DELIVERABLES
An innovative audiobook App for a real book experience
GlueBooks is a book club for book lovers to enjoy audiobooks while retaining the features of reading a physical book. Come join the club and learn a thing or two!
Design process
The challenges
In recent years, more people have started listening to audiobooks for multitasking and productivity purposes, especially as part of their travel routine. During the pandemic, audiobooks continued their upgrowth trajectory and thrived as a method of relaxation and entertainment.
However, book listeners are not happy and satisfied with the impersonal experience of current audiobook Apps on the market. They tend to miss and hope to enjoy the personalised aspects of owning a book, that is lost in its digital delivery.
Research analysis
100 survey responses
6 1-to-1 interviews
4 competitor analysis
- Users regard audiobooks as a means of multitasking and relaxation - while walking, on the public transport, doing chores or even before sleep.
- Some users listen to audiobooks of certain categories, ie. self-development.
- Users need a whole collection of books within an audiobook App.
- The reading voice needs to be clear and engaging.
- Users hope to enjoy some significant features of physical books, such as highlighting and note taking.
- Users tend to miss the feelings of traditional books where you can lend them to your family members and friends.
Personas
Jason
27 years old
Entrepreneur
Needs and goals
He hopes to keep himself in the loop of technology.
His lifestyle is being efficient and multitasking.
He wants to highlight the contents in a book that he can come back and recap in the future, but also share the book or notes with his families and friends.
He wishes to receive personalised book recommendations as per his interests.
Crystal
27 years old
Brand manager
Needs and goals
She reads books for relaxation and entertainment.
She enjoys the feeling of holding a book and reading the words.
She needs to bookmark the pages so that she can find the previous spot.
She wishes to listen to audiobooks while walking or doing housework, without getting distracted or tuned out.
The final problem statement
HMW be able to provide book listeners with personalised book recommendations as per their reading history and interests?
HMW bring the most significant features of physical books into audiobooks, to evoke the similar sentimental experience of book reading?
HMW create a sense of being in a book club for book lovers to share their booklists and comments with other listeners?
Ideation and Crazy 8’s
Using HMW statements as a guide, I brainstormed and drew some potential solutions to the final problem statement:
MVP
I put all the ideas into an MVP framework, to decide which were the most valuable and achievable for the prototypes.
- E-book integration with bookmarks
- Highlight and note taking
- Sleep time and voice speed control
- My collections and favourites
- Social media or book club feature
Visual design
Home page
Audiobook page
E-book page
Comments/Related page
Profile page
Future iteration
Improving discoverability
With integrations of e-books and many other new features such as taking notes and making comments, it’s essential to create interfaces that are easy for users to function the tabs by relying on existing experience.
More affordances
Even if users discover an object, they might not know how to use it; thus, they likely leave it untouched. Providing affordances will help give users hints about how they might interact with the functions.
Personalising the experience
By adding more personalisation to the App, users don't need to research any longer for finding content - that's where the idea of the book club came from. They're more likely to have more fun and stay in the App longer.
