Cozy Book Corner is a bookstore where one can not only purchase books, bookish accessories, and even comfy furniture, but is a place where one can hang out and read in a comfortable place. Designed below is an e-commerce app for the store, my logo concept, and magazine advertisment.
Mobile App
In order to design this app, I did research on similar bookstore websites and apps, namely Amazon/Kindle, Barnes &Noble, Kobo, and Bookshop.org. The closest competitors were Barnes & Noble and Amazon due to their products extending beyond just books, but other accessories, and bookish items. Barnes & Noble especially would be one I looked closely at due to them having physical locations as well.
​
For my competitive audit of these stores, I had 3 goals:
1. to compare the main user flows from homepage to checkout
2. to highlight any particular pain point or user issue
3. to see how they organize their product content.
​
These were my key insights after the competitive audit:
1. Websites tended to market what was popular or what's selling at or near the homepage, in addition to any ongoing sales.
2. When signed in, content will be more personalized so the homepage will include recommendations based on what you've purchased before.
3. When checking out, you can do so as a guest or sign in with an account to purchase. Amazon is the exception because you need an account to make a purchase.
4. When adding an item to the cart, there is a pop-up, or the site will navigate you to a new page where you can either continue shopping or proceed to check out.
​
These are the trends I kept in mind when designing the mobile app for Cozy Book Corner.
I designed this app on Figma and used Apple's Human Interface Guideline as the basis for my design system. I made sure to keep to the brand colors while making the app as usable and accessible as possible. The screens I designed showcase a user journey from homepage to checkout of an item.
Interactive Prototype
This prototype exhibits the main user flow from homepage to checkout of an item.
High Fidelity Wireframes
My Takeaways
Given the scope of this project and the limited time to complete it, I could not perform an adequate usability test in order to make sure that my design adequately addressed any pain points in the user flow. I would have liked to to a test using the low fidelity wireframes in order to make sure my insights from the competitive audits could be properly supported.
The Brand Design
I designed this brand from scratch, starting with the logo. Here are some sketched logo concepts.
For the final design, I went with:
The original version was vertical, but when designing the e-commerce app, I created a horitonzal verstion.
Magazine Ad
Next, I was tasked with designing stationery as well as a magazine ad. For the ad, I first started with sketches of different concepts.
The tagline is meant to mirror the logo of an open book. I edited the lighting in the background to give it a more cozy vibe.