LitCon App Design

 

Problem

There aren’t many apps dedicated to the creation and substation of digital book clubs. People tend to use communication apps like Slack or Facebook groups. With these apps, people can discuss in chat rooms, but the UI isn’t directly dedicated to creating community through book clubs.

Scope

Create a mobile experience that makes it easy to connect with people who have similar book interests.

Role

Low fidelity designs
High fidelity designs
User testing

Rapid Prototyping

Paper Wireframes

Process started with creating paper wireframes and user flows to flush out the apps functionality.

Key takeaways:

  • During the sign up process, users must fill out a q&a so that the app can curate custom book club suggestions which they can find later on in the flow.

  • There needs to be a time limit on when users can join clubs. Constant new comers might alter the feeling of community and overall closeness.

  • There are a few places where multiple actions take users to complete the same task. Which need to changed.

  • Overall UI needs additional contrast and hierarchy so there are clear action indicators for users.

Personas

Main Personas

Once there was a solid understanding of the apps flow, the potential of users LitCon helped further shape the user interface and experience solutions

Key takeaways:

  • Similarities: Both personas need to rent vehicles and have different levels of driving experience.

  • Differences: Samantha persona is a new driver and is budget conscious, where as Annie is a seasoned driver and is prioritizing efficiency over cost.

  • Pain points: Samantha gets confused by technical details when it comes to cars and road trips and Annie has road rage and is not tech savy.

Design

Goals + Features

To reiterate, the function of this app was to: easily to connect with people who have similar book interests - via digital book clubs. When designing the UI the goal was to create an intuitive experience where users felt guided through the bookclub joining process.

Flow key points:

  • Firstly, have the user fill out a q&a to get a better understanding of their literary interests.

  • Next, user lands on the home page that provides them access to: the search bar, options to add or create a club, bookshelf, and their user profile.

  • From here, user enter the flow of joining clubs and purchasing books.

Key features:

  • Group Profile: In each group profile there is a short bio about the group and buttons that lead to the group’s chat, members, playlists and media. In the Group’s chat, members will discuss the book they are reading and share media like book-marked quotes, polls about surprising parts of the book, gif’s, images and playlists. Users can make playlists based on the chapter they are reading or the feeling that the book gives them.

  • Collection: All of the books a user is reading or have favorited to start reading. When the user clicks on a favorited book it will take them to the explore page where the book will have a summary​​​​​​​

  • User Profile: This is the user’s personal profile where they can show their personality as well as their literary interests. Users can also see if they have similar interests with other users by reading their bio and looking at their list of clubs.