Books, textbooks, podcasts, & more.
Book Smart; The place to buy and sell books of all kinds, from a community of students, enthusiasts, and academicians.
Every genre, every format, every location.
Overview
Just Imagine:
You're officially a college student, a brand new semester is approaching, and so is the stress of adding another important commitment to your already busy lifestyle. While overwhelmed with your hectic schedule, multitasking is an issue to say the least. Without realizing you've waited until the last minute to buy text books. The line at the bookstore is out the door, and you've just gotten the bill. The price to buy and rent has you shocked, and now you're starting to panic.
The Problem:
Hard working students need access to textbooks. Facing time constraints, tight budgets, and issues with availability, purchasing these text books brand new at retail prices of 150$, isn’t always the best option. Working around these issues, students need an additional resource to purchase them online, but are unsure of where to look.
The Solution:
Book Smart provides a solution that allows students to purchase and sell text books from one another within student communities. Supporting one another by sharing learning materials makes them more affordable, expediting convenience, and availability.
Home Page
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Audible Media Player
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Map Feature
Track down books available in stores and universities at your nearest locations.
Track down books available in stores and universities at your nearest locations.
Simply search titles and Textbooks. Put the books you need in your hands immediately.
Product Pages
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The Process:
The wheels began turning immediately, I asked myself;
What kind of product can I conceptualize that will allow students to find and locate texts books using a service that is faster, more efficient, and more cost effective. I then considered, why leave this service to the needs of only students? Why not expand to all book enthusiasts?I
I picture academicians, authors, and enthusiasts alike, rejoicing on one platform to buy, sell, and trade book genre's of all kinds. Why not implement distance learning, and other methods by including online tutoring, audible books, and podcasts?
I began by conducting research to understand how users (college students) purchase text books for university courses, investigating stressors that make that process difficult. To get a better understanding of our user problem, and target users, our research goals are to:
Discover any problems or obstacles they encounter when preparing to start the semester.
Empathize by developing an understanding how students perceive their college lifestyle on an educational and social basis, as well as their pain points and strengths as students. Ideate a host of problem solving brainstorming sessions amongst designers to produce as many ideas as possible.
Define a solution based on tool(s) participants currently use to find and purchase their text books in juxtaposition to the solution BookSmart will provide.
Analyze user interviews by gathering insight into what the users needs, empathizing for their reasoning, and using such information to define user personas, affinity maps, and empathy maps.
Sketch wireframes to help me visualize the necessary path to achieve my solution .
Prototype my solution in low, and high fidelities that will be reiterated, and refined, as I conduct several usability tests in the final stages of my research.
Test my solution amongst users to expose positive and negative characteristics, areas that need improvement, and overall determine the efficacy of my product.
The Research:
I issued several surveys, and conducted numerous user interviews in person on college campus's, as well online student groups through facebook. I had the pleasure of interviewing the the director of Stony Brook University's group "Students Buying and Selling Textbooks". I asked more than a dozen questions asking for unbiased stressors when beginning the semester to the details of budget, price, and availability being an issue.
100% of participants revealed that the price of textbooks and learning materials was grossly inflated and created a struggle within their budget on top of paying tuition, boarding, and living costs.
95% of participants revealed that availability was constantly an issue after finding that books were sold out and no longer in stock. They also agreed that limitations of format made it difficult for students that prefer methods other than reading.
98% of participants were adamant about preferring to buy, sell, or even trade textbooks with other students as a method that could be easier on their budget and give them a more normal resale value when finishing with the semester.
I was also able to gather statistics on key demographics, technological influences, and economic forces.
Competitive Analysis
I conducted a comparative/competitive analysis with other book purchasing tools, some of which platforms that are oriented towards all genres of reading, while others were university bookstores targeted at students only.
Research Questions
The same dozen questions were administered amongst focus groups, 1-1 interviews, as well as online surveys.
I asked:
What is your favorite genre?
Which format suits your preference?
What method of learning benefits you the most?
Did you ever have an issue obtaining text books or other learning materials?
Where would you purchase textbooks?
Was your budget or price ever an issue?
How much do you usually spend per book?
What qualities do you look for when purchasing them? What makes the process easier?
Would a system to purchase textbooks from a community of students be something that interests you?
If the reading materials were used yet more affordable, would you use this product? Or do you prefer purchasing them brand new?
