Islamic Lifestyle Applications: Meeting the Spiritual Needs of Modern Muslims

TL;DR

The paper investigates how Islamic lifestyle applications support Muslim users’ religious practices through SDT and the Technology as Experience framework, revealing substantial gaps in autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Through a systematic app review of 11 free, widely-used apps and 10 semi-structured interviews, the authors identify design gaps (structured learning, personalized analytics, scholar access, and social features) and mixed user experiences driven by ads and data quality. They propose design implications—structured learning, personalization, immersive multimedia, social engagement, scholar connections, optimized reminders, and ethical monetization—to enhance motivation and long-term engagement. The study contributes to HCI for faith-based tech by outlining concrete interventions to help apps act as meaningful religious companions, not merely functional tools, especially under pandemic-era constraints that highlighted communal needs. Overall, the work provides actionable guidance for developers to create more autonomous, competent, and relatedness-supportive Islamic lifestyle applications that better serve Muslim communities.

Abstract

We evaluated contemporary Islamic lifestyle applications supporting religious practices and motivation among Muslims. We reviewed 11 popular applications using self-determination theory and the technology-as-experience framework to assess their support for motivation and affective needs. Most applications lack features that foster autonomy, competence, and relatedness. We also interviewed ten devoted Muslim application users to gain insights into their experiences and unmet needs. Our findings indicate that existing applications fall short in providing comprehensive learning, social connections, and scholar consultations. We propose design implications based on our results, including guided religious information, shareability, virtual community engagement, scholarly question-answering, and personalized reminders. We aim to inform the design of Islamic lifestyle applications that better facilitate ritual practices, benefitting application designers and Muslim communities. Our research provides valuable insights into the untapped potential for lifestyle applications to act as religious companions supporting Muslims' spiritual journey.

Figures (1)

• Figure 1: Screenshots of user interface of selected Islamic applications.