Designing and Evaluating a Digital Platform for Interfaith Cultural Exchange

Thesis Abstract

In an increasingly interconnected world marked by religious pluralism and cultural diversity, the need for effective platforms that facilitate interfaith dialogue and cultural exchange has become paramount to fostering mutual understanding and social cohesion. Despite numerous offline initiatives, digital solutions remain underutilized or lack the specific features needed to promote meaningful interfaith interactions across diverse audiences. This study aims to design, implement, and critically evaluate a digital platform tailored for interfaith cultural exchange, addressing the gap between technological potential and practical application within this domain. The primary objectives are to develop a user-centered digital platform grounded in intercultural and interfaith communication theories, evaluate its usability and engagement levels, and assess its effectiveness in enhancing intercultural understanding among users from different faith backgrounds. The research adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative paradigms within a pragmatic research design. The qualitative component involves thematic analysis of focus group discussions and in-depth interviews carried out with 40 participants, including religious leaders, intercultural communication experts, and active interfaith community members, to inform platform development and identify critical features for fostering respectful dialogue. The quantitative component involves a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a sample of 150 adult participants from diverse religious backgrounds, recruited through stratified sampling to ensure representative coverage of age, gender, and faith groups. Data collection instruments include validated questionnaires measuring intercultural sensitivity, open-ended survey items assessing perceived platform usefulness, and system usage logs to quantify engagement levels. The platform’s usability and user experience will be evaluated using the System Usability Scale (SUS), while its effectiveness in fostering intercultural understanding will be assessed through paired sample t-tests and regression analysis examining changes in intercultural sensitivity scores before and after interaction. Thematic analysis will be employed on qualitative feedback to identify perceived strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. Additionally, the study will explore the application of intergroup contact theory and intercultural competence theory to interpret the relationship between platform engagement and attitudinal change. The anticipated findings include high usability ratings and statistically significant improvements in participants’ intercultural sensitivity, indicating the platform's potential to promote positive interfaith interactions. The qualitative data are expected to reveal rich insights into user experiences, areas for platform enhancement, and contextual factors influencing engagement. This research contributes to knowledge by providing an empirically tested model of a digital interfaith exchange platform, extending intercultural communication theories into digital domains, and demonstrating the efficacy of technological solutions in promoting interfaith understanding. It fills existing gaps by integrating user-centered design with intercultural theory, and by empirically evaluating the impact of digital interfaith platforms on attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. The study’s findings will inform practitioners, policymakers, and religious organizations seeking to leverage digital tools for community cohesion and intercultural dialogue. The main conclusion underscores that well-designed digital platforms can significantly enhance interfaith cultural understanding, especially when grounded in intercultural competence frameworks and responsive to user needs. Recommendations include adopting participatory design approaches, incorporating diverse voices in platform co-creation, and integrating ongoing evaluation mechanisms for continual improvement. The study advocates for expanded research into multilingual interfaces, longitudinal impact assessments, and scalability across different sociocultural contexts, thus contributing both theoretical insights and practical strategies for advancing digital intercultural exchange initiatives.