BookClub
The app helps readers easily scan fragments from books, add transcripts from podcasts and effectively arrange the extracted excerpts by topics. They can also post and discuss interesting excerpts with other readers in dedicated groups.
UX/ UI Design
AI Insider
Challenge
While reading books or listening to podcasts people come across excerpts that they find interesting. Often they want to easily go back to those excerpts and reflect upon them, but they encounter various challenges:
noting down the excerpts is slow and leads to constant interruptions during the reading or listening process
because the sources are diverse, the excerpts are scattered and the reader does not have them at hand
the excerpts are not organized, so it is difficult to find them
when self-reflection is not enough, people want to share and discuss with others, but they hardly find like-minded people
UI Design
Dashboard
Book Excerpts
Podcast Excerpts
Scan Excerpt
Others
Design System
Solution
I designed a mobile app that enables readers to seamlessly note down the excerpts from books or podcasts, without disrupting the reading or listening process. The user can also effectively manage and find the saved excerpts and discuss upon them with fellow readers in dedicated topic groups.
Competitive Audit
After conducting a competitive audit of the most relevant competitors, we were able to decide on the platform for our solution, confirm what we saw as potential opportunities, and identify some additional ones.
Competitors focus either on books/text fragments/notes management or on readers' communities, while we could meaningfully merge both categories
Seamlessly note down excerpts while reading by utilizing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology
Competitors' reading communities discuss a book over a defined timeframe, while our solution offers the functionality to post excerpts from any book or podcast at any time and discuss them
The user flows, accessibility, navigation, and brand identity of most competitors have room for improvement. We believe we can enhance these aspects
User Persona & Empathy Map
I identified 3 user persona, who provided me with a clearer understanding about the real frustrations the readers encounter while noting done their excerpts and making use of them. These helped me articulate their needs.
1. Adam
2. Max
3. Sonia
User Journey
In order to get a more realistic understanding about the readers habits and the journey they walk through from reading the book or listening to podcast, up to making use of their excerpts, I created a user journey.
Problem Statement
Now, having a clear understanding of the user profiles, their behaviors and needs, I proceeded with articulating the problem statements.
Adam is an avid reader who needs to effectively manage the excerpts from the books he reads, because he wants to easily find them and to see possible correlations between them.
Adam is an avid reader who needs to easily communicate with other users and ask questions regarding excerpts he finds interesting, because he wants to improve his knowledge and get questions answered.
Adam is an avid reader who needs to easily and quickly note down excerpts from the books he reads, because he wants to have a seamlessly reading experience..
Max is a podcasts fan who needs to easily manage excerpts from podcasts he listens to on different platforms, because he wants to easily find them.
Max is a podcasts fan who needs to share podcast sessions/ videos excerpts with others in order get answers to his questions and to be able to dig deeper into subjects.
Sonia is a student who studies economics and needs to effectively group correlated text excerpts from books she reads, together with podcast excerpts she listens to, because she wants to manage information more easily and more time efficient.
Sonia is a student who studies economics and needs to share her favorites excerpts with others and ask questions, because she wants to get a better understanding about the stuff she studies.
User Stories
To gain a more precise understanding of the app's functionalities, I formulated user stories based on the problem statement.
As an avid reader, I need to easily note down excerpts I find interesting, so I can have a seamless reading process.
As an avid reader, I need to easily find the excerpt I'm thinking of, so I don't waste time or get frustrated by not finding it.
As a podcast fan, I need to easily manage excerpts from various sources and topics, so that I can quickly find them when needed.
As a student, I need to effectively group excerpts together, based on relevant criteria , so that I can have a clear overview of my excerpts.
As a student, I need to discuss important excerpts with others who have a better understanding, so I can improve my comprehension of the material I study
