✦ Next Chapter
ROLE
Product Designer
Timeline
Dec 2024 - Jan 2025
skills
UXR, UI Design, Prototyping
Turning the Pages of Possibility
Background & Context
As an avid reader and frequent user of existing reading apps, I noticed an opportunity and a demand for a more immersive and personalized application that goes beyond basic features like tracking books or leaving reviews.
Next Chapter is a mobile app designed to enhance the reading experience for book enthusiasts. The platform's mission is to help readers discover new books, build community, and engage in better reading habits. This is a case study I completed over 7 weeks. It reflects my independent efforts in identifying and solving key gaps in the current market.
Problem
Many readers feel frustrated with existing applications geared towards readers due to outdated interfaces and a lack of social engagement features. Additionally, tracking features lack depth and don't encourage meaningful insights into reading habits, progress, or goals. This further disengages users seeking a more interactive experience. Readers struggle with inefficient tools to organize books, minimal community engagement, and accessibility barriers for diverse needs.
Pain Points
Lack of personalization
Readers have difficulty finding curated book recommendations through current solutions. Their recommendations don't feel personal to them or representative of their reading habits. Many of the current applications lack features that are more responsive to individual preferences.
Overwhelming navigation and outdated UI
With some of the current solutions, users are frustrated with the cluttered layouts and app experiences. Navigation paths can be confusing and unintuitive. and the UI can feel outdated for younger audiences.
Limited features for connecting with other like-minded readers.
For people who seek community and conversation around books, many of the current solutions lack the tools and structure needed for engagement. Features for posting, sharing thoughts, or being a part of discussions are often underdeveloped or nonexistent
Competitor Analysis
To identify deeper issues with the current reading app experience, I conducted a competitor analysis amongst other popular reading apps. My research methods included surveys, interviews, and real-world usage. The apps analyzed were Goodreads, Storygraph, and Bookly.
Personas
To inform and shape the app's contents and features, I developed user personas guide the app's experience and frame the user journey. They helped me organize and the needs, goals, and current challenges that the target audiences face.
Features
Gamification — Reward Achievement Badges
Next Chapter incorporates gamification through rewards and achievement badges. Readers can earn badges to display on their profile for completing milestones such as finishing a set number of books, exploring different genres, or keeping up with their reading streaks and goals. This feature strives to make the reading experience more engaging and interactive. It also motivates users who want to read more and stay on track with their goals.
Personalization — Tagging system & Reading Recommendations
Next Chapter's tagging system is designed to be community driven. It allows readers to categorize books using a wide variety of keywords beyond just traditional genre tags. This approach enables more nuanced and flexible organization. It makes it easier for users to discover new books that fit their specific interests.
The book recommendation algorithm analyzes reading patterns, ratings, reviews, and books marked as favorites to give relevant suggestions. Additionally, the system highlights highly rated books across the platform by other users with similar reading habits to you. The discover page also suggests authors whose works align with the user’s interests.
Community Engagement — Book Clubs
The app features social connectivity tools that allow users to follow others and like and share their posts. Users can join and create dedicated "book clubs," which serve as interactive community groups where members can engage in conversations and participate in discussions about their favorite books and authors.
Onboarding User Flow & Site Map
Lo-fi Designs & UI Design Stylescape
High-Fi Designs
These are my final high fidelity screens. You can also view the working prototypes with the links below. Designed for the iPhone 16.
Reflection
Next chapter has been an extremely rewarding opportunity for me to dive deeper and go more in-depth into the field. I got the chance to get hands on experience and explore how design can be wielded as a powerful tool for solving real user problems. Through this project, I became more comfortable and confident using design tools such as Figma and interactive prototyping.
One of the most valuable aspects of this experience was the feedback I received from my mentors and peers. it helped me grow not just in technical skill, but in how I think about user needs and the importance of iteration in the design process. Reflecting on this experience, I would improve this project by incorporating more user testing throughout the process to better ensure that every decision and design rationale is grounded in user insight.
A key takeaway from the project is that design is never static. It's iterative and changing process thrives on research, iteration, and continuous feedback. This project reinforced for me how thoughtful design grounded in data and empathy can make meaningful impacts. I hope to carry these learnings with me to future projects!