The Challenge
Many avid readers today struggle with overconsumption. With so many people turning to books in the midst of the pandemic and due to the rise of #Booktok and other literary social media trends, books have become the new fast fashion industry in that they are trendy, in high-demand, and prone to waste after a single read.
How might we create a faster and more accessible way to borrow books so that readers do not feel the need to buy new books?.
We set out to create a sustainable solution in the form of a book swapping mobile app that allows users to enjoy the experience of reading a physical book through swapping with other readers in their community. The expanded network of the app's reading community gives users a better chance of finding available high-demand books lent by others in the area and encourages them to make connections with other readers in the neighborhood.
My Role
I led the team as Project Manager, utilizing Kanban boards in Trello as well as daily standups to keep us all on track, and acted as a UX Designer to collaboratively contribute to every stage of the design process, taking the lead in early research synthesis and definition as well as in the creation of our user flows and subsequent prototypes.
The Team
6 UX Designers
(Remote)
Tools
Figma, FigJam, Miro, Google Docs, Google Slides, Trello, Slack, Otter.ai, Zoom
Timeline
2.5 weeks
The Solution
Our proposed solution is a mobile book exchange app to help readers enjoy their hobby and the experience of real books in a more sustainable way.
In our initial research, we found that #Booktok, amid other trending reading related tags, had 78.8 billion views at the time while approximately 320 million books (64,000 tons) are thrown away annually.
The juxtaposition of an increased interest in reading and an enormous amount of discarded books creates a need for a sustainable yet fulfilling method to experience the joys of reading physical books.
Our book exchange app provides a solution.
Final Thoughts
Lessons Learned
- The new age of book buying closely mirrors fast fashion.
- Larger teams both encourage diverse ideas as well as create a necessity for careful organization.
Future Opportunities
- Continue developing and adding user incentive initiatives
- Continue to iterate on user book exchange process
- Add additional features like Book Tracking
- Allow user’s the opportunity to create their own public digital bookshelf
Full case study coming soon!