An app for Book Lovers
A case study on an end-to-end app. designed for book lovers to easily track their personal library, share, and discover new books.
User rsearch, IA, Interaction Design, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Branding, UI Design
Sketch, Illustrator, Photoshop, Marvel
4 weeks
Student project
for UX Design Course
Libra has started collecting data on popular books and wants to create a mobile app that will help book lovers to track books they own, have read, and want to read next. Inspired by Goodreads, Libra wants to give a more user-centric approach to their app, using the full potential that a mobile app has with features and flows that make it delightful for people to use.
I started out wanting to understand the users and the problem we are trying to solve. I analyzed Goodreads ( a major competitor) and other notable book inventory Apps by reading their reviews and interacting with the apps; consolidated this information in a comparison chart with their features, strengths, and weaknesses. The takeaway is that an app with all the features of organizing, tracking, and discovering books to read is typically not provided in one app, and in some apps, attempt this, but the features are clunky and confusing to use.
I sent out surveys (25 participants), conducted phone and in-person interviews (5 participants) to understand how users manage books they've read, their reading habits, and what other pain points they are currently having. The surveys provided quick data collection for the sample of target users, while the interviews gave more in-depth understanding with the participant's behaviors
I gained valuable insights to emphasize with the users. Here are some of the findings from both research:
Who are we designing for? Meet Katie, the Avid Reader.
Based on the insights discovered during my primary research, I developed a user persona that represented the user's voices.
Next, it is important to show how the user will interact with the app and how the entire product is laid out. This App map provides a blueprint for the type of pages, content, and interactions.
From the above diagram for the App map, I made a visual representation of how the users may interact and the different paths they can take. This ensures that there are no dead-ends and the interaction is frictionless. The taskflow here shows how a user will discover a new book and add it to their “want to read” list.
With enough information gathered, I started to sketch wireframes by hand to generate as many ideas as possible. Moving to a digital process, I produced these low-fidelity wireframes, which are keys screens to complete the main user tasks and set up for the first usability testing.
Using mid-fidelity wireframes, I conducted a round of usability testing with 5 participants, both in-person and remotely, to identify potential pain points, areas of frustration, and sources of error in the interaction design. I asked users to share feedback on the overall layout and basic interface design of the screens.
After the usability testing, I synthesized the data by grouping their successes, pain points, and feedback based on the users. These data are further grouped to show a trend or common theme.
This allows me to pinpoint what improvements could be made and allow another round of iterations. These suggestions are listed from high priority to low priority:
This final design was based on feedback from participants in the Usability Test. It was clear that there were successes and some improvements that could be made. This gave me clear directions on what changes to make to improve this app. Recall the problem statement: “How might we help people track, find & share books.” Below are key mobile screens to show how a user can accomplish these goals.
Developing a new end-to-end app can be challenging, but conducting research in the early process proved important as it guided me with more confidence in what direction to go. I learned how to use low-fidelity prototypes to test the concepts and visualize the information. This project taught me to improve on the UX and Visual Design of the solution and always consider accessibility such as color choice and visibility.
Next Steps:
This project will be redlined and ready for hand-off to developers.
From a business perspective, it would be important to follow up with metrics to measure success, such as App store reviews and the number of downloads.