Let's Research and Empathize!
Researching allows me to discover the expectations of all readers wanting to rate, as well as understand current user goals, frustrations, and desires with competitors.
Research Goals:
- Discover users' wants and needs in terms of book reviewing
- Narrow down features of current book reviewing applications to choose the most simple and necessary features
- Identify motivations behind users regarding to reading and reviewing
- Narrow down features of current book reviewing applications to choose the most simple and necessary features
- Identify motivations behind users regarding to reading and reviewing
Market Analysis:
Two book review applicatons and two other niche rating applications were compared in the market analysis.
Using the market analysis, I was able to find the main features of a rating application as well as the extra features, allowing me to curate a survey to obtain my research goals.
User Surveys:
The user surveys were sent to known readers and posted on public survey websites. The survey accrued 20 responses total. Some of the questions consisted of:
"Do you rate books? Why or why not?"
"How do you find new books to read?"
"What do you look at when deciding whether or not to read a book?"
"Do you ever talk to friends about books?"
"Do you rate books? Why or why not?"
"How do you find new books to read?"
"What do you look at when deciding whether or not to read a book?"
"Do you ever talk to friends about books?"
Out of the 20 responses, only 17 were valid, due to 3 responses being from users who did not read books.
Charts from the survey:
Research Summary:
- Users find star ratings, written review, genre, and tags important when rating books
- Users find a 1-10 scale rating proficient
- Book recommendations can be found browsing the internet, book stores, and through friends and social media
- Users mostly consider the summary, genre, and written reviews when choosing a book
- Most readers talk to their friends about books and are typically somewhat satisfied with recommendations
- Users find a 1-10 scale rating proficient
- Book recommendations can be found browsing the internet, book stores, and through friends and social media
- Users mostly consider the summary, genre, and written reviews when choosing a book
- Most readers talk to their friends about books and are typically somewhat satisfied with recommendations
Design Focus:
From this research, I created 3 goals I wanted to focus on:
- Developing an easy and simple way to rate books
- Prioritization of viewing other users' reviews
-Creating an easy way to discover new books through other users' reviews, tags, and recommendations
