Readee Service
Overview: Readee is a service that allows users to save articles with a time limit for how long they can access them. This project was created as a third-year university project in which I decided to address the issue of our ever-growing reading lists.
Timeline: Nov 2021 - Jan 2022 (3 months)
My role: User Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing & UI Design
“A small new study has found many people who browse the internet experience tab overload, saving articles to read later, leaving tasks as reminders, or burrowing down an internet hole until the stack of open web pages becomes impossible to navigate.”
Science Alert
The Problem
As someone who often saves articles in my Pocket and Instapaper reading list, I found several articles saved over a few months ago that I had not returned to reading. I found this to be a common issue, with people saving content into their ever-growing reading list but failing to go back to it which made me curious whether we can make the experience fun and encouraging.
The Solution
Users can share and see their progress in the community. The ‘points’ gained will more importantly highlight the progress they have made with learning new things through reading various articles.
Share Progress With Others
On the main page, the articles will be organised into categories, and users will receive reminders for unfinished pieces. To nudge users to finish the articles they start, articles will also have expiration time frames to add a sense of urgency.
Nudging Users Through Time
Building a Sense of Community
Users can enrol in various challenges and share their progress with others in the community. Users can also earn points based on the challenge type as an extra form of extrinsic motivation.
Process
User Interviews + Affinity Mapping
After building a general understanding of the problem through secondary research, I decided to dive further into the problem by conducting interviews with 6 users who often failed to finish the articles they saved in their reading lists. The goal behind conducting these interviews with users was to gain further clarity on users’ behaviours and their underlying motivations towards why they do not finish or go back to reading the articles they save.
Key Insights From Research
Lack of Reminders
Users feel the currently available tools do not remind them about the unfinished articles they have already started, which leads them to forgetting about them.
Feeling of Guilt
Users currently lack a sense of urgency to finish articles they start due to them being busy with other commitments. They find, this perpetuates a feeling of guilt as they are not finishing articles they started.
Lack of Categorisation
Users feel the current tools do not allow them to categorise the articles they have already started, resulting in them feeling overwhelmed and confused.
User Personas
Empathy Mapping
The next step was to visualise the user’s environment through an empathy map to get a further understanding of my user’s needs and decision making which could also allow me to uncover any further insights. The scenario I created, in this case, was with the user saving an article and navigating their reading list.
How Might We
Address the underlying guilt users feel when not finding the time to finish the articles they start, whilst empowering them to complete the articles they add to their reading lists.
Ideas Brainstorming + Booking Feedback Tutorials
With the deadline approaching, I decided to move on to sketching various concept solutions in line with the data gathered in the research. During this time, I also decided to take advantage of the tutorials available with my lecturers to gain feedback and make any changes to my concept idea.
Information Architecture
Wireframing
Usability Testing + Iterations
I conducted usability testing on the 6 users I interviewed. The participants were asked to complete certain tasks using the platform, while I observed, took notes, and asked for feedback. Based on the data gathered, iterations were made to the concept screens.
Final Concept Screens
Figma Prototype Demo
Reflections + Key Learnings
In summary, I think the research through workshops and interviews allowed me to collect different insights and perspectives into people’s reading habits. I feel as though this issue goes beyond just the idea of having an ever-growing reading list but how so many apps and products try to keep our attention relating to the idea of the attention economy and how our attention spans decrease.
Key learnings from this project:
Seeking Feedback: Getting feedback from tutors and classmates is a useful way to get different perspectives when ideating different concepts
Exploring Workshops: I found user research methods like workshops useful when getting to the underlying user problems