Libby App
Adding a feature to help users better track their reading and statistics within the app
Role
UX/UI Designer
Timeline
75 hours over 4 weeks - February, 2025
The Libby app provides millions of users free access to content from their local library
Libby is an app for library card holders to access audiobooks, ebooks and more from their library completely for free. The Libby app was released by OverDrive in 2017 as a more user-friendly way to access the content. Libby is an incredibly popular app with millions of users worldwide (in fact over 9 million people downloaded the app in 2023 alone). Users can check out the digital media and consume it directly in the app or export it to their ereader. This remote access of library materials has significantly improved accessibility and overall library engagement.
Libby users are forced to use outside means in order to keep track of their reading data
Within the Libby app itself, there is no real reading tracker or way for a user to see all the books they’ve read. The app will automatically tag a book as “borrowed” if it’s been checked out, but it lacks information on whether or not the user actually read the book.
If a user is looking to see how many books they read this month or this year for example, that information does not exist. People who want to track their reading, keep track of all the books they’ve read before, or set reading goals for themselves need to do all that in an outside app.
How might we help Libby users easily track their reading and access that data all within the app?
We needed to learn how people track their reading habits as well as how they currently use the Libby app
Research Objectives:
Understand how readers currently track their reading habits
Understand how users currently find books to read in the Libby app
Understand if/how users currently use the reading journey on Libby
Explore possible pain points in the Libby app
Evaluate competitors to see which other tools people might be using to track their reading
Interviewing users to dig into their thoughts and habits
Interviews were conducted with 5 people all with varying overall reading habits and experience with Libby. The goal was to gain a deeper understanding of how people approach reading goals, book tracking, their TBR list, recommendations, browsing, and more.
Everyone manages their reading differently - due to a lack of a single source for data, people have cobbled together unique systems
All 5 participants expressed frustration with tracking already read and TBR across multiple platforms regardless of their preferred platform and reading style
Only 1 person currently uses Libby’s browsing features with any consistency, the remaining participants find the browsing options to be lacking or confusing
3/5 people mentioned that they like having a connection to their favorite authors via GoodReads or a social media platform
All 5 participants noted that they would love to have a better way to access and view their reading history data
Interview Results
“I keep tagging books with the TBR tag but it drives me crazy that I have to remember to go remove the tag after I finish reading it”
“GoodReads is the worst app on the planet - it’s so outdated and a pain to use. I just don’t have a better way to track the books I’ve read”
“I read so much that I honestly forget if I’ve read a book or not. It drives me crazy that if I’m browsing on Libby I have to go to another app to check if I’ve read something before I borrow it”
Surveying allowed us to gather additional quantitative data about reading and tracking habits
We surveyed 30 people who self-identified as loving to read. These participants were not limited to Libby users because the goal was to gain quantitative data about the reading community as a whole.
About how many books do you read per year?
How do you track your progress towards your goal?
Do you set an annual reading goal for yourself?
Patterns could be seen regarding data usage, reading tracking, and the ways they use Libby
Affinity mapping helped paint a picture of the similarities amongst the interviewee’s experiences as well as experiences noted by the survey participants.
Users want to be able to view data to visualize and understand their reading habits
Users are manually tracking their progress
Users find the browsing features lacking or frustrating
Understanding the features available on other library and reading tracking apps
Hoopla
Hoopla Digital provides public libraries of all sizes the ability to offer patrons an enormous selection of digital video (movies and TV shows), music, audiobooks, Ebooks and comics to their patrons.
Strengths
No hold lines, content is available immediately
Wide variety of content types available
Better audio quality for audiobooks
Weaknesses
Cannot read titles on most e-ink readers
Only around 2,000 libraries in the system
Very few new releases and popular books, doesn’t include the library’s full catalog
Browsing and filtering is clunky
GoodReads
Our mission is to help readers discover books they love and get more out of reading.
Strengths
Very large community and social aspect
Users can leave star ratings and very in-depth reviews
Syncs with Kindle to track reading progress
Authors can join and interact with readers
Weaknesses
Lots of ads on the website and in the app
Site is outdated and clunky
Can browse by genre but you can’t really filter down from there
Can’t add a book yourself if you can’t find it
Stats only available at the end of the year
The StoryGraph
Because life's too short for a book you're not in the mood for. We'll help you track your reading and choose your next book based on your mood and your favorite topics and themes.
Strengths
Half and quarter star ratings available
Recommendations are data-driven
Supports local bookstores
Reviews include data on multiple categories instead of just stars
Monthly statistics available
Weaknesses
Community is relatively small at the moment and most updates are private
Full data only available on paid plan
Fable
Our mission is to deliver the world’s best social experience with exceptional stories in service of mental wellness.
Strengths
Focused on community and social aspect - joining book clubs
Stats are beautifully presented
Discovery feed shows personalized recommendations
Hundreds of classic books available to read for free through the app
Weaknesses
App only - tracking etc not available in browser
Searching for a book is not an intuitive process
Updating previously read books and changing the dates read, etc is a very challenging process
In order to add a feature that provides real value to Libby users, we needed to gain a better understanding of who they are
Our primary persona is an avid reader who has ambitious reading goals and loves to visualize how she’s tracking
Following the user’s journey through the app provided us with valuable insights into opportunities to relieve their frustrations
Adding a feature that gives users the ability to track their reading directly within the app would open up a host of valuable opportunities
When ideating on how to design a solution to alleviate users’ frustrations, it became clear that adding the “log book as read” feature would collect data that would solve many of these challenges. Having the “read” data would immediately make it possible to add filtering features and data visualization that is important to many Libby users.
