Online Book Club App
The Book Room
The Book Room app was created to transform the way readers participate in and manage online book clubs.
Team
Team of Four
My Role
Lead UX/UI Researcher and Writer. Jr Designer
Duration
3 week
Tools
Figma, Figjam, Slack, GoodReads, Kindle, Amazon, Fable, Zoom, Toggl
Challenge
The Book Room app was created to transform the way readers participate in and manage online book clubs. The goal was to create a standalone, creatively independent app that integrates with Amazon Apps while offering clear, structured, and engaging discussion features. Through user research, we uncovered a clear need for a more structured, engaging, and customizable experience—something existing platforms struggled to provide. Our goal was to build a standalone app that maintained the convenience of Amazon integration while allowing for creative independence in both design and functionality. By focusing on features that support meaningful discussion and easy moderation, The Book Room offers a fresh take on the digital book club—organized, user-centered, and built to foster community
Understanding the Why
Competitive & Comparative
To uncover where the current apps were failing end users, we started with a competitive and comparative analysis of existing competitors. Focusing mainly on Fable and GoodReads, as well as Kindle's existing features.
User Research
I conducted eight user interviews and contextual inquiries to better understand customers’ motivations and behaviors. The biggest key insights and recurring themes were:
Users enjoy sharing their love of reading with friends
Sharing the connection of reading motivates users to read more
Users want to connect with others ‘in person’ while discussing books
Finding others with similar reading interests can be difficult
Developing and keeping an online Book Club organized can be challenging
Reading makes users feel connected to the world around them
Connecting the Dots
Affinity Map
With a clearer view of user needs, our team organized the interview insights using an affinity mapping method. I grouped similar thoughts together, and several patterns emerged
The User
Ava
Age: 64 Occupation: Retired Attorney
Family: Married
Background:
Ava recently retired with her husband to Miami FL and is looking to continue her passion for book clubs alive. She loves being a hostess, and during her career she found that book clubs were a great way to escape the stress of her career. She is excited to start a new book club in a new area, but needs help finding people to engage with, and a way to maintain her existing book club back in Chicago.
Frustrations
Having to spend too much time doing research on book club apps
Being disappointed by most of the apps she tries
Finds people will stop being involved if organization isn’t clear.
Needs
A frictionless organization system for creating and maintaining book clubs
Integration with apps like GoodReads, Kindle, and Amazon
Curated club suggestion
Goals
Create a new local book club
Find a way to maintain her Chicago book club long distance
Have ways for book clubs to vote on next months books, and track upcoming discussion events
Problem Statement
Ava, an experienced book club hostess, is looking for a new way to manage her current book club and start new ones in her community. She is disappointed in the current apps she has tried because they lack organized discussion.
The Start of a New Chapter
Site Map
With Ava in mind I developed a site map. Focusing on the information gathered during User Interviews and Affinity Mapping, my focus was on developing a site and app that flowed seamlessly, and with organization and organic conversation at the forefront of the layout.
Task Flow
From there I jumped immediately into creating a logical and cohesive task flow. Focusing on Ava's existing problems of poor organization and lack of engagement I focused on keeping things simple, and logical.
Wireframe
With Task Flow and Sitemap complete, our team moved into collaboration and began developing our wireframes. Due to time constraints we focused on the key deliverables. Homepage, Personal Library, Clubs Page, and Moderator Features.
Usability Testing
To explore our design, I conducted 4 usability tests to evaluate our frames interaction. I asked each participant to follow my task flow and each user was able to complete their task successfully. I observed each participants screen as they clicked around on the prototypes, and asked them to share any thoughts or feelings that came up. Key take aways I discovered were:
1.
Sizing needed to be changed to make things easier to read
2.
Add more interactions, overlays and navigation options
3.
Some users mentioned Certain pages needed more content and detail
The Work behind the Wonder
HiFi
With all that information gathered it was time for our team to go back to Figma and implement those changes as well as add color, and bring The Book Room to life!
Learnings
This project helped me learn the skills I need to be a successful UX/UI Researcher and Writer on top of Design skills. This was quite the undertaking as my first time on a UX Team. I learned that my experience in writing Game Content for Sypha Labs LLC and HyperPlay have given me great insight into creating Task Flows and Sitemaps as they are very similar to Hero's Journey's, and Level Mapping. This was a fun and unique opportunity, that I cannot wait to continue to explore in the future.
The Outcome
Our team was able to create a new app for readers everywhere to gather and discuss their favorite books, current reads, and anticipated new releases! With seamless integration into Amazon, GoodReads, and Kindle! I greatly look forward to continuing to develop this app, and eventually launch it! Keep your eyes on this page.