Dewey is an iOS app that recommends great new reads and allows users to curate a virtual book shelf, join or create book clubs, follow authors and friends, and scan book covers using AR. This project kicked off in the summer of 2018 with a one week Google Design Sprint. After that, I had the opportunity as the sole designer to continue iterating on Dewey based on user feedback. In parallel with designing out the full feature list and app flow, I got to create the brand, support the developers, and gather more feedback from some closed beta testing. Design concluded with marketing web and App Store designs.
A one week design sprint validated a desire for a fun and innovative reading app. I worked with a design sprint facilitator at Rocket Insights and the Dewey team to refine their goals and mission as a product, ideate and sketch out features and solutions to focus our sprint, and user test the final prototype.
I designed about 35 screens at mid fidelity. These were organized into three flows, lightly branded, and put together in a clickable prototype for user testing. In addition, I wrote the user testing script and carried out five tests. We determined that some of the features were not valuable to users, like a tagging recommendation system for books. The AR Scan feature tested very positively, and we were able to test this really well with an animated gif that I created in After Effects.
After the design sprint concluded and the client had decided to move forward with designing out the remaining features, it was time to start exploring color and brand in more depth. I used what worked well in the sprint, and then tested various home screen designs and color combinations. When development was at about 90% completion, I revisited design for a week to make minor tweaks and add illustrations, refine empty states, etc. This is something there usually isn't time for, and it made a huge difference for the final product.