Created the user flow in such a way that it would fit snugly within the user’s current process and not cause much of a disruption
Drafted wireframes to show where in the process tracking would happen and examples of the additional features this data would unlock
First the user would be prompted to log the status of a book. This would happen once they return the book in the system.
They would then be taken to a separate screen to enter basic details
Once this data has been collected, users will be able to navigate to their history page for visualizations of their reading history
A new button was added onto a screen that already exists, bringing the user to the new logging screen. This step was designed to feel like an extension of the flow a user follows when returning a book instead of a completely separate action.
When a user navigates to their Reading History they will find graphs that summarize their reading data. Clicking into a graph allows them to see a list of all books sorted by that particular category. Users will be able to adjust the filters for this data as they desire.
Initial testing identified elements and phrasing that caused significant confusion
Using the mid-fi screens, I conducted initial tests with 5 Libby users over Zoom. I showed them the initial designs and asked them to show me how they would intuitively advance to the next step. I also asked for anecdotal feedback on the design and feature in general.
Based on the feedback I received from these tests, these were the next steps and iterations I prioritized:
Change “status” from a dropdown to radio buttons so users can see all possible options
Note that all info on logging screen besides status is optional
Rename “Reading History” since this phrasing confused 4/5 participants
The majority of users agreed the mosaic plot was confusing to read, so genres will be displayed in the bar chart
Build out search results screens showing the filter to exclude titles already read
High-Fidelity Mockup
Evaluating the ease of use for the added features and identifying possible blockages and sources of confusion
Moderated testing provided results that were positive with no major issues, though there we uncovered opportunities for improvements
Usability testing was conducted with 5 participants who all currently use the Libby app on a regular basis. I presented them with 4 different scenarios to test the feature usability and user flows for key tasks.
Log a returned book as read and add details
100% completion with no challenges.
3 people did ask what would happen if they read a book somewhere else
View all books read this year listed by format
1 person was unable to complete without assistance
2 people had very minimal issues but quickly completed the task
Share 2024 reading stats with a friend
3 people went to the actions button first but were able to figure it out pretty quickly
Browse for available books that haven’t been read yet
All 5 people accessed the filters in a different order but were able to easily complete the task with no issues
Design iterations were completed to clean up the UI and to better explain the full impact of this added feature
During testing, 3/5 participants navigated to the actions button before finding the summary link because to them “sharing” is an action.
Added a share option to the actions button on the stats screen
Added the ability to search for a book and manually track it as read if a user read a book physically or on a platform other than Libby
At different points throughout the testing multiple users had questions about what would happen if they read a physical book or a book purchased for their Kindle, etc. This would cause significant issues with the filtering capabilities so I added this additional logging feature.
Based on peer and mentor feedback, additional iterations were made to the summary graphic and the reading stats filtering function
When designing the graphic originally I was trying to keep it within specific dimensions for the purpose of sharing it on social media. The readability and overall usability of the graphic is more important however so I made some adjustments.
Cleaned up the summary graphic to increase readability
Before
After
Changed the way a user can adjust the filters for their reading stats in order to simplify the steps and make it more visually appealing
My original design for data filters directly mirrored the way filtering currently works when searching or browsing for books. I personally find this system clunky and over-crowded but I was hesitant to design a significant number of UI elements as that would greatly expand the scope of this project.
After reevaluating the existing UI elements in other places in the app, I determined that the bubble that pops up when a user clicks the actions button could be repurposed into a cleaner and more user friendly filtering system.
Before
After
Final Iteration
Returning a Book and Logging It to Reading Stats
Reviewing, Filtering, and Sharing Reading Stats
Browsing and Filtering to Remove Read Titles
Challenges and most impactful lessons learned
This project was an excellent way for me to learn about balancing my own personal experiences versus the data I collected
This project was a great exercise in not letting my personal experiences and preconceived notions interfere with the actual data I received from my research. I love Libby and I use it every single day and as such I have my own specific gripes with the app, so it was important to me to learn to actually listen to what other people were saying and not just steamroll with my own problems.
Working with the existing UI was my biggest challenge with this project
In it’s current state, Libby uses the same sort of filtering system across the whole app in many different scenarios. I did not think it was the best fit for my new feature though. I couldn’t design something completely new because it wouldn’t make sense to have this one page work differently than everywhere else, but I was able to rework some elements used in a few different areas (mainly the action dropdown menu) and make it into a filtering system that would work similarly enough to the existing system, while still being a better fit for the data being shown on the new screens.
A seemingly small addition can make massive impacts to a product
My biggest takeaway is how much of an impact a seemingly small addition can make - in both positive and negative ways. In this case, adding a “read” marker for books opens up a whole can of worms that needed to be resolved - things like can/how someone logs a book read elsewhere, should ratings be public, what will people want to do with this data etc. Moving forward I need to make sure to keep in mind that you really need to think through all the implications of a change/addition before actually putting it into play.
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