Product Designer
Role
2 months
Duration
Product Designer (myself)
Senior NOOK Product Manager
NOOK Data Scientist
Team
Like many New Yorkers, I spent a good deal of my summer commuting on the subway. One morning I looked around to see a man across from me reading a paperback, another reading on a Kindle, and a woman sitting next to me reading off of her phone.
Through the lens of a Barnes & Noble employee, I wondered,
“They are all completing the same task, but through completely different experiences.”
The product
Nook is a brand of eReaders developed by Barnes & Noble Inc. based on the Android platform. Nook allows users to purchase and read books on a variety of Nook devices, tablets, Androids, and iOS devices.
During this point in time, Nook was going through a major app redesign for iOS and Android to pair with the new physical devices. As this was a time of pivotal change, I thought it could be interesting to explore areas Nook could continue to improve.
the Problem
PEOPLe want convenience
I love my Nook device and could find value in using my mobile phone as a supplement eReader, however I am reluctant to download it. This is because,
1. I can't purchase books in the app, making it inconvenient.
2. I am not aware of the devices’ sync capabilities, making the app seem less useful than it is.
Why It Matters
Downloads for the Nook mobile app are down, especially amongst pre-existing Nook device owners. This is an area of improvement for both the customer and the business growth.
the vision
EFFICIENT AND CLEAR
In order to increase mobile engagement and Nook app downloads, our product will solve Nook user’s problem of not feeling like and/or being aware that they can conveniently pick up where they left off reading between devices.
ACCOMPLISHED BY
This will be done by giving them more indicators while reading, and an “in progress” section in hopes of increasing awareness that cross product synchronization exists.
MEASURED BY
We will know if our products works when we see engagement on mobile devices by multiple product owners over the current 50% mark, and when we see mobile downloads increase by device owner.
Understanding The Product
What we learned
The findings from gathering this data drove me to focus me goal and further research toward improving mobile downloads as that is the device group that needs the most help in terms of daily active users and user retention rates.
What I did
Using Nook databases, conducted research surrounding Daily Usage (Fig. 1), User Retention Rates (Fig. 2), most popular pages, and average reading length/session across iOS, Android, Nook Tablet, and Nook EPD Devices to get a better understanding of how users use Nook.
Understanding the users
What I Did
Through in store interviews, surveys, and simply having conversations with Nook and non-Nook customers, I began to form and idea of why people use one product versus another, and what they like/dislike about each.
What We Knew
Based on past Nook data, we knew going in that Nook's primary user demographic is middle aged women in the United States. Additionally, we also know that the scope of the user base varies. There is a spectrum of Nook user types, most gravitating to the occasional user or avid reader category.
Attitudinal:
1. Do you ever use an eReader mobile app? Why/Why not?
2. (If applicable) Tell me a story about a time you were frustrated with your mobile eReader. What happened?
Behavioral:
1. What is the primary reading method you usually use? Why?
2. Describe to me the times you’re normally reading. Do the circumstances ever change? If so, how?
“I enjoy my Nook because of its simplicity. All I have to do it open it up and start. Simple.”
“I use my Nook because I download hundreds of Books. It’s cheaper and easier for me to store them all on my Nook.”
What we LearneD
Nook users have a want more social connectivity within the Nook community, more accessibility of Books, and more features to allow Nook mobile to act as a supplement to the Nook device.
Understanding the market
What We Learned
Users are loyal to their brand that they identify most with.
iBooks will always be at an advantage with iOS and iPad devices due to the licensing restrictions put on Nook and Kindle.
What I Did
I cross-examined the top 3 products on the market in the United States for eBooks. I examined the components that would be most related to the problem spaces I identified from user research.
THE MOST PRESSING PROBLEM
Users want more social connectivity
Not all Nook devices are capable of adding a social feature, making it a problem beyond the scope of my time with Nook.
Users can't purchase books in-app
This is exclusively an iOS problem that does not affect all Nook users.
There are many legal constraints with Apple that allow very little wiggle room.
Users want TO read on multiple devices
Barnes & Noble already has this sort of capability in their devices.
The fact that people are unaware this already exists is in itself, a big problem.
assessing customers and business needs
Business Problem
People are no longer downloading or using the Nook mobile app, especially iOS users.
Business PRoblem Validation
I validated the business problem through my research of Nook as a company. The current mobile download rate is lower than it has been in past quarters, and the current user engagement is ~50%.
User Problem
Users are no longer finding a purpose for their Nook mobile app, especially if they already own a device. They don't want to have the app if it's not going add value to their Nook experience by allowing them to pick up where they left off on their other Nook product.
User Problem Validation
I validated the business problem through my user research with surveys. ~30% of users interview or surveyed brought up this as a core problem they have without being prompted .
Identifying where the miscommunication starts
signifiers for syncing
There are two key actions we can take two show users their content has synced:
Signaling users that the content they just finished has synced and is ready for the next device.
Informing users that the past content has synced when opening the new device.
the quickest accessibility
The main points of entry are the Library (left) and Current Read (center) in both the iOS and Android app as well as the Nook devices, based on data collected by Nook.
Library
In order to Inform users that their past content has synced with the new device, I thought the best point of insertion was Library. Library houses all of the users Past, Present, and Future reads. It organizes the users books by recent content, all content, and personalized shelves of content.
Current Read
In order to signal users that the content they just finished has synced and is ready for the next device, I thought the best point of insertion was Current Read. Current Read is the area of the app where the reading actually happens.
shaping What a “sync” product looks like
Current Read ENTRY POINT
While adding more components to the display settings would be overbearing (A), showing a simple "Synced" pop-up when the user closes out of the book screen (B) will help remind users that their progress is accounted for and accessible through another device.
Library ENTRY POINT
What if we added a display that allowed for users to see their books currently in progress, the progress on those books, and where they left off on what device last?
A books' progress and sync status across platforms seem to coincide. Creating a space for them to exist and work together to inform the reader would be the optimal outcome.
Based on testing, users find more immediate utility out of an "in progress" area than a "synced" area. This will naturally fit in with the product better as well as draw more attention inadvertently to the sync status.
Designing around constraints
Scope Constraints
What technical and experiential consequences would come from a progress section?
Would displaying one card with more information as opposed to several (3-6) frustrate readers who read more than one book and want to see this information for all of their in progress books?
Consequently, would having too many be overwhelming and take away from the experience?
If someone started a book a year ago and gave up 40 pages in, is that still marked as "in-progess"?
Does Nook have the technical capability to display reading progress?
Does Nook have the capability to show last read timestamps?
In order to figure out the content requirements for a currently reading section, an important question to see how this would take shape that came up for me was
"How many books does the average Nook reader read at once?"
Collecting this data helped inform my decision to allow for 2 cards in the mobile iOS design.
Device Constraints
Due to the fact that this design would theoretically be accommodating iOS, Android, Tablet and Nook devices, I needed to keep sizing and device layout dimensions in mind when deciding how the card would fit.
This constraint helped drive my decision to have the section display 2 cards on mobile. This is because on a Nook device, that best fits the current internal structure.
Scale Constraints
Since Nook is accessible on a wide variety of products, there are a lot of technical and design constraints to keep the product vision uniform to all users.However the content we are working with does as well. For example, book covers come in many different shapes and sizes, as do title lengths. In order to keep things clean and uniform regardless of how the dimensions change, I anchored components towards the bottom to give room for upward expansion.
MAXIMIZING CLARITY
Content Clairity
I initially talked through the different options and decided on option C and E to user test. I chose these two because they both best conveyed the goal of the new product, but in very different ways.
Through testing, I discovered that people preferred the look of E, but best understood C.
“The green Icon tells me how much I have read and have left. The other icon I’m not sure?”
“We like E the best. It made most sense and we liked the symbols”
Icon Clarity:
I chose icon D due to the fact that it:
Cleanly and clearly represented the objective.
7/10 participants given different icon choices preferred it.
Best fit in with the new circular shape of the progress icon.
Additionally, I decided to add text to accompany the icon and act as a signifier due to the fact that the majority of Nook's audience is older and not having a signifier may be counterproductive.
understanding EDGE CASES
EXPLORING OPTIONS
Feature Explorations
sync explorations
Progress Explorations
Increasing Mobile Downloads
shaping the syntax
In order to get more mobile downloads within the already existing Nook community, an approach I chose to take is to increase visibility and awareness of the sync function. This is especially important for the device cards, as the main area for improvement is getting Nook device owners to download the mobile app, but it also has some use cases to be placed on the mobile card as well:
Draw mobile-only users to consider buying a device.
Create continuity between synced and not-synced states.
I chose option A because it is more inviting and show the user they have something to gain rather than that they are missing out.
Product Components
FINAL USER FLOW
Phase 1: Start on Initial Device
Phase 2: Switch to Second Device
Final Prototype
A final prototype created with Framer. This prototype shows the scenario in which a user starts on their Nook device and is now picking up where they left off on their iPhone.
Reflections
I learned a lot of valuable lessons and worked with a lot of incredibly talented people during my time at Nook. One design factor that stuck with me the most was scope. This was one of the biggest scale projects I have ever gotten the opportunity to work on, and considering the scope in terms of different devices, different user types, and different languages and different technical constraints was really a huge learning opportunity for me.
I only had time to really fully develop the ideas for one Nook device and iOS. There are still tablets, Android devices, and various formats of Nook devices with a wide range of capabilities. These factors were all taken into consideration when designing so that it could be universally used on all Nook products, both technically and visually. It was a big lesson in learning how to design a product that has so many factors at play.