SHELF: A virtual book club
Branding - UX/UI
About
Shelf is an innovative project that aims to create a comprehensive mobile application, bringing together e-books, virtual book clubs, and online bookstores onto a single, user-friendly platform. The project's vision is to enhance the reading experience for book enthusiasts by providing a seamless and engaging ecosystem that caters to their various literary interests.
Understanding the problem
Sense of community: In the digital age, traditional book clubs' sense of community is often lost, leading readers to explore online book clubs. Yet, these lack the in-person connection. The challenge is to develop a book club app that fosters a strong sense of community despite the distance.
Discoverability of clubs: Discovering suitable book clubs is tough without a centralized platform, leading to isolation and discouragement for potential members. A convenient platform is needed for easy club discovery and joining.
Interaction and contribution to clubs: The challenge for book club apps is to foster member interaction and communication while maintaining the flexibility of digital clubs. Despite the convenience, digital clubs can lead to isolation and disengagement, making active communication crucial for an engaging app.
Personas
Competitor Analysis
The first step was to analyze the competitors and get familiar with the existing book club apps, their pros and cons, and user reviews.
GoodReads
Book Club
Designing the solution
The discovery of book clubs begins when users input three books or authors they enjoy. Based on this information, an interest graph is generated, mapping the user’s preferences. This graph is then matched with a database of book clubs, identifying clubs that have read the same books or authors. These matching book clubs are recommended to the user, who can then explore and join the ones that align with their interests.
When designing the solution for joining a club, it’s important for readers to consider several pieces of information about a book club before deciding to join. Key details include the club's reading list, information about its members, its field of interests, and a description of the club itself. The book club app displays this information, including a banner image, the club's name, a description, its field of interests, the reading list, and the members list. The reading list is especially helpful for users to determine if the club’s interests align with their own.
Contributing to book clubs takes place primarily within the discussion room, where all interactions happen. After joining a club, readers enter the discussion room, which serves as the hub for the main activities. In this space, readers can have conversations with one another, participate in club meetings to discuss books in detail, share photos (usually related to content from the books), and even conduct polls—such as voting on the next book to read, favorite authors, or the best book the club has read.
