Building a new reading platform: Texture
Product Design · 2022
Role
Time
05. 2021 -06. 2022
Team
1 Product Manager
3 Designers
3 Engineers
Project Type
Web, Mobile App
Tools
Figma
The service launched and transformed it into a complete product. In only six months we achieved
• 15,000 singed-up users
• 50,000 uploaded posts
• $500,000 in seed funding
After updating the tag feature
• 20% increase in users who added tags to their posts
• 13% increase in users utilizing tags for post searches
MVP Website
2021.05
Texture App
2021.10
I looked into different services related to reading to understand how the industry works right now. While doing my research, I discovered that there are three main groups in this field: E-books, Reading Content, and Social Reading.
To learn about the real experiences people have when they purchase books and read, my team conducted a survey and recruited 5 participants for an in-person interview.
In the survey, I asked how users find books to read, how to read, where users buy books and what they do after reading.
These were the main insights from the user research.
1. People usually don't finish reading the book.
2. People usually buy books from the best seller list.
3. People have different reading styles depending on the book's genre.
4. People usually write sentences from books and thoughts after reading.
I created a user persona named Alex to better understand my design audience.
I created Alex's journey map to identify her pain points and needs.
I wanted to start thinking about what problems we are trying to solve for Alex.
1. HMW- How might we help Alex to find a book to read easily?
Exploring sentences to find books to read
To help Alex in finding books to read, we added features that allow for reading sentences and gaining a sense of the book.
2. HMW- How might we help Alex to read the sections that she will learn?
Search sentences by keywords
To help Alex in finding the sections that she will learn, we included a feature to search sentences by keywords.
3. HMW- How might we help Alex write about her insights after reading?
Uploading sentences after reading
Additionally, we have included a feature for Alex to upload her insights and sentences.
My team launched this website within a month by uploading sentences from books and scraping other sentences.
Before launching the Texture app, I created high-fidelity wireframes for its main features. Throughout the process, I ensured that I improved upon the features of the MVP website.
Discover and save sentences
To solve the problem of having mixed content from other users, I add a feature to save sentences in a different folder and keep my uploaded sentences separate.
Customize posts and save them as an image
To help users post sentences and images on various platforms, I added a feature to customize and save the image before posting.
Search sentences by keywords
To improve the experience of searching for sentences by a keyword, I enhanced the search function.
In collaboration with the branding team, I developed a design system that utilized various colours and text.
I made sure that it met level AA for accessibility.
Experience the whole design process
This case study allowed me to go through the entire process of creating a product from the ground up and develop my own design thinking approach.Embracing ambiguity
Building a new product was challenging due to the ambiguity involved. I learned to embrace uncertainty during the design process and navigate through it to complete the project successfully.
OCTO
