In order to establish the demographics, and to determine the frustrations and motivations of the market, I performed a market research based on existing surveys and research about people who read books from Japan:
- People in their 20s and 30s read books, monthly, more than any other age group.
- However, in terms of raw number, people in their 30’s are the majority who read books monthly, followed closely by people in their 50’s and 40’s.
- When asked about which form of books they read with, 73.8% said they read only physical books.
- One important factor why people's reading time increase yearly is because they discover more books that they want to read.
- People become interested in buying books when a best seller book goes viral, when they see ads from magazines or newspapers, or when they get recommendation from people around them.
After identifying current competitors, and spending time with their products, one common weakness that all these products have is the lack of simplicity of navigation within the application. There wasn't a clear progressive flow of actions within the app, which is brought by the lack of distinction of important elements, and inconsistent visual presentation of key action items.
To help me understand more about the users and get a glimpse of their experiences when it comes to reading books, I completed interviews from 5 different interview participants. In order to gain insight on people's experience with book management apps, and what important factors motivate them to read, I focused on asking questions such as:
- How they discover books.
- How they keep track of their books.
- What's the importance of sharing books with other people.
- How their experience with other book management products/services are.
After completing the interviews I wrote down all of the responses on sticky notes and began to cluster them based on topic. One of the points that we have discovered in our market research is that people are motivated to read books when they discover more books that they want to read, and this proves true with our 1:1 interviews; Participants showed that one thing that affects their motivation to read books is related to book discovery. Below, I have grouped interview responses with similar topics, and allowed me to discover trends and patterns from which insights could be constructed; From these insights, I also have generated the users' needs:
Pattern 1: Genres/Topics
"I mostly visit a bookstore and go to sections or topics that I’m interested in, and check random titles."
One pattern that formed from the participants' responses was about having a specific topic or genre that they're interested in when looking for books to read. They always have a topic in mind, and from there, they try to dig more.
Insight: People have specific topics that they are interested in when it comes to books.
Need: People need to discover books about topics that they are interested in.
Pattern 2: Social experience
"I usually share books with people close to me, when we hang out together. Like with my college friends, we have a Facebook group where people share books that they like."
Participants' trusted social connections is one way they usually discover books. They value these people's opinions, who have the same taste in books as them. Also, in turn, they also value the experience of sharing their own thoughts, about certain books, to their social connections.
Insight: People value other people’s insights about their experience about books.
Need: People need to connect with other people and talk about their experiences in reading.
Pattern 3: Recommendations
"I would use book tracking apps maybe if there were smart recommendations, like how Spotify creates playlists or recommends similar artists. Or if it tells me that people are reading similar books."
The last pattern was about how participants are motivated to read books (and even to use book tracking apps) when they receive book recommendations either from their friends, families, and even external sources like different media, and services.
Insight: People are motivated to read books when they receive book recommendations.
Need: People need book recommendations from different sources.
I then created a user persona, Hannah, who represents the whole discovery phase. Referring back to her during the design process helps me stay aligned with user goals and remind me of the problems I need to solve for users.
Now that I have understood Hannah's needs, I created the POV statements that would allow me to empathize with her and focus on her, giving me the right framing on defining our problem statement. From these POVs, we create HMW questions, which directly address Hannah's needs, to help us generating focused ideas.
To begin generating as many ideas as possible to address the HMW questions, I brainstormed each HMW question for 3 mins for 2 rounds.
I reflected on the business goals and user goals, and then identified common areas that would serve as a guide in deciding necessary features.
Building from the business and user goals I have determined the important features for the product, and created an app map that includes the main screens and features to have a clear structure of content within the app.
Considering Hannah's behaviors and goals, I generated a scenario that she could encounter when using the app. This process ensures that all screens, needed to help Hannah achieve her goals, are accounted for.
Before going digital, I sketched out the key screens necessary for fulfilling the tasks in the user flow. Sketching first allowed me to brainstorm different ideas on how to design different screens effectively. Each screen has been designed so that the user is able to focus on one main task, addressing the "lack of simplicity in navigation" that was found in the competitors' products.
I translated my sketch into digital wireframes and added interaction between frames to produce an interactive prototype; This prototype will be used for testing. Mid Fidelity Wireframes were used for testing to quickly gain insights about the functionality and navigation within the app, and to be able to iterate on the designs at an earlier stage.
Homescreen
New Post
Explore
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Book Details
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Library
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Scan a Book with Camera
In order to test the overall quality and ease of navigation throughout the whole design, and to observe areas of errors/difficulties, I went out and had 5 total strangers (3 male, 2 female) interact with my prototype. Criteria for participants were based on the demographics from discovery phase (ages 20 - 39) and people who are regular book readers.
Summary of findings from 5 participants (3 male, 2 female):
- Completion Rate: 100%
- Error-free Rate: 92%
- The errors occurred in Scenario 3, Task 1; Users weren't sure where to find the "Scan a book with camera" feature.
- Most of the comments of the participants were positive, and the most used keywords were "simple", "easy", and "straightforward".
I created an affinity map to organize and synthesize the responses and observations I captured using testing. After grouping similar concerns/topics, I uncovered insights, and formed specific solutions for each:
Pattern 1: Ratings
Insight: People thought “ratings” displayed as just text was not clear.
Solution: To show ratings in a more detailed/clear way - adding iconography (stars)
Pattern 2: Views
Insight: People wanted to have options in how they view the books.
Solution: To give the users the option to switch to different ways to view the books.
Pattern 3: Redundant Information
Insight: People felt like listing the genre of the book in the quick summary, while it was listed with same-genre books was redundant.
Solution: To remove the genre under the quick summary of books when listed/displayed.
After gaining insight and prioritizing recommendations, I tweaked our mid fidelity wireframes to reflect the solutions.
Bhuku's brand attributes are: Friendly, Fresh, Clean, Growth, Smart. Focusing on these, I played around with different sketches while checking out different logos for inspiration. The main idea basically revolves around a plant/leaf which represents fresh and growth, and exploring sketches that helps form the letter "B". After spending a couple of hours, I moved to Adobe Illustrator, chose 3 styles that I like best and vectorized them, eventually ending up with one that best represents Bhuku's brand.
I also tested the logo's visual design by checking its balance, color, and scalability, and recognizability.
To have a collection of visual elements for consistency, I used elements (components, color styles, and text styles that I defined in Figma) and put all in one page that makes up the UI Kit.
Using the UI Kit, I applied the visual elements to the modified Mid Fidelity wireframes making up the High Fidelity wireframes which will be later on used for the Prototype.
Login
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Explore
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Fiction List
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Book Details
Homescreen
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New Post
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Scan a Book with Camera
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Scan Results
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Library
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