The statistic is staggering — according to the Surgeon General’s report, chronic loneliness increases the risk for premature death by 29%. Americans don’t get enough quality time with other people.
It’s not that book clubs can solve loneliness for everybody. However, they are a popular way to strengthen social bonds and build community. Millions of people in the U.S. — an estimated 5 million as of 2015 — identify as book club members.
“One of the features that make a book group so nice is that it creates community.”
– S.W., User Interview Participant
ABOUT THE PROJECT
We know loneliness is an issue, and want to design a way for readers to not only connect with each other, but form strong, meaningful bonds over literature using an online platform. My tasks were to:
Discover what readers and book clubs need from such a service
Understand the competition in the space
Develop a research-based approach to understanding the archetypical users’ needs and pain points
Build a design solution to address those needs and pain points
Test that solution
PROJECT DURATION
This project spanned roughly 16 weeks. Roughly half of that time was spent on project planning, ideation, and research, and the other half was spent on design and testing.
Initial Problem Statement
Readers struggle to build genuine connections online with people who like the books they like. They also have trouble finding time to discuss books with other readers in traditional, in person settings.
Understanding the Problem
The initial problem statement was more of an hypothesis. Given the increase in popularity of virtual communication methods, especially video conferencing software, during the early part of the COVID pandemic, it seemed plausible that readers might prefer to connect online for convenience.
How might we design a product that can help readers build book clubs that foster meaningful, genuine connections with other readers?
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
There is stiff competition in the online reading- and book club space: many users are familiar with products like Goodreads, which aim to help users track their reading and discover new books to read. Competitor products often have some focus on community, and some are built specifically for book clubs to use to stay on track and organized.
User Interviews
Interviews were essential to understanding the experience of readers in actual book clubs. Eight book club members in total served as interview subjects for this project. All of the participants belonged to a book group, or had a group in mind to join. Each person was a member of a different book group.
Two of the interview participants were experienced book club hosts. The hosts each had at least two to three years of experience hosting their respective book clubs (one for longer than that; in her case she had been a host for closer to five years). The hosts served as subject-matter experts in this field — they were able to provide a unique perspective on the operational needs of a book group, including what makes them a success.
All of the users interviewed were female. They were of a large demographic spread in terms of age — two participants were Gen Z-ers, including one of the book club hosts, four were Millennials, including the other host, and the remaining two were Baby Boomers. All members of this target audience liked reading, although the time they had available to read on their own varied. Each person was at least “Somewhat Familiar” with virtual communication methods and social media; several were “Extremely Familiar”.
“I want to feel like I did some good thinking and some good talking.”
– G.S.M., User Interview Participant
Research Analysis
The interview responses from each participant were transcribed into a set of detailed notes, which were then categorized under the following themes:
Details of the last book discussion the readers had with other readers
The time of day at which the discussion occurred
Number of participants in their book club
Frequency of their club meetings
Location of the book club — where do they meet?
Club member demographics
Who the host is and how hosting is handled in the group
The technology the book club employs in order to run/stay organized/keep in touch
How they got involved in their current book club(s)
How they feel about agreeing versus disagreeing with other readers during meetings
Challenges their book clubs face
Solutions to their challenges and the best practices they have discovered for hosting
Their experience with remote/virtual/online only book clubs
What criteria are important to the readers when they search for a book club to join
How they feel about joining new book clubs
What they would do to find book clubs to join
What it ‘s like to host a book club
What the ideal book discussion is like and how they would like to feel when that month’s meeting is over
Overall value of book clubs
Insights from the Research
By far the most striking finding from this research was the fact that no users preferred to discuss books virtually. Virtual meetings were something they only did out of necessity — first during the height of the COVID pandemic, and now, only in the event that members were not physically able to be in the same location.
Because readers reported that they did not have trouble finding time to discuss books in traditional, in person settings, it became necessary to adjust the initial problem statement.
“It’s nicer to be in person. Since COVID... everything’s virtual. Virtual’s great, because you can have more people involved. But I’ve done [an] in-person book group and it’s just… there’s more involved than just book club.”
– S.D., User Interview Participant
“It’s not just a conversation about a book... for me it’s also eating food together, having conversation... organic conversation about our lives and about things other than the book.”
– G.S.M., User Interview Participant
Revised Problem Statement
Readers struggle to find book clubs to connect with that are tailored to their needs. Once they are in book clubs, they have trouble staying motivated and maintaining their momentum. These challenges prevent them from building genuine connections with other readers.
User Personas
Having completed the interview analysis phase, it became possible to understand who the target audience was: primarily, though not necessarily, women of most demographic brackets, for whom social bonds were important. Although they did have limited free time, they generally made a point to attend their book clubs in person when possible.
The information gathered became the inspiration for a series of user personas. Two readers, Hayley and Aaron, are book club participants, and are both currently looking for book clubs to join. They are the basis for LIVRE’s primary user type, or User Type #1. A third reader, Andrea, is a book club host. She is the basis for LIVRE’s secondary user type, or User Type #2.
Since the majority of the users interviewed for this project were not book club hosts, the focus for the remainder of the project landed on the primary user type.
User Persona #1: Hayley
Hayley’s User Journey: CURRENT STATE
Hayley, being new to her area, wants to bond with women her age over literature. However, her searches online for a book club to join have been fruitless — she cannot seem to find anything near her that is currently active, open to new members, and explicitly for Millennial women. Search engines are not “smart” enough to filter for these categories, leaving her to wade through results that aren’t tailored to her goals.
