Work
Ariela Basson 

Plotters

Product, UX/UI
Plotters is an app that allows readers to connect with one another, through easily finding book clubs near them. Using the UX/UI process and the double diamond method, I designed the user-facing journey for this project in hopes of encouraging young readers in metropolitan areas to share their love of reading with one another.


Using the double diamond method, I was able to organize my project into four phases of devolopment:Phase 1: 

Discover

Phase 2: Define
Phase 3: Design
Phase 4: Deliver


Phase 1: 

Discover

After synthesizing data from user interviews and organizing the most important points into affinity maps, these themes were most prevelant:01.I would like to know about Book Club member demographics.


02.I’m concerned about the size of the book club.


03.I’m interested in the logistics of starting the book club, but it also seems overwhelming.
04.Book club discussion structure is important 
to me.

05.I would like to socialize at book club.


06.I care about what I’m reading in book club.


07.Convenience (timing and geography) are important to me.
08.I would like to spend as little as possible.
09.I care about my book 
club’s setting.
10.Pacing my reading is important to me.


11.I would like to attend book-related events outside of book club.




Phase 2: 

Define

Meet our user:
Taylor




Age:
26 years old
Gender:
Female

Gender:
Strategist at agencyTaylor is a busy strategist at a creative agency. After college, she moved to a new big city. When she’s not busy with work, hanging out with friends, or exploring the city, Taylor loves to read. She would love to find an in person book club that suits her needs, covers books she would like to discuss, and includes people she would like to make connections with. She sees her love of books as a great way to bond with others and would love to discuss her thoughts on the stories she consumes with fellow young readers.Taylor’s Goals:
  • Find an easily accessible and in person book club that meets on a monthly basis. 

  • Meet new fellow young readers in their 20s and 30s.

  • Enhance her love of reading through sharing it with others.

  • Have meaningful discussions about the books she reads with others who would like to dedicate an hour or two of their time to also doing so.


Taylor’s Painpoints:
  • Finding a book club near her in a quick and easy way. Between work, her social life, and reading, Taylor doesn’t want to spend extra time doing research. 

  • Book clubs that don’t actually discuss the book they’re reading. Taylor has joined a few book clubs made up of pre-existing friends in the past, and she’s found it has turned into more of a social club than a book club.

  • Have meaningful discussions about the books she reads with others who would like to dedicate an hour or two of their time to also doing so.

  • Finding a book club that meets in person rather than on Zoom.

Problem Statement:

Young readers find it difficult to find and start in person book clubs near them that meet their needs and desires in terms of, socializing, convenience, setting, size, and structure. There are lots of logistics to finding and starting an in person book club; young readers would like an easy and clear way to accomplish these goals.

How might We Statement:

How might we create a solution for young readers to find and to connect through easily accessible book clubs, organized through partnership of book stores, libraries, and cafes.

Using a 2x2 Feature Prioritization map, certain potential aspects and features of the app were prioritized over others.
Phase 2: 

Design

Now that Taylor’s needs were established and features were prioritized, it was time to also prioritize a user flow. Due to the compact timeline of this project, I opted to focus on a user facing flow first (instead of the club administrator side of the app.) One thing was clear: the user flow began at opening the app and ended once the user had joined a book club that met their needs. The question then was what came in between these benchmarks?





Prioritize. Prioritize. Prioritize. 
(& prioritize some more.)

For my low-fi prototype, I decided to focus on certain features over others.

FIRST PRIORITY FEATURES:
  • Clear log in and sign up experiences

  • Dashboard with book clubs to which the user belongs for immediate and easy access to important information

  • A clear search experience and easily navigable filters that address user needs for book clubs

  • Options to save clubs so that viewers can gather them and then weigh their option




Time to test.

The next step was to begin user testing (early and often)! After testing with various users, I was able to gain valuable design insights.

Finding 01.Overall, all three users found the user flow and experience to be clear. The filters were the strongest point of clarity, receiving praise on their navigability.

Finding 02.After testing, it was clear that time was not important to the user’s journey. Misclicks were the most important success metric.

On average, Task 1 had 1.5 misclicks per user, while Task 2 had 2 misclicks per user. 

Finding 03.Through my testing, I realized that my test instructions weren’t very clear, perhaps leading to confusion and misclicks. I needed to be more specific to guide the user towards the happy path, without directly revealing it.



After conducting user tests, I affinity mapped my data into 6 
different insights in order to improve my product to best appeal to users like Taylor.

01.I prioritized saving clubs before joining them.

02.I was confused about where to find clubs I joined. 

03.I was confused about what lived on the profile.
04.I was confused about what lived on the saved clubs page and where to find saved clubs.
05.I would like the filter interactions to be refined and filter category options to be expanded.
06.Task wording confused me.
I misclicked because the task at hand was not clear to me.







As I considered Plotters’ brand identity, I referred to book store, book clubs, and stationary for inspiration.


I wanted Plotters to feel vintage and warm evoking the nostalgia of pre-pandemic in-person book clubs, but also still fresh and modern.






ColorNamed after famous authors and book media, the Plotters colors represent the brand's core themes of nostalgia, warmth, and modernity.





TypographyBookmania represents vintage nostalgia and Golos Text symbolizes modernity.













Final 
(for now) product

After user testing, I was able to not only apply the testing insights, but also apply those lessons as I added more content to my high-fidelity designs. 

WHAT MADE HIGH-FI DIFFERENT
  • Applied user testing revision action items

  • Added imagery for important context points and refined icons
  • Added new pages and cards based on user testing needs such as club cards, individual club pages, tags, a profile page, and an onboarding experience

  • Applied branding, color styling, and type systems that were compatible with accessibility testing for contrast, colors, 
and typography 










Phase 2: 

Deliver

Plotters is a living ever evolving product.

01.Build Bookstore/Cafe partnerships and book club registration experience.

02.Add map view and slider features and further 
refine animations and
micro-interactions.

03.Add book discussion 
guide features and book resource features.
04.Expand upon brand identity with illustrations.
05.Add search clubs via books feature.
06.Add milestone rewards system.

arielabasson@gmail.com