With so much content to consume, and busy schedules it can be difficult to make the time to read. Biblo tackles this problem by connecting to your streaming services to curate personalized book recommendations, and automated physical book rentals.
As a UX Designer, my primary objective was to go through the full design process and conceptualize a digital solution for the gradual decline of reading.
Research • Design
Conducted background research, competitive analysis, user interviews and usability tests, organized user stories and flows, designed wireframes and hi-fi prototypes
Solo Student Project • January - April 2023
Conceptual project conducted over 14 weeks
I initially came upon this problem after noticing how many people around me talk about wanting to read more but then never actually picking up a book. All around me were people expressing a desire to read more, knowing it was something they enjoyed, but just never making any time for it. This led me to wonder why is there a disconnect between knowing something is good for you, but still not doing it. Why do people fail to read even though they enjoy it and wish they did more of it?
Biblo is a rental book subscription service offering you book recommendations based on your favorite shows and movies.
First I dug into the research to see what the trends in reading were as a leisure activity and where people like to dedicate their free time. Unsurprisingly according to information by the Bureau of Labor statistics, over the last 20 years reading has fallen from a daily 23 min to 15 min, while average TV time grew from 20 minutes to 2 hours and 50 minutes a day!
The benefits of reading are endless including lowering blood pressure, keeping dementia at bay and slowing down cognitive decline, in turn increasing life expectancy. Despite being viewed as an activity that requires effort, a study done by the University of Sussex showed that…
Reading for 6 minutes reduced stress by 68%
Through my research I knew a personalized and fun experience was lacking in the reading space, but I wanted to talk to the readers themselves who expressed wanting to read more, to see where their pain points were. I interviewed 5 book lovers using the questions below and organized my data through affinity mapping to see what trends showed up in my interviews.
%201.png)
%201.png)
Based on the trends in my affinity map one of the main causes of a reading rut was simply just not being able to find a good book.
Taking a step back to see how all of my themes connected to each other, I saw that reading a good book leads to more feelings of motivation, and that with the help of recommendations, automation, and affordability the success of reading a book might be higher.
One of the main causes of a reading rut, was not finding a good book. There are a lot of books to choose from and most automated suggestions don’t lead to the right book.
Opportunity
Create a super-personalized and effortless way for users to find books to read.
Most readers will look for the cheapest version of a book, even using an additional service to suggest cheap or free books. While physical books are preferred, they are expensive.
Opportunity
Bring personalized suggestions and retail books into the same experience. Create a rental book model that allows for more affordable physical books.
It’s easier to accomplish things when they are automated for you. After a busy day most users don’t have a lot of effort to give and view TV as a more leisurely source of entertainment.
Opportunity
Create a subscription services that helps automatically get books to the reader so it’s one less thing they have to take care of.
Keeping in mind that screen time was one of the biggest obstacles to reading I analyzed the top products and applications in the reading space. I found that a lot of them had a clunky and unpleasing interface with several usability issues, and none of them were trying to compete with their biggest competitor TV.
Several users stated that they get recommendations from friends so I played around with an interactive map idea that could connect similar readers and give them the ability to chat and share recommendations as well as a virtual book club. However, after receiving feedback, I considered that due to privacy issues many users may not find this appealing and a bookclub didn’t feel innovative enough to make an impact.
I decided to use the biggest competitor, TV, to my advantage and use viewers' go-to shows and movies to bring them book recommendations that would excite them, with the end goal getting books shipped to the user.
Based on user feedback, I continued to iterate my design leading to 2 major improvements:
Based on user feedback the top navigation wasn't as intuitive as I originally thought, so I designed a solution for clarity.
01
Confusion between "for you" and "explore"
I thought it would be a natural way to navigate between your recommended books, and discovering books based on general categories, but many users confused exploring with searching or were not able to find the search button at all.
02
Gave book search its own home
I removed the top navigation and gave the search function its own section in the bottom navigation to make it very obvious to users where they could search all books.
To create more call to action and reduce cognitive overload I designed a more focused home page.
01
Delay gallery view
The original layout has a traditional e-commerce gallery grid, which works for displaying lots of items. So I kept that layout but designed a more focused "above the fold" for users to ease into a few books personally recommended for them.
For my primary color I wanted to create a sense of playfulness and creativity. Looking into color psychology, purple is associated with imagination and limitlessness, which are both things associated with reading.
As far as designing components and layouts, I looked at what my competitors were doing but in the end drew a lot of my inspiration from indirect competitors since I wanted the app to feel more like an entertainment service which is also why I chose a dark theme.
Based on 65 data points of feedback I continued improving the design.
Users needed a search function to find specific movies and tv shows.
01
Original design is too simplified
I didn't include the search function originally to minimize any chance of users getting too hung up or spending too much time thinking of specific shows and movies. The user has the option later in the flow to connect their streaming services so I thought that would suffice, but based on user feedback this was important to include.
02
Improving recognition
The original design highlights the items you've chosen within the list. To aid users in knowing what they've chosen already I modified the design to bring everything they've chosen to float at the top as they scroll.
Users felt that the original design didn't make it super clear how to checkout.
01
Added Shopping Cart
The shopping cart follows traditional checkout patterns, creating consistency with user expectations it also made it obvious that there was still a step to take to confirm the subscription.
02
Improving recognition and payment flexibility
Once the user clicks the shopping cart a screen pops up to confirm the payment, offering the opportunity to edit their details, and remind them exactly how much they are paying.
The original versions were very text heavy and while all of the information was there most users weren’t reading through completely, leaving them confused later in the process. In response I went with less text and more obvious illustrations with simple UI.
Users were excited about the idea of getting book recommendations based on their favorite shows and movies. The simplicity of integrating their streaming services, which enabled the recommendations to be seamlessly updated, made the concept an all around hit. Books being shipped to their door with an automatic subscription made keeping the reading momentum automatic and users stated would help prevent them from falling into a reading rut.
01
Investigate more accessibility
While most of the users in my interviews expressed preferring physical books, I know they don’t represent the full spectrum of users that could find this service helpful. I would love to dig deeper and talk to users with different needs and see how I could better serve their pain-points.
02
Incorporate a social aspect
Many users in my usability testing expressed a desire to be able to connect with friends and see what they are reading. If I had more time I would have seen what the possibilities were to build community through reading.
03
Iterate and test often
I made a lot of changes to the UX while working through the hi-fi designs, if I had spent a bit more time iterating and testing in the low-fi stage it would have made the process more efficient.
