Little Professor
End-to-end mobile app design for an independent bookstore
Background
Little Professor is an independent bookstore located in Homewood, Alabama that strives to be a community hub based around literacy and connection, while still offering a personal, but tech-enabled experience.
My Role
As the sole UX/UI designer on this project, I teamed up with Little Professor's leadership to deliver end-to-end development-ready designs for their native iOS e-commerce app.
Collaborators
CEO, Product Manager: Jonathan Robinson
CTO: John McIntosh
Scope
UX/UI, Prototyping, Style Guide and Brand Development
Bridging community and convenience for local book lovers
With massive corporations like Amazon making it increasingly harder for mom & pop shops to compete, our foremost objective was to develop an app that would prioritize Little Professor's target audience: young adults and parents of young children. Understanding their desire for both the warm community experience offered by the store and the convenience of online shopping, we crafted an app that blends these elements into a harmonious and user-centric experience.
High-level design goals:
Seamlessness: Create a familiar and intuitive e-commerce experience that offers a smooth browsing and seamless checkout flow, making it effortless for users to discover and buy books.
Community Integration: Incorporate features that foster a sense of community, such as staff recommendations, membership options with perks like free coffee at the store, discounts, and more.
Personalization: Implement user profiles that encourage readers to review books they've read, build wishlists, and share their favorite reads with their friends.
Reliability: Ensure accurate information regarding book availability so users can have complete clarity on which books are currently in stock and ready to be enjoyed, avoiding any confusion or disappointment.
Explore, design, iterate, rinse & repeat
Working directly with the CEO and bookstore owner allowed us to keep a tight feedback loop throughout the design process. Whenever I'd explore a new feature, I could count on my designs quickly being tested with users so I could hear what worked well or what was confusing so I could keep refining the designs.
A few clips of the animations I mocked up throughout various iterations of the app (and even the app's name)
Empowering Little Professor's journey of endless possibilities
From the outset, our work on the Little Professor app was driven by an unwavering belief in its limitless potential. We recognized that version 1 was just the beginning, fueling our excitement to explore a multitude of innovative ideas beyond our MVP. Throughout the design process, we envisioned and mocked up enhanced social features, intricate book discovery pathways, and the inclusion of multiple local stores, all converging within a single app.
It was a joy to partner with the Little Professor team on an app that transcended mere transactions, and instead focused on building a vibrant community hub for the folks in Homewood, Alabama.
Next Case Study: Homepie
Little Professor
End-to-end mobile app design for an independent bookstore
Background
Little Professor is an independent bookstore located in Homewood, Alabama that strives to be a community hub based around literacy and connection, while still offering a personal, but tech-enabled experience.
My Role
As the sole UX/UI designer on this project, I teamed up with Little Professor's leadership to deliver end-to-end development-ready designs for their native iOS e-commerce app.
Collaborators
CEO, Product Manager: Jonathan Robinson
CTO: John McIntosh
Scope
UX/UI, Prototyping, Style Guide and Brand Development
Bridging community and convenience for local book lovers
With massive corporations like Amazon making it increasingly harder for mom & pop shops to compete, our foremost objective was to develop an app that would prioritize Little Professor's target audience: young adults and parents of young children. Understanding their desire for both the warm community experience offered by the store