Would you consider reselling the books when you’re finished using them, or keep them to refer to them at a later point?
Interview Insights
"What I look for most is convenience. I don't like waiting online. I don't like having to rely on availability. I prefer to be able to order them and have them show up at my house. It makes one less process it's one less thing for me to do is to go to a bookstore and stand in line and wait, and have them tell me it's not there anymore and have my time completely wasted if I can order it online and it comes to the door. That's what I appreciate the most."
"Honestly, price is a big issue for me. When I purchase textbooks. I've been discouraged by going to the bookstore, I go to the bookstore and I see how much they are still my money is spent could be spent on much better things."
"I want to make sure it's a good quality, obviously I don't want any pages missing and price of course. I think that'd be a good idea because very often I would go to the bookstore and they wouldn't have them, so I'd have to order them online and I'd be waiting weeks for it for them to come. Availability is a problem often times.
I would even consider reselling the text books when you’re finished with them to put the money back into the pockets of the students opposed to the book store."
I was able to gather enough data to discover the goals, needs, and obstacles of the user, as well as insights into individuals who prefer accessibility, price, location, condition, and resale value, as well as specific genre's and format.
User Persona
Forming a user persona of a fictional character allows me to represent the type of individual that might use Book Smart, and the tools that the platform offers. It depicts a general idea of the users purpose, the obstacles they face, and the characteristics there of.
After receiving input from 2, 5 person focus groups, 5 1-1 interviews, and responses to 30 survey completions, I was able to discover that:
After researching Stony Brook University's Bookstore along side larger corporations like Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and Google Play Books, I noticed that in zero instance was there an option to make your own listing in order to sell or trade with others. Instead their ultimate purpose was predicated upon a one way e-commerce transaction. Some competitors offered a tool to rent, and search for in-store locations, but very few offered alternative learning methods without being handed off to another platform.
Failing to see these features on other apps confirmed my desire to produce this solution, and one day deliver this product.
THE RESEARCH (continued)
Affinity Map
Map Insights
From synthesizing the results of my interviews into my affinity map, I have learned that students come from all walks of life. With different educational backgrounds and careers, some have issues with managing time within their schedule, some have children to depend on, some don’t have financial support and have to work while attending school. Because of these issues, some prefer to learn audibly opposed to reading physical text. Some prefer affordability over convenience, condition, and availability and vice versa.
Site Map
My site map illustrates the 3 main key user flows that details the perspective of the buyer, the seller, and the trader. and exactly how many steps it takes to achieve each task.
Wireframes/Sketches
Sketching is the crucial first step to putting your ideas on paper. It serves the purpose of visualizing your ideas so that you can begin to organize your thoughts in a manner that is that will not only depict stages, but also grow and become subject to change. During this process I was able to formulate each user flow and show how I intend certain features to operate.
Interactions
Interactions illustrate user flows and pathways with pinpoint accuracy.
First Iteration
Lo-fi wireframes make the initial prototype simple and easy to use from beginning to end. When observing the users first trial run of the product, the first usability test is administered upon completion to observe a rate of success, as well as errors. This process is repeated several times as different iterations and features are implemented based on responses from several users and efficacy of the product.
Final Prototype
The final prototype delivers a complete solution for the user that provides a tool to achieve required tasks in a successful manner. The user gets to engage with a high-fidelity prototype that is as visually appealing, as it is efficient, and purposeful.
Usability Test Results
I received positive feedback during this final portion of the product design. The users took approximately 1:30 seconds to operate the task of purchasing text books from a community list of student users, the Book Smart Book Store, and a selection of online vendors, and university bookstores.
Each user felt the tasks within the app were well thought out and fluid and only had minor issues with missing back buttons, requesting the changing terms from vendor to store, and smoother transitions. All of which have been corrected. Since the initial usability test has closed, I have finished adding further text content as well. Users also encouraged me to add traditional podcasts as well as shows to the audible books feature, and insisted on creating a community message board where users can interact and engage with one another.
Moving Forward
In order to build upon Book Smart even further, I plan on implementing more detailed pages from the perspective of the seller as well as the trader, which includes creating posts and listings. More importantly I would like to add additional features that provide distance learning, tutoring, and community / private messages. Eventually I would like to pitch this concept to developers, and eventually stakeholders to bring this product to market.
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