Book Buddies: Reading is More Fun with Friends!
Contributors: Sean Lim, Autumn Rhee, Jessie Xu
All members participated in the full timeline of our project, including designing, user research, and prototyping.
The Problem and Our Solution
Studies have shown that reading helps reduce stress levels by 68%, and even boosts emotional development and career prospects by 50% to 100%. However, despite this, studies have found that the average number of books read by Americans have been consistently declining, and this trend is expected to continue. In fact, a 2022 national poll consisting of 1,621 American adults showed that 48.2% of respondents haven’t read any books in over a year! This decline is compounded by the overwhelming popularity of social media and other faster forms of entertainment, making it increasingly difficult for people to find the motivation to read.
With Book Buddies, we aim to support individuals who struggle with finding the motivation to incorporate reading into their daily lives. We combine the solitary act of reading with Gen Z’s affinity for social media platforms, presenting a space for readers to not only enrich their reading but to also foster a sense of community that traditional reading doesn’t provide. Through our app, users will be able to receive personalized book recommendations and engage in discussions about their favorite books with the public, or only those in their friends circle.
Initial Paper Prototype and Revisions
In our paper prototype, we wanted to include the primary features needed for users to perform two tasks: 1) Finding new books, and 2) Engaging with a discussion board. To address the first task, we incorporated a function for users to add book preferences. Our app would then use the information they enter to suggest new recommendations. We addressed the second task by creating a discussion tab, where users could browse various books and tap on a specific book to access its associated comments.
With this prototype, we conducted usability testing, which revealed various issues in the usage of our application. For example, on our page to add book preferences, testers pointed out that they expected to be able to filter preferences by genre, so adding specific books was a surprise. To address this, we revised their preferences to be based on specific genres rather than a particular book, as we believe this will make the process more intuitive to the user if they would like updated recommendations. We also decided to change the title of the page to be ‘Edit Preferences’ rather than ‘Add Preferences,’ to better summarize what the task does, as the user may not be specifically adding something.
Another issue that we discovered was that our application felt more like a large anonymous forum, like Reddit, rather than a means of connecting with friends and people you’ve specifically added in the app. So, we decided to add the option of navigating to a tab that will only be filtered to discussions made by friends, rather than ones open to the public. This had also helped us incorporate specific findings from our research phase, where participants mentioned enjoying the idea of connecting with friends while reading as a way of staying motivated.
Above is a display of our revised paper prototype, which addressed the confusion around inputting preferences, and the want to engage in discussions with just your friends.
Final Design: Digital Mockup
Task 1: Finding New Books
To facilitate the discovery of new books, we have integrated into the app a personalized book recommendation algorithm that suggests books specific to the user’s potential interests based on past readings and top charts. The user is additionally able to refine these suggestions by editing their preferences based on categories such as genre or author. If curious to learn more about a suggested book, clicking on the book’s icon from the easy-to-access main page, provides instant access to plot summaries, with an option of adding it to your digital bookshelf. The Discussion main page also acts as a tool to explore new books from being exposed to what others in the community are reading.
Task 2: Community Discussion
To foster a greater aspect of community connections, we have designed a Discussions page, which provides a platform for engaging in conversation about both familiar and newly introduced books. Varied content type is supported, with the ability to post text, audio, and/or videos, highlighting the captivating aspects of other distinct apps into one central efficient hub. Discussions can also be filtered on categories such as book, chapter, and language but can also be filtered by selection of friends, as compared to everyone when desired, offering an opportunity for varied community level connections.
Changes Leading to Our Final Mockup
From preliminary to final mockup, we made refinements and changes to better accommodate the user experience on our app. As an example, in regards to the Filters pop-up, we relocated the “Apply” button from the bottom to the top of the pop-up’s space to prevent it from becoming inconvenient to access under a potentially growing stack of filter options. To keep consistent with format, we also relocated the “Apply” button on the Edit Preferences pop-up to be at the top. On the Edit Preferences pop-up, we removed the “Add” button for each category to keep consistent formatting while also optimizing efficiency.
For the Discussions page, we made the discussion post detail not a sheet, distanced the discussion filter button from discussion new post button to prevent user confusion and closer associate it with discussion content, and removed the upvote/downvote buttons because we wanted the discussion to feel more like a casual chat with friends, rather than being associated with larger online forums.
For the Main Bookshelf Home Page, instead of the see more button in our original prototype, we changed it to a ‘>’ looking vector, for external consistency with other apps. Our initial prototype also did not include a ‘see more’ option for the user’s ‘Bookshelf,’ so we included it in our final prototype to account for the case where the user has 3+ books on there.
Link to interactive prototype: https://www.figma.com/proto/RzGspsVGOBJASxRrLC8Nb3/Digital-Mockup?node-id=4-627&starting-point-node-id=4%3A627
Link to final digital mockup:
Conclusion
Our user research found that many students do not feel motivated to read, especially because books are now competing with faster and easier forms of entertainment options, such as social media, Netflix, and YouTube. This led us to designing Book Buddies, where the solitary activity of reading meets community. Our platform is tailor-made for those who want to read more often, but lack the motivation to do so. Through our app, you will not only be able to get personalized book recommendations, but will also be able to engage in discussions about your favorite books with fellow readers and friends, providing a space that will enrich your reading experience, as well as foster a sense of community that traditional reading doesn’t provide.
