Radiant
5 week project
Team work
Hala Barzan & Tianqi Li
Work of 2022
Radiant is an app that creates deeper and more meaningful social engagements for people through reading
This is a project that in collaborator with Gyldendal’s Services & Growth department.
It incites the user to develop a reading habit without creating a sense of guilt through the use of a subtle style.
Research
Background - The difference between fiction and non-fiction
Fiction
Non-Fiction
It’s easier to engage with fiction because it usually has a story from the beginning to the end.
For non-fiction, the chapters usually have a weaker connection, but sometimes different books are also having connections with each other.
Interviews
We did some interviews about people’s reading habit on 20 different people.
They are from cafes, libraries & gyldendal. Age from 18-45.
Key Insights
“Reading a book requires too much time, and I have to finish it once I started.”
MacDonald version of books
People like to study together
Friends’ recommendations are very strong.
One of the reason that mentioned by many people is they feel obligated to finish a book once they started, but finishing a book requires too much time, they just don’t start to read instead.
We also saw that many people consume books through summaries or brief videos about it, instead of a more in depth understanding of the book itself. We think people are consuming a MacDonalad version of book when they are doing that.
We also discovered that friend’s recommendation is stronger than any kind of advertisement. One user said that one only book that he finished this year is when a friend hand him an actual book.
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Don’t read at all
Want to read,
but “don’t have the time”
Actively reading
Who are we focusing on?
After mapping the interviews and insight we categorize people in 3 groups with their reading habit.
We discovered that the majority of people are in a stage where they want to read but claim “they don’t have the time”, They are always waiting for this perfect afternoon with the perfect cup of tea, so they could start to read the book. We think they are the perfect target group and we want to use our design to help them to read.
Final Product
Choose your color to start
You choose a color to start this app. This color will be showing on your own profiles and when you reading with a friend.
An overview
On the top of the home page, you will get an overview of books you’re reading. Your chosen color will have this gradient but with a subtle style playing around the cover in the canvas. This gives you a sense of how much of the book you have read in a more gentle and positive way.
You can also see what your friends are reading along with others.
Quick way to join the reading club
You will get a push notification on your phone when your friend is reading a book, then you will see your friends’ avatar and the book that she is reading at this moment, then you can join your friend with just one click.
Reading progress of your friend
There is a special joy to diving into a chapter or book when you read with a friend. It’s a fleeting feeling wonder and excitement that fades into the background as you begin to explore the book.
After school and university it is often difficult to find both the time and place to physically read with a friend, but the purpose of this app is to regain that feeling of learning together and following in each-others footsteps.
Insights from testing
During user testing with users, we talked about one of the reasons that reading together or exploring each-others book are so desirable and the most frequently mentioned reason was that we enjoy understanding each other better by reading books that have influenced the other person.
Sharing a book together
In this app, you have the option to read a book together with a friend and share the insights afterwards. The way the dot is growing indicates your readings progress, but doesn’t follow a % or a precise measure. The goal is not to see who can read more here.
We found that everyone had deeper and more meaningful engagement with the book when they knew that they had an opportunity of sharing their thoughts on the book with friends. Some started writing summaries, a behavior they don’t normally engage in when they are alone, some people said they would skipped chapters they didn’t plan to share with friends.
Insights from testing
Sharing a question together
An additional feature is to discover the answer to a question with the help of a friend. In this scenario, people could be reading different books and a system could assist them in recommending different books to each-other that explore the same question from different angles. Ideally, this would lead to a continual process of exploration due to the discussions with friends about what they are reading they would seek additional books or chapters to build their arguments and foundations.
Last Insights
During user testing, we talked about one of the reasons that reading together or exploring each-others book are so desirable and the most frequently mentioned reason was that they enjoy understanding each other better by reading books that have influenced the other person.
We hope this app could create deeper and more meaningful social engagements for people in this chaotic time.