User Persona #2: Aaron
Aaron’s User Journey: CURRENT STATE
Aaron is interested in bonding with other readers over mystery and thriller novels. A book club with this theme alone would be easy enough to find online; however, Aaron travels frequently for work and cannot always make every meeting. If he uses a search engine to try to find a book club that allows for him to attend virtually, his searches will only yield book groups that are fully online. He will not be able to filter his results for a book club that allows for only occasional remote attendance. In his case, he may end his search by attempting to crowdsource advice and recommendations from social media.
User Persona #3: Andrea
Design Phase
Having decided on the features necessary to help Hayley and Aaron accomplish their tasks, the overall design of LIVRE became the new focus. The first step in this process was a set of user flows, one for each persona. Hayley and Aaron’s user journeys served as the basis of each respective flow.
In the flow above, Hayley is searching for a book club to join. She can choose to refine her search results or explore the profiles of any book clubs that catch her eye.
Hayley’s User Journey: FUTURE STATE
Hayley’s new user journey begins and ends on LIVRE. Because her searches can be refined using filters, she will no longer have to endlessly reword her search queries. Because she can filter out book clubs that are inactive or full, she is also secure in the knowledge that every result she gets is for book clubs that are currently active and seeking new members. Nor will she have to exit the platform to view external book club websites.
In the flow above, Aaron is searching for a mystery and thriller themed book club. Once he’s found the book club, he writes the host a direct message to ask them a question.
Aaron’s USER Journey: FUTURE STATE
Aaron’s journey also begins and ends on the LIVRE app. As a new user, he can give the platform a sense of who he is and in what book genres he’s interested. LIVRE then has the ability to recommend clubs to him without him ever having to type in a search. Aaron can also stay on the app without having to go elsewhere for advice or a question he has — he can message the host of any book club that has marked itself as “Open to New Members” on the platform.
Information Architecture
An information architecture was necessary to help to plan how LIVRE should be structured in the wireframing phase.
Mid-Fidelity Wireframing
The visual design phase began with mid-fidelity wireframes, which were built in Figma using elements from various UI kits. The wireframes were then linked together into a rough prototype during preparation for usability testing.
The mid-fidelity test prototype can be viewed online here.
Usability Testing
Usability testing was crucial to understanding the efficacy of the prototype. Tests were conducted with a total of five testers, three of whom returned to the project from the user interview phase. The two new testers were both millennials. As with the interviewees, they were at least “Somewhat Familiar” with virtual communication methods and social media.
Results of the testing were mixed — the onboarding flow presented few major issues, aside from the sizing of some of the buttons. However, the search flow was difficult for testers to complete. Users were often unsure of where in the application they were, and elements of the search flow, such as the inclusion of a “Search” button next to the search bar, ran contrary to their pre-existing mental models of how a search on an app should operate.
Brand System
In order for LIVRE to look and feel like a conventional product, designing a simple brand system occupied a small yet important role in the design phase of this project. Branding work included creating a logo, selecting fonts, icons, and colors, and building out a series of cards and other elements, such as buttons, filter tabs, and the bottom navigation.
The most crucial task in designing the brand was ensuring that the brand colors conformed to accessibility standards. This was accomplished with a Figma plugin called A11y.
Video Walkthrough
A walkthrough of the high-fidelity, post testing version of LIVRE is below. The high-fidelity test prototype can be viewed online here.
Outcome
The end result of this project is a high-fidelity prototype of a book club app, ready for a second round of usability testing.
Features include:
An onboarding flow for new users to set up a profile and to give LIVRE a sense of their interests and goals
A home feed from which they can connect with other readers in between meetings
An exploration feature on which they can discover recommendations tailored to their interests
A search feature with filters they can apply to tailor their searches to their needs
Club profile pages with a messaging function for non-members to get answers to their questions from the club host, and a “Request to Join” function for them to ask to become a member of that club
Club profile pages from which members can discover important information relevant to their next and future meetings
There will always be opportunities to make improvements, add new features, and conduct additional usability testing, and this is certainly the case with LIVRE.
If the project were to continue, there would be opportunities to:
Proceed with a second round of usability testing to assess the design solutions in the high-fidelity prototype
Interview additional book club hosts to further understand their needs as users
Build out and test new features, including the user profile, settings, and book club host features
Challenges & FINAL REFLECTIONS
This project was completed as my capstone for MICA’s masters program in UX design. Given that this was a student project, naturally the process was not without its challenges and lessons learned!
A few things I learned the hard way:
Never just verbally screen interview participants before you speak with them. Instead, send them a standardized screener form to fill out. Their qualifications should be consistent, and screening with a form is the best way to ensure that. It is more challenging to reach out to folks after their interview to have them fill out screeners retroactively.
My user interviews didn’t turn out to support my initial problem statement, and when that happens it is necessary to adjust it. The problem statement must reflect reality, no matter what.
Sometimes it is necessary to make adjustments to the project timeline, including how long it might take to recruit and work with users and usability test participants. Adding or removing participants is to be expected, so reach out to more people than you think you’ll need.
Test for accessibility before you apply your brand system anywhere. Otherwise, you might unexpectedly find yourself going back into the high-fidelity prototype to make extensive revisions.
Conduct usability tests in mid-fidelity first. It is tempting to save time by jumping into high-fidelity designs first; however, the greater the complexity of the file, the harder it is to make extensive revisions should you discover that you need to.
Proper time management, especially when one has other responsibilities outside of school, is essential.
A few lessons I learned by trying something new:
There is no single “right” way to build certain elements of a project; approaches will vary based on need. For instance, there are many, many different ways to build a user journey map. They are not prescriptive.
Don’t be afraid of trying new tools! A program like Figma may seem intimidating at first, but the best way to learn is by using it.
My final reflection is this: given everything, I wouldn’t trade the mistakes I made for a perfect project — I’m grateful I had the opportunity to learn from them!