Bhuku: End to End App Design

User Researcher | Interaction Designer | UX/UI Designer | User testing

Background: Similar to Goodreads, Bhuku is an app for book lovers that will help users track everything they own, books they have read, what they will read next, and also everything they have loved so far.

Challenge: Develop and design the Bhuku app and brand, with a user-centered approach.

Outcome: A book tracking app that allows users to track their reading progress, earn badges from reading, participate in reading challenges, and leave short endorsements, in a seamless, modern app.

Process

Research & Discovery: Conducted competitive analysis and interviews to develop user persona, creating an empathy map to further empathy and user-centered design and help understand the design problem

Define, Ideate & Strategize: Brainstormed ideas and planned the features and needs of the Bhuku app, considering the business and user goals, and detailing a product roadmap

Interaction Design: Created user and task flows to develop interactions and navigation, drew low-fidelity sketches and mid-fidelity wireframes

User Testing: Conducted usability test to validate UI and navigation, creating a prototype to test and an affinity map of the results

UI Design: Developed and applied Bhuku’s visual brand to the app, creating high fidelity wireframes, a style tile and UI kit for ease of implementation

To begin to develop and design the Bhuku app, it was essential to gain deeper insight into how users track their reading habits and pain points they have with current apps, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the competitive landscape and market. To do this, some research was in order.

Methodologies

Primary Research:

• User Surveys - To learn more about user behaviors and needs when using book trackers at scale

Secondary Research:

• Competitive Analysis - To determine each brand’s competitive offering and differentiators

• Market research - To evaluate the overall industry, market, demographics, and users

Research Goals

• Identify Bhuku’s main competitors and user pain points

• Identify Bhuku’s main and target users

• Discover how users are currently using book tracking apps - socially? Personally? Tracking? Lending?

• Discover how they track their reading habits and find new reads - categorizing, lists, progress, etc

Research Questions

• How are users currently interacting with others in tracking platforms?

• How are users cultivating and discovering new reads?

• How are users tracking their reading habits?

• What are the frustrations users have with these platforms?

Assumptions to be validated

• Users want to track their reading history and desires

• Users enjoy personalized recommendations based on their reading history or from friends

• Users want to know what their friends are reading

Competitive Analysis

Market Research

While there several social book tracking apps, and dozens more for personal cataloguing, Goodreads is far and away the leader in the “Library 2.0” area. As Goodreads and its competitors are mostly free for users (there are a few that cap the number of catalogued items for free users), revenue for these platforms generally comes from advertising. Because of advertising relationships and a direct connection to Amazon, Goodreads engages more directly with book publishers than other platforms and is thus able to offer discounts, and a direct line to users’ favorite authors. They are also able to utilize Amazon’s data to integrate details into their system and create stronger recommendations. The market is pretty saturated, but Goodreads is the most profitable and has the largest user base by tens of millions because of these factors.

Insights

• Rating scale ranges anywhere from 5 to 10 to 20 point scales, including half points (ie - 1-5 w/half points is a 10 point scale, but so is 1-10 without half points)

• Each year since 2015, over 3 million users have participated in the Goodreads annual reading challenge

• The majority of Goodreads users are ages 18-44, though about 27% are ages 45-64

• The population of Goodread’s audience is overwhelmingly female, about 70%

Survey Key Findings

• Readers cared the most about tracking what they’ve read and their personal catalogue, though finding new books to read was a close second

• About 58% of users actively updated their reading progress on their current book

• Only 32% of users created custom categories, though generally very simple ones

• 74% of users relied on their friends’ book reviews to help make informed reading choices

• Though only 37% left their own reviews on books

• Users read paper and e-books in near equal measure, though audiobook consumption was on the rise

Empathy Map

To help synthesize the survey , I created an Empathy Map, taking the salient and repeated statements from users to help understand their pains, needs, and thoughts around book tracking.

Persona

Based on the insights uncovered by the survey, I created a User Persona. The Persona “Michelle” helps keep the primary user as the focus of the design.

Research Conclusions

Bhuku is entering a saturated market, dominated by one major player. However, the leading service lacks good organization, friend engagement, and a streamlined interface. With the discovery of our users real needs, we can interrupt the market with a clean, user-friendly app that focuses on the desires for both accomplishment and community.

Defining the Design Problem

After conducting the survey and understanding the user, the next step is to gain deeper insight into the problem itself to create a path to an ideal solution. I created a Point of View and How Might We table, taking the insights and needs discovered in research and turning them into statements and questions to use as a brainstorming tool.

Brainstorming

With these How Might We questions to begin generating solutions to the user needs, I led a brainstorming session to dig into solutions and options for Bhuku and its users.

Product Roadmap

Based on the solutions created in the brainstorming session, I created a Product Roadmap to help guide the solutions into planning and implementation. The primary solutions were to create a tracking and badge system, a character-limited endorsement, and reading challenges.

App map

Next, I created an App Map to define the architecture of the Bhuku app and main navigation based on user needs and goals.

User Flow

Now that the information architecture and needs of the feature have been determined, I needed to ensure the ease of use of the app and the features. Using the App Map, I created a User Flow to understand the flow of the user within the infrastructure.

Task Flow

I then created a Task Flow to understand the myriad ways a user might navigate through the app to achieve certain goals, such as tracking reading progress.

Lo-Fidelity Wireframes

Planning out the design of the app, I sketched the main screens that would need to be fully designed and wireframed.

High Fidelity Wireframes

Maintaining the Spotify design and branding, I designed the pages necessary to create a broadcast, listen to a broadcast, and find similar friends in Sketch.

Prototype

Using the wireframes created in Sketch, I created an InVision interactive prototype to test the flow and ease of use of the new feature.

Usability Testing

Testing Goals: 

• Assess the usability and functionality of main navigation within the Bhuku app

• Test the flow of the features and tasks within the app’s architecture and design, and determine if users can easily and efficiently understand the feature and accomplish tasks.

• Observe users’ behaviors and note any areas of hesitation, disorientation, frustration, etc.

Testing Results:

• Completion Rate: 100%

• Error-Free Rate: 80%

Affinity Map

Now that the app has been tested and validated, it’s time to create the visual brand and logo for Bhuku.

Moodboard

To generate ideas and capture the look and feel of the Bhuku app, I created a moodboard. I used this to help me design the logo, colors, typography, and UI for Bhuku.

Style Tile

After creating the logo and UI design, I created a Style Tile to help capture the branding and the essential style elements of the app.

UI Kit

Once the Bhuku app was fully designed, I created a UI Kit to have a consistent document of all of the essential UI Elements that will need repeated use in fleshing out the full functionality of the features.

High Fidelity Wireframes

I then applied the color scheme, typography, and imagery to create the fully fleshed out idea of Bhuku and the app.

Project Takeaways

By offering a comprehensive, engaging, and user-friendly app experience, Bhuku could easily disrupt the market for book tracking apps. Bhuku offers unique features like reading challenges, alongside a breathable, fun interface.

What Comes Next for Bhuku?

Continue Iteration, Implementation, and Testing

Acertus Spotify Bhuku Zeit