Reimagining the journey
of book lovers

Category

Mobile app

Timeframe

Spring 2022

My Role

Product & UX designer & UX research

Tools

Figma, XMind, Usertesting.com

Overview

BookSeal is an inclusive reading community that uses personalized recommendations to help readers quickly discover stories that match their interests. It supports diverse formats and genres, while enabling users to share favorites and connect with fellow book lovers.

As a UX design project, BookSeal focuses on creating a vibrant, fun, and content-driven experience that enhances every reader’s journey.

Outcome

End-to-end prototypes,
UX research,
Visual design,
UX flows,
User testings

Home page

The home page delivers personalized reading recommendations from multiple angles and lets users easily track their current reads.

Discover page

The discover page allows for smart searching, and it provides reading recommendation based on preferences and interests.

Book page

The book page provides rich book details and community insights, while making it easy for users to rate the book, update their reading status, and add it to their reading list.

Activity page

The Activity page builds community by enabling discussions, sharing, and discovery, with a simple switch between a friends-only feed and a public explore feed.

Background

Digital reading is growing fast, but current solutions still fail to meet many readers’ expectations

User Research

From the user interviews, three major themes are identified: Recommendation, search and environment

Affinity Mapping

By organizing the insights into themes, I uncovered the key needs that guided design decisions

PERSONA

Transform the key insights from interviews and theme clustering into three personas that capture real user experiences and needs

Journey Map

“No stimuli, not focused and not interested” are the major reasons that people quit reading in digital formats

Modern people are not satisfied with reading in the digital world

PRODUCT goal

My major project goal is to create an engaging mobile app that offers readers a refreshing, vivid, and comfortable rating and sharing experience.

MAJOR FINDINGS

Modern people are not satisfied with reading in the digital world

PRODUCT VIsion 1

We are building an integrated platform that provides readers with end-to-end reading experience from selecting to finishing reading books

Iterations

From sketches to final prototypes, I refined the design by turning key insights into meaningful solutions

Results

Each testing round, our SUS score raised, and the final results reflect users' genuine satisfaction with the solution

Reflection

‍Solid research matters
Clear insights from thorough research helped us define problems and shape a user-friendly, distinctive product.

Stay user-centric
Personas, journey maps, and usability testing strengthened our understanding and improved our designs. Seeing users enjoy Seal was especially rewarding.

Accessibility needs more attention
We considered accessibility but didn’t evaluate it deeply enough. For reading experiences, accessibility is crucial.

Back decisions with more evidence
Supplementary research can better validate assumptions and support our design choices.

@ 2025 Junjie Tang. All rights reserved
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