting traditional practices, imbues online offerings with a sense of ritual.
Design Challenge
How might we create a worship experience with a sense of ritual while retaining the traditional worship steps?
Main features
Knowledge cards based on traditional solar terms and regions allow users to gradually learn about traditional culture
01 Traditional culture quiz cards
Aim the phone at the actual location of the grave to start the worship, preserving traditional customs in the digital realm
02 Restore traditional rituals
Use traditional forms and offerings in rituals to preserve the culture of ancestral worship, adjusting these offerings based on the customs of different regions
03 Traditional offerings
When users prefer to keep their words to a loved one private, they can activate privacy mode, making the conversation visible only to themselves
04 Private Mode
Invite family members to participate in online rituals together, breaking geographical barriers in traditional ceremonies.
05 Group ancestor-worship
After completing online rituals, show energy saved to encourage users to use online worship more often, reducing the environmental impact of traditional worship
06 Eco-friendly ancetor-worship
Design process
Research
Ancestor worship is a Chinese mourning ceremony for the deceased relatives, and it is the embodiment of Chinese people's culture of filial piety. The culture of ancestor worship is firstly recorded in “Baopuzi, Shengfan”, a ancient book written 1700 years ago.
The culture of ancestor worship has been existing for thousands years
The first method is more ceremonial, but most users often use the second method. This project emphasizes simple devotion and conducts detailed research and design.
Primary Conclusion
But for modern residents, cemeteries are usually built far away from the city,
and residents will use the following ways to worship ancestors near their homes.
Shot on Shanghai
Shot on Lanzhou
After the ceremony
During the ceremony
Worship in an iron barrel
Worship on the roadside
Simple worship
In China, the classic way to worship is for the family to bring offerings to the graveyard and perform rituals by the graves. But since it's time-consuming and the graveyard is distant, it's usually done once a year.
Traditional worship
Typical behaviors during the Chinese ancestor worship
Burn joss paper
Kowtow
Offer oblation
Blessing
Research on existing products in China
Actually, there's only one online worship platform in China. And it merely offer a basic way to make online offerings. Nothing more.
However, worship service is far more than just giving a mobile phone or even a sports car. If the memorial ceremony can be completed by giving a gift like Tiktok live, then the traditional Chinese memorial ceremony culture will gradually disappear in the digitalization.
My worried about worship
Choose the people to worship
then the QR code appear
Use the phone to scan the QR code, then a website show up
On the website people can send several oblation or leave a message, but nearly all the oblation is not suitable for ancestor worship
Step 3
Step 1
Step 2
By way of qualitative research, I interviewed 5 users (including 3 users aged 20-25 and 2 users aged 40-50) to get enough insight
Interview guideline
1. Knowledge and understanding of worship
3. Perspectives on Digital Worship
2. Method and process of ancestor worship
User Interview & Key Insight
Gen Z
Gen X
“I just heard about the online worship, and I will definitely use it in the future. Now I have time to worship.
I won't go if I don't have time, but I will remember it in my heart”
Jingtai
23 years old
Master of materials science
Beijing
“I know the process and things of worship, but I don’t know enough about the culture behind it”
“If you can complete it with just one click on the Internet, it will be difficult for the ancestors to feel sincerity.”
24 years old
Master of Law
Shanghai
Anna
“It is difficult for young people to understand the meaning of worship if they have not had much contact with the person to be worshipped.”
“I hope to get some incentives, for example, there will be small awards for continuous ancestor worship.”
24 years old
HR in a baby product company
Shanghai
Vivi
“Sacrifice is to tell the ancestors that life is good now, and it is more of a blessing to bless the younger generations”
“Sacrifice is a moment of family reunion, where you can communicate with family member. It provides a common topic to communicate with the descendants of the family, which cannot be achieved on the Internet”
52 years old
Finance supervisor
Chengdu
Jing
“Because I love my relatives and have something to say, I need to find a place to talk”
“Worship is a combination of soul and ritual, if it is just formalism, it is not advisable”
51 years old
Art teacher in a primary school
Lanzhou
Hongtao
Target User & User Journey
Stage 1
Preparation
Go to cemetery
Ancestor worship
Pray for blessing
Organize offerings
User
Activities
Purchase fruits, pastries, and paper products for worship
Go to relatives' graves and clean tombstones (Close to the cemetery)
draw a circle with an opening (Far from the cemetery)
Place the offerings
Light the three sticks of incense
Burn joss paper
kowtow
Talk to deceased relatives
Set off firecrackers (some areas only)
Clean up the environment
Handling sacrifices
Stage
Thinking
Feeling
Painpint
Offline
Online
Based on existing products
Insufficient understanding of worship knowledge
To protect environment, it is not recommended to burn paper
The price of offerings is opaque and the quality levels are uneven
Difficult to price online worship offerings. It feels unnecessary if it is too high, and there is no sincerity if it is too low
Giving gifts like live broadcast software, the category is not suitable
There is no sense of ritual in giving sacrifices, and there is no sense of respect for ancestors
Online everyone can't see each other at the same time, maintain the relationship
/
/
/
Too far away from home/too busy, people can only do simple worship near the street
The epidemic has led to strict control, making it difficult to worship across regions
It is difficult to find a place for simple worship
During simple sacrifices, the environment is limited by weather, laws and regulations, and items
When worshipping distant relatives, one does not know enough about them
Due to pollution problems, many steps can only be canceled
Embarrassed to say things to loved ones in the presence of other people
Difficult for sanitation workers to clean up
“don’t know enough about the culture of worship”
HMW let users gradually learn about the traditional culture in the process of ancestor worship?
01
02
HMW create a sacrificial experience with a sense of ritual while retaining the traditional sacrificial steps?
How Might We
Stage 3
Stage 4
Stage 2
Stage 5
“Won't go if I don't have time, but I always remember”
“Sacrifice has a sense of ritual. Lose sincerity if I just click button online”
“I need to find a place to talk when worship”
“Worship is a moment of family reunion”
“Need consider the weather”
“Many young people are interested in things that are highly communicable”
Seriously worried about the time and place
Joyfull moment
Important and reunion moment
Worried what will happen after leaving
Need a lot preperation
Jansen
26 yesars old
Graphic designer
Goal
About
Preoccupied with work and lives far away from home. He want to worship ancestors. But due to the limitations of time and distance, he can only do simple sacrifices, and he is unfamiliar with the culture of ancestor worship.
Hope to worship ancestors more conveniently and with a sense of ritual
Major User
Elin
47 years old
Accounting manager
Goal
About
Middle-aged individuals with secure employment and more available time often focus their reverence on parents or loved ones, showing deep concern for their ancestors.
Hope to engage in simple and convenient worship with her family
Minor User
Scrificial Ideas
The creator can record the biography of relatives, which can be supplemented by authorized persons;
Visitors can leave messages;
05
Introduction
Photos
Message Board
Story
Online record book
Manually draw a circle to start the worship
The opening of the circle corresponds to the real position of the grave
A ceremonial start
06
From the user journey, I came up with key ideas to understand users' needs. Then I interviewed three potential users for feedback.
Blessing fruit
Uses:
Exchange offerings
Clean the grave
Ways to obtain:
Answer the custom question card ;
Daily check in;
Share online worship experience
01
According to the geographical location, guides are displayed for the sacrificial customs in different regions;
According to ancient books and quotations, explain the specific origin of customs to users
Worship guideline
03
When worshipping offline, you can scan the QR code to view the online message/biography
The QR code will lead users to the mini-program
Offline grave QR code
04
According to the solar terms,
the worship knowledge is pushed periodically
Knowledge popularization of solar terms and worship
Five Things
people often do in ChingMing Festival
02
More
Idea feedback
The interactive experience with a sense of ritual is the most important part of the mini-program;
It would be interesting if multiple people can cooperate to worship
In different regions of China, the details of the worship offerings will be different;
The popularization of knowledge is very important for young people;
Points to note
Points to go deeper
I hope that the entertainment of the whole app will not be too strong, and worship is a more serious matter;
I hope that the user's operations will be more, and there will be fewer things that are automatically completed by the system, which will be more ritualistic
The oblations of worship should be more serious;
Sacrifice is a spontaneous thing, not a task-driven thing
Information Architecture
Based on the voting results from potential users, I centered the app around chosen directions and organized three main tabss with their respective content.
Always mini-program
Knowledge
Cemetery
Personal center
Knowledge about worship
Grave Location
Profile
Scan QR code
Settings
Awards
Grave Weather
Operating area
Solar term poster
LBS Advertisement
Messages
Text message
Voice message
Recent visitors
Visitor’s name
The time of visiting
Grave management
Grave profile
Permission of visiting
Messages management
Recent oblation
Visitor’s name
Name of the oblation
Mini-program Architecture
After designing the structure of the Mini-program, I sorted out the basic interaction architecture, which is divided into 4 levels
Temporary pop-up window
Quit pop-up/worship result/user guidance
Pages when worshipping
Knowledge/cemetrey/my space
Switching between homepages
Bar
Core flow layer
Core homepage
The layer information
Special operations
Drag up
Rotate device
Double click to worship
Visual Style
Solemn
Traditional
Style
Ceremony
Keyword of Mini-program
HarmonyOS Sans combines with calligraphy
Typography
HarmonyOS Sans SC Bold 30
Headtitle
HarmonyOS Sans SC Medium 20
Subtitle
HarmonyOS Sans SC Regular 18
Body
HarmonyOS Sans SC Regular 16
Caption
HarmonyOS Sans SC Medium 18
Button
Text & Background Contrast Ratio
All the colors are selected from Chinese tradional colors
Colors
Icon
Text
Text
Text
Text
Contrast Ratio
Contrast Ratio
13.18 : 1
4.42 : 1
* Only used when the font is larger than 18 pt
Primary
3B818C
蜻蜓蓝
Dragonfly Blue
Secondary
EEF7F2
月白
Lunar White
FFFEFA
海参灰
Trepang Grey
Complementary
F8E0B0
淡肉色
Light Carnation
FB9668
野蔷薇红
Multiflora Rose Red
Font color
2F2F35
水牛灰
Buffalo Grey
FFFEFA
海参灰
Trepang Grey
74787A
嫩灰
Light Grey
Tab features
Cemetery
Knowledge
My space
Encourage the next worship
Guide users to learn more about worship culture subtly
1
5
10
7
12
8
13
Scan & setting entrance
9
Profile and saved energy
10
Grave management
11
Worship awards
12
4
9
Grave’s real location and weather
4
Dynamic tradition background
The dynamic background changes with season, weather and solar terms
5
Sacrificial altar
Display all the obations received recently
6
Recent vistors and oblation
7
Recent text / voice messages
8
Solar terms & activities poster
The dynamic changes with season, weather and solar terms
1
LBS custom question card
Promote users' understanding of customs in the form of knowledge cards based on location and solar terms
2
Three tabs of Always App
3
2
6
11
3
Detail Features
Worship guide
In order to let the first-time users know the entrance of the worship, display the help floating window
Instructions
The same and intuitive experience as traditional worship
Position information
Easy to look for the guide
When worshiping in a place other than the cemetery, Chinese people will draw a circle as a temporary place for ancestor worship. The circular notch points to the actual grave location
Help users to find the real position of the grave
The help button stays in the same position during the whole process of worship
Retain the tradition behaviors
Shareable moment
Shareable worship result
Visualize the energy saved through digital ancestor worship methods
Privacy protection
Private mode
Click to play messages
In private mode, messages can only be read by the user
Worship with relatives and families
Remote worship with relatives even if you are 1000 miles away
Invite relatives to worship online
Retain the tradition behavior and oblation
Simulate worship intuitively
Drag the offering to the sacrificial altar, then the offering will be displayed and placed in the plates.
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