BookFeed: A social media app for book lovers
User Research & Design Project
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Busy students need time away from their assignments. With social media growing rapidly each year, it has taken people away from hobbies that do not involve technology. From personal experiences and stories, we have seen people throw away great works of literature because they do not have time for it anymore. On the other side of the spectrum, people want to get away from social media and pick up a book. We created an app that targets individuals that enjoy or want to start reading books. The app allows for an easier and cheaper way for them to choose what books interest them. This app will increase the demand for books as well as create a community of same minded individuals.
The objective of conducting a competitor analysis is to gain insight into the strengths and weaknesses of BookFeed's competitors with the goal of identifying opportunities and gaps within the market.
First, I needed a better understanding of the users, their needs, and frustrations to create a holistic platform.
We interviewed 10 students, primarily from James Madison University, with a mix of majors, genders, and ages. Our goal was to explore how college students, juggling stressful schedules, engage with reading as a hobby. The interviews were conducted in person and over video chat, we used open-ended questions to gather diverse perspectives and ensure the app meets their needs.
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Based on user research, I created a persona that aligned with the users needs, pain-points, and goals.
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With user insights and a problem statement in hand, it was time to come up with solutions and validate them.
1. The app must provide a robust section for discovering books, including detailed descriptions, cover images, and purchasing options, to enhance user engagement and facilitate informed decisions.
Integrate Comprehensive Book Discovery
2. The app should feature a social component where users can follow others, share book reviews, and receive personalized recommendations based on their reading habits, fostering a vibrant community of book lovers.
Enable User-Driven Recommendations
3.The app should include features that allow users to engage with one another, such as sharing book reviews, participating in discussions, and creating reading groups. This community-focused approach will enhance user interaction and deepen their connection to literature.
Facilitate Community Engagement and Interaction
At this stage, it was time to redefine the goal and narrow down its scope based on the insights gained from users.
Students need an intuitive platform with clear guidance, consistent language, and the flexibility to engage with a broader community of readers and create connections through social features that support book recommendations, reviews, and discussions.
For our ideation we brainstormed and sketched 40 ideas that do not already exist in the world. We created simple sketches and a short description that corresponds with one another. After sketching all 40 ideas, we ranked each idea 1-10 on its usefulness, newness, and feasibility.
The purpose of the heuristic evaluation was to quickly and easily find usability problems related to purchase page and product listing. I went through the signup and product listing process while assessing the site against Jakob Nielsen's 10 general principles for interaction design. Below are the key issues I discovered.
Users lack visibility and control over when updates to their profiles or social elements would appear, making it challenging to anticipate the user experience.
Labels and placeholder text throughout the site are often unclear and difficult to understand.
The only way to move from one section to the next in the form is to go back to the previous page.
Inconsistencies in language and terms, and button placement throughout the site.
Using feedback from the low-fidelity prototypes, I developed a final high-fidelity prototype that incorporates the mission of my platform, BookFeed.
*Unfortunately I do not have access to the Figma file and was only able to add these screen shots
