Designing and improving a social reading app beyond swipe-based interactions
A mobile platform that connects people through books, shared interests, and reading tropes (popular themes in books). Redesigned to improve usability, increase engagement, and expand how users interact with the product.
Role
Product Designer (full product design process)
Scope
MVP → V2 (improvements & new features)
Focus
Navigation, engagement, product growth
Context
MVP · Budget constraints · Strong visual direction
Product overview (MVP)
The first version of the product was an MVP that combined different ways to interact around books and shared interests:
Books
Send book recommendations to interact with other users
While this created a functional social experience, the product was still centered around swiping, limiting deeper engagement and long-term retention beyond the initial interaction.
People
Discover and match with others through swiping
Societies
Community spaces for discussion and shared topics
News
Curated content and updates about books and the platform
Chat
Direct messaging between users
Where the product was struggling
The MVP was initially designed under time and budget constraints with the objective to validate the core idea.
However, as the product evolved, some issues became aparent:
The experience was heavily centered around swiping, with few reasons to return after matching
Navigation lacked clarity, making it difficult to understand the product structure
The home didn’t clearly show the purpose of the app or guide user actions
The profile was limited to a static view and editing, without acting as an active space
The strong visual direction introduced challenges in readability and content hierarchy
How this was identified:
- Qualitative feedback from users
- Internal team discussions
- Early product metrics showing low retention and limited engagement
Product decisions
With limited time and budget, it was necessary to define clear priorities.
Priorities
- Improve the core experience (navigation, home, profile)
- Add new interaction features to support different user needs (events, group chats, book galleries)
POSTPONED CHANGES
- Onboarding was closely tied to the overall structure, so it was delayed until the core experience was more defined
- Societies were a key part of the product but required deeper exploration, so they were addressed in a later phase
Improving the product
From a swipe-based MVP to a more structured and engaging experience
Navigation & structure
As new features were added, navigation became harder to scale, since the initial structure relied on the bottom navigation.
A side menu was introduced to support more sections, also key areas like societies were accessible from multiple entry points.
This allowed the product to scale without overloading the main navigation, creating a more flexible structure.
Home as a central hub
The initial home worked as a simple menu, but lacked hierarchy and context, making it unclear where to focus or what to do next.
For this reason, it was redesigned as a central hub to show key content and give a clear overview.
Users now feel more guided, can understand what each section offers, and see updates as soon as they open the app.
Home overview
- Featured content (book collections & highlights)
- Personalized welcome & context
- Latest news
- Societies (quick access)
- Upcoming events
- People (quick access)
- Book gallery
- Platform announcements
Profile as a functional space
The profile was a static view with limited functionality, giving users little reason to return.
It was redesigned to make key actions more visible while expanding its role within the app.
Users can still view and edit their profile, but now also see their events and activity, making the profile a more active and useful space.
More ways to interact
The initial experience was mainly focused on matching, which limited how users could interact with the product over time.
To create a more engaging experience, new ways to interact were introduced.
Events
A new way to discover and join shared activities, offering more ways to connect.
- Discover events by location or interest
- Join or create events
- See who’s attending
- Integrated across home, profile, and dedicated sections
Group chats
Conversations with multiple users, enabling interaction around shared interests.
Impact
The changes expanded how users interact with the product, moving beyond a swipe-focused experience and introducing more entry points across the app.
Based on product analytics from the weeks following the release:
Reached over 7.4K users overall, with 656 new users after the update
Increased short-term activity (1-day users from 43 to 61)
More activity across features such as events, societies, and book content
Maintained strong session depth (~12 min average engagement time)
Key learnings
Improving the product required making decisions about what to focus on and how the product should evolve.
- Deciding what to solve and when is key, not all problems should be addressed at the same time
- Thinking about the product as a connected system, not just individual screens, improves how everything works together
- Design decisions need to balance constraints with product goals, working within limitations without losing direction
Next steps
Societies
Identified as a key area of the product, requiring deeper exploration and redesign as a central space for user interaction.
Onboarding
A major barrier for users, but should be redesigned after societies to reflect the updated product and avoid reworking it later.
Next project
Societies redesign
The app’s forum space, which was still in an early stage in the MVP
Coming soon