More than just a bookstore.
the project
This quote wonderfully sums up the possibilities for a bookstore I encountered in downtown Cincinnati. It’s a warm and endearing old store with five floors of books, bookbinding services, and more than 80 years of serving the community.
the problem
Although they have a huge collection of books, maps, and magazines, many of them are quite outdated– they’re heavily overstocked in the historical (an entire floor is almost exclusively WWII books), and they don’t carry new contemporary literary or popular fiction novels. The Geocities-Esque website shows their reticence to modernize.
the challenge
My goals for this speculative project within a three-week timeframe were to redesign and update their existing brand and website and create a responsive mobile version; improve its usability, and add the ability to shop online for books in the store.
The project I’ve pursued is based on a mix between a fictional, “sky’s the limit” business model and the real bookstore’s publicly available information.
research
In researching competitive/comparative bookstores, I found The Center For Fiction and Joseph-Beth Books to be great examples of how a bookstore can foster community and anchor a neighborhood’s sense of center. They have modernized their business models to be places of creativity, where they can support community culture with literary events, spaces to socialize, and educational programs for emerging writers.
I wanted to explore beyond my subset of provisional archetypes to hear from users that might be more invested in what a bookstore has to offer their livelihoods.
The thriving bookstores of my research provide more than just books to bring value to their communities– they offered workshops, classes, and workspaces. I scheduled a one-on-one interview with a writer friend and conducted an online survey to uncover some common needs and wants these users might have for an indie bookstore.
In addition to being curious about their writing routines (and if the pandemic has changed them), I wanted to know more broadly what their social media usage was like, and if there were any ways a local bookstore could support them in their work.
Most of the survey respondents said they write at least 2-3 times per week, if not more. The writer that I interviewed currently writes every day and works out of a studio space that she’s rented to complete edits for her new book.
Most used social media as a means to keep track of other authors and writers they liked, and to find out about events, contests, and other opportunities for submitting work. One respondent detailed that they follow NaNoWriMo accounts and hashtags, to stay motivated and have a sense of “togetherness”.
They all expressed the need for consistency in their practice, workshops, and events, and free or low-cost space to write in.
I made two personas — one for a general reader, and one representing a writer. Bookstores mean so much to many types of people, but generally, the needs of these two groups would be enough initial representation for the new site’s redesign.
What they both have in common is the need for trusted resources and community.
tap the arrows to toggle between personas
tap the arrows to toggle between personas
sitemaps, task flows + wireframes
After creating a sitemap and task flows I drafted up wireframes for a desktop site, and responsive mobile site to include at least one page for book shopping, and their real service of custom bookbinding. I took creative license to add events, workshops, a cafe, spaces, a lending library, and a quarterly literary magazine.
design
I kept elements of the existing bookstore’s brand (like the serif fonts they use) and modernized them in my rebranding. I also changed the open book logo to a cardinal reading to make the bookstore’s brand feel warm and inviting.
user testing
In the limited time I had, I created hifi versions of the desktop site and prototyped registering for event listings, plus reserving a desk space for working. I tested these features over zoom and asked my participants to describe how they thought something would work from the way it was presented to them if it wasn’t fully prototyped.
feedback and iteration
One of my testers familiar with attending workshops and events for writers mentioned that I should consider separating the two categories for the FAQs section since workshops typically would have more content for this section that attendees would want to review before paying for a class. I already had a section in the confirmation modal for event info and details, and they thought that would be sufficient.
I also got minor comments about the design of the modals; to move the close “x” inside the box so it’s less prominent, to remove the color background on the desk indicators, and add the selected times to the available dates calendar page for extra clarification. I also got feedback to add more space between sections.
before/after
what I learned
I switched from Figma to Adobe XD when building this site, and it was super challenging to come up with a design and aesthetic for an entire site from scratch. At times I thought I knew what I wanted the design to be from the pinboard of ideas I had, but when I went to create the ideas I thought I wanted it was tough to find a mix between creating unique features and reusing conventional design patterns that work well. I think sorting out the background design early next time would be helpful to keep me from spinning in circles.
Designing the calendar functionality was also really challenging. Although I wasn’t able to prototype it to my liking in XD, I was able to still learn about users’ expectations for it from my virtual testing.
If I were to continue to build on this project I would finish building out the rest of the pages for the site plus create the checkout flow for buying books online. I’d also design an account dashboard for registered users.
Explore the prototype