Research

Competitor analysis / provisional personas / user interviews / empathy map

Research Goals

There were a few things I needed to know in order to start work.

1. What motivates people to start to read

2. How and where do people read

3. What issues prevent people from reading regularly

Competitor Analysis

Who are our comptitors? Let’s take a look at some book swapping apps on the market. I analysed them for functionality as well as design.

Local Library - under the umbrella of the local authority, free for all users

Free Little Library - an independent set-up allowing users to share books

Nextdoor - a neighbourhood app whose main focus is creating a sense of community

Meetup - an online platform allowing users to meet others with similar interests

Libby - an online e-reading platform connected to the local library

Provisional Personas

I carried out secondary research, examining both direct and indirect competitors, as well as reports relating to reading habits and book sales in the UK. As a result I was able to create 3 provisional personas which helped summarise some of my findings.

User Interviews

In order to really dig deep into my research, I interviewed 5 key users, all of whom are currently, or have been big readers at some point in their adult lives.

The reader

Persona development / user journey / crazy eights / site map development / user flows

Ursula studied English to university level, but now, as a busy working parent has little time to indulge her passion. She buys the majority of her books second hand and tries hard to find books that she hopes will hold her attention and encourage her to stay focused and engaged. She chooses her books based on recommendations from friends and from reviews in newspapers and magazines. She appreciates being able to discuss her reads with others as feels she can get another perspective.

Now that I had personified the user, I was able to establish what her journey currently looks like. I started with the fact that as an avid reader, was looking forward to her next book, however she feels overwhelmed with all the options. Once she eventually finds a read, she is excited to feel a sense of engagement and purpose. However, she soon regards the task of reading as trial and loses its sense of enjoyment. She eventually struggles through the book and finishes it with a sense of acomplishment.

Crazy Eights

So what does our user need from the app? What would the app look like?

I did some Crazy Eight exercises to generate some ideas in quick succession using the “How Might We….” framework:

How might we encourage and support reading?

How might we engage emotionally to find an appropriate book?

How might the screen look like that has strong visuals?

Sitemap

Now I had some ideas about how the app would be focused, I needed to think how it would best organised for Ursula. What was she looking to do? What did she hope to achieve? In creating a site map, I was able to focus the app and establish a clear information architecture which would allow any task to be intuitive and frustration-free.

User flow

How would Ursula navigate through the app? Using the site map as a basis, I created a task flow which shows her primary goal when using it: to find a book that suits her mood and therefore would encourage her to maintain enjoyment and engagement throughout the book. I wanted to guide Ursula to reach her goal with as few clicks as a possible. Here’s what I came up with…

Designing the look and feel

Moodboard / UI Kit

Moodboard

The brand identity of the app was based on the user interviews and journey maps. The adjectives that emerged from these processes were: mindful, literary, mature, engaged, sensitive.

UI kit

Since Shelfie was a startup idea, I needed to create a UI for the app’s branding. This allowed me to think about what themes and feelings I wanted users, like Ursula, to experience. I chose warmer muted colours mirrioring the calming nature of reading and ensuring that they wouldn’t detract from the bold and engaging book covers.

The structure of the story

Wireframes / Wireflows

Low fidelity wireframes

I started making some sketches of the screens that I included in the task flow. I focused my attention on the element which would allow users to choose their emotional state: how was the user feeling in order to best direct them to a book that would sustain their interest?

Using the user flow, I looked at other similar products on the market and analysed their websites for functionality as well as design. I created wireframes whose layout was relatable since this was a totally new concept for an app design. It was important therefore there was a strong onboarding process where users could choosetheir book preferences. I played around with the UI for users to choose their mood. I felt a wheel was most compelling, intuititive and fun to use. As well as relying on the users mood to choose a book, I looked back at the interviews, where people said they relied heavily on recommendations from friends and book critics. I wanted therefore to make this an integral part of the app.

Wireflows

Creating high fidelity wireframes allowed me to focus on the more successful sketches and integrating this with the user flow created earlier, gave me a clearer understanding of how Ursula might interact with the app.

The first draft

Bringing together the user flow, UI kit, wireframes, I created a fluid, intuitive prototype. It brought everything to life!