Acerca de
The User Problem
In this digital age where smartphones, tablets and e-readers have reached mass adoption over the past few years, people still rely heavily on ink and paper when it comes to reading books. However, they believe in “Buy Online Deliver From Store” model, which saves them time, energy, and offers flexibility. The problem being, not all avid readers want to buy books always. Some prefer saving the money but still enjoy the reading.
​
Book-it is trying to connect these book lovers with the local book stores near them, giving them the flexibility to buy or 'rent' their favorite books and getting them delivered at their doorstep!
How did we know this was a problem?
User Interviews
-
To learn more about the user experiences who love to read books
-
What problems do they face in buying a book from store or getting the books from the library
-
To understand what are their pain-points and frustrations about owning a physical copy over an e-book.
-
To come up with a solution that solves their problems and make their experience better in terms of accessibility and convenience.
Questions Asked
-
How often do you read? Do you buy books?
-
What is your preferred reading method? - E-books, Online, Pdf, Hard-copies
-
How often do you visit local book stores and why?
-
How do you feel about renting books?
-
Have you used any service before that allows you to rent books?
-
How do you feel about renting books and getting them delivered at your doorstep?
-
How much are you willing to pay for a re-used book on rent?
-
What are your expectations from a book rental service?
-
Would you rent your favorite book again and again or do you prefer buying it?
-
What are your frustrations obtaining a physical book?
What did we learn from interviews?
Empathy Map
POV statements
User
A student who likes reading physical copies of books but cannot buy as it is expensive.
A working professional who enjoys reading books in spare time.
A student who lives in the city and finds it hard to carry books while switching rooms.
Need
Need cheaper books that they can order and is delivered really quickly, as and when needed.
They like to switch books but buying every book they like seems unreasonable. Also they dont find enough time to go to a bookstore.
A system where they dont have to buy books in order to read them.
Insight
Being a student, he/she often find the need to read books. If they don't like reading books online, they search for physical copies. But sometimes physical books are expensive and they are not able to purchase them. So they would like to have a service where they can rent the books for reference. He doesn't get enough time in their schedule to visit a library to get the books issued, so it would be convenient if the books can be delivered to them whenever they need.
The user is an avid book reader. However they dont find the time to visit a bookstore or library. They would like to get the books delivered at their home. Also, since they read books frequently, they do not like to buy every book as they are expensive. They would like if they can rent the books for few days and return once read.
Being a student she wants to own hard copy of books, but dont want the hassle of carrying the heavy books while switching apartments. It would be great if they can just rent the books which can be delivered to them without any hassle.
An adult professional who lives in the city and loves reading books.
A platform where they can get books chosen for them without any confusion.
He is very confused when selecting books to read. So doesn't want to spend money buying all books. It would be great to have a platform where he can books as per recommendations and won't need to pay much. Also, since he loves flipping pages while reading, he doesn't enjoy e-books.
Crafting a Solution
Why Hand Sketches : Quick thoughts for solution
How would I like the product to look like : User friendly, clear workflows and navigations, Easy to use
What kinds of features do I want : Splash page to give an overview, Self explanatory Home Page, Search option, Favorites, Rent, Buy, Calendar to select rental period.
Wireframes : Low Fidelity
Splash Page and Login Page
Home Page and Detail Pages
High Fidelity Prototypes : Main Features
Home page- contains both Delivery and Pickup options.
Top Picks feature to facilitate users to choose from popular books.
The Pickup feature shows all the book-stores near to Homeaddress.
The Discover feature gives the option to choose from different genres after selecting the Rental period.
The availability of chosen book is shown in all nearby Book stores.
The book can be rented or bought as per the need.
If a user decides to rent a book, they can select the dates from the calendar as per requirement.
The below color template has been chosen to create a happy, bright and easy to follow layout for Book-it.
User Testing
Test Preparation
The goal is to gather feedback on the overall user experience to to comprehensively evaluate the performance of each task, connected together to form a seamless and cohesive experience.
-
How would you describe your overall experience with the product?
-
Were you able to perform the core action smoothly?
-
Is there anything missing that would make the experience of using Book-it better?
-
On a scale from 1 to 5 (1=not at all likely, 5=very likely), how likely are you to recommend this product to a friend?
​
​
Define Testing task list : All features
Login/ Signup
Choose Delivery/ Pickup
Check availability of favorite books
Select dates to rent books
Place Order
Running Usability Tests
By providing the same tasks and scenarios for each participant, test the existing features.
Usability Test Results
Creating an Information Matrix to state the Results of Interviews
Participant 1
Task 1
Find different genres of books
Collection of books according to genres is neat. It would be great to have books classified by Authors too apart from genres.
Task 2
Checkout delivery and pickup feature
Good to have both features as per the need of the user.
When choosing Pickup, all near bookstores ares shown by distance.
Task 3
Explore calendar to rent books
The calendar appears after selecting Delivery date option which is confusing to new users.
Task 4
Recommend Book-it to a friend
The idea of this concept is great. Would definitely recommend this product.
Rating 4.5
Participant 2
The recommendation of top picks makes it easier to select books. Good visual design.
The visual design of both features is very small, which makes it hard to notice in first glance.
Great option to rent the books for desired period. It would be great if the number of days can be customized.
The product provides doorstep delivery & pickup. Would certainly recommend.
Rating - 5
Participant 3
It would be nice to see my order pickup details/ barcode to show the book store staff(similar to DoorDash)
Participant 4
All the genre categories are very well defined. However, t would have been better if i could sort the genres of my interest while browsing
Participant 5
Very appealing to the eyes. Clear and self navigated without any confusion.
Great attention to detail.
If I want to rent the books from a different geographic location than the current one, I don’t see any option to do it
If I want to rent the books from a different geographic location than the current one, I don’t see any option to do it
I wanted more information about the stores and their credentials. I want to have a virtual tour of the of shops
Yes its clear and user friendly, liked the simple thumbnails.
Liked the idea of renting books according to number of weeks.
A little bit confusing as the calendar only opens once you click on Delivery date option.
Good design. I like that both original and rented prices are mentioned as per the date selection. The delivery date comes automatically after selection.
I like the idea of renting different books as and when needed. Would not be heavy on pocket. Will recommend.
Rating - 4.5
If the product gets improved and all gaps are taken care of I would like to recommend for sure.
Rating - 3.5
Love the idea of delivery of books. Will be very convenient and cheap too.
Will recommend.
Rating - 5
Conclusion
What went well?
​
-
The app layout is easy to navigate with clear workflows.
-
The UX design is fully functional and developer friendly to develop a full fledged app.
-
The research and designing process was interesting and smooth.
-
The user interviews and usability testing was a huge help to identify the gaps.
What could be improved?
-
Since there is no existing app that performs the similar core action, the research process was difficult.
-
The duration of renting books can be customized instead of weekly blocks.
-
The rent price of every book is solely based on user interviews. Could not find a benchmark to compare prices.
-
User research and interviews can give better results if participants are subject matter experts.
What's next?
 |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
 |