Eloquence

Problem

While reading helps us to develop our minds, strengthen and sharpens our language, many people find it burdensome to develop a reading habit because of several factors such as lack of motivation, and discipline issues.

Research & Analysis

I conducted a user survey where 151 person interested in reading have participated. The survey allowed me to quickly identify  patterns of behavior and pain points of the potential users. In addition, I conducted online interviews with 4 people that were chosen from the respondents of the survey to confirm the observed patterns. Based on the insights from the research methods, I created a user persona that allowed me to think from the user perspective while designing and guided me to take product and design decisions. Additionally, I created an existing journey map to identify any gaps and opportunities in the experience.

Meet Shaima

This user persona was featured in one of JUSTINMIND’s articles 😍️. Look for “The inconsistent reader”.

Shaima’s existing journey map

Solution
& Key Screens

The solution for this problem was to create a mobile app that hook the users into the reading habit. To achieve that, the app will follow the cornerstones of a habit building process which are the following:

Trigger – They come in two types: external and internal. In this context, the external trigger is the push notification that prompt the user to read and update her/his reading progress. The internal trigger is the desire for improving their communication.
Actions – The main action is the habit the users are trying to build which is the reading activity and the other action is the reading progress update.
Variable rewards – Rewards include the support of friends (claps and comments) and the feeling of accomplishment. According to Nir Eyal, our brains seek out rewards that make us feel accepted, important, attractive, and included. Therefore, including this factor should significantly promote the reading habit formation.

Onboarding

The welcome page puts emphasis on the users' desire which is self-improvement that gives them additional motivation to embark their journey towards building a reading habit. The onboarding consists of 6 quick steps that includes setting the genres that the users like so that the app can recommend books based on their preferences, set a reading goal to get notified and encouraged, and following friends if the user will register with Facebook.

Home page

The home page is divided into 3 sections. The first one is about the daily goal of the user. People remember uncompleted tasks better than completed tasks. Hence, the progress bar was used to guide the user’s behavior.
The second section shows the book that the user is currently reading, to make it easy for the user to update his progress and write down any notes or vocabulary from this book.
The last section is about friends updates, which I made sure that it appears above the fold so that the user can feel he/she’s part of a community that motivates the user to keep reading.

Trigger and updating progress

A push notification is sent to the user at the time they set in the onboarding that reminds them to read and update their
reading progress. The user can update the progress either by using the buttons or by typing it.

Reward - Friends support

Since we are more likely to engage in activities in which meaningful achievements are recognized, I added the social feature where the friends of the user can support him/her by clapping for the user on the progress and commenting on his/her achievements.

Discussions

Since one of the desires of the persona is to improve her communication, the discussions feature can help the users achieve that by practicing on clearly expressing and exchanging ideas, learning new perspectives, and improve their ability to think critically.

More visuals from the project