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Pencil

Case study for multi-device reading and writing experience

Overview

Pencil (previously called Leadstart Publishing) is a leading publishing house from India. It provides a reading and writing platform that enables readers to discover content and get reader recognition and individuals to write and publish their book. Their goal is to provide an integrated ecosystem for all book lovers by enabling individuals to create, market & sell literary products & services worldwide, thereby bringing literature closer to people.
Our team was tasked to understand Pencil business and design the site and app from scratch by streamlining the online reading and writing process and bridging the reader's and writers' priorities with Pencil’s business goals.

Problem Statement

Redefining the reading experience by providing better content discovery, a community for readers to voice out their thoughts and connect with other book lovers, and for writers, a dedicated platform to publish their book, promote their work to readers and connect with fellow writers and fans.

Role

Interaction Designer

Tools

Figma, Invision, Miro

Responsibilities

Conduct user research, interviews & surveys
Translate concepts into sitemaps & user flows
Designed wireframe and Interactive prototype for web & mobile app
Communicate design solution to engineers & stakeholders

Scope & Constraints

This project had a short timeline for 6 weeks in which we had to conduct user research, define the design system and convert the ideas to wireframes from low to high fidelity.

Design Process

Empathize

What is the problem?

Define Pain points and explore user conetxt

Define

Why is it important?

Using User Interview, Market and Competitive Research

Ideate

How do we solve it?

Brainstorm Ideas and sitemap it

Prototype

How do we create it?

Mid and High Fidelity Wireframe with Interactive prototype

Test

Does it work?

In-person tested out the prototype before moving to high fidelity wireframe

User Interview & Persona Building

While conducting user interviews and competitive research we figured following pain points :

For Writers:

There is no feedback loop to understand how content is being consumed by their readers
Poor audience building tools available in market
The process of publishing is cumbersome

For Readers:

There is no reader recognition platform available
Discovering content and sharing is tiring
There are so many different platforms and app to choose from at each stage: searching book, buying them and reading them and later to share.
Finding local language content is difficult

Following our customer interviews, we synthesized our findings and were able to create a customer journey and persona which were presented and discussed with the client. These exercises formed a great foundation to move into feature ideation and prioritization.

After brainstorming with the team and stakeholders we came with the sitemap and started to work on low fidelity wireframes and Mid fidelity wireframes which we validated with the user in person.

Key Focus Area

What are the challenges or barriers with other app use & adoption?
What’s important for a great app experience?
What are writers needs and unmet needs, both online and off?
How are readers and writers interacting with their smartphones?
Lo-fi prototype feedback

Finally, after validating with the user we came up with high fidelity wireframe which was later presented to Ali Baba in Beijing and in MOX 8 Demo.

Our Solution

Content and author discovery in a fun easy way, using AV Reader scoring, social engagement & gamification
An author can make changes post publishing as per need to improve the product and build their own audience
Authors can be able to see how readers are consuming content using insights from each book they publish
Ease of publishing across 60 languages and going mainstream
Share content across the platform and other fellow readers or authors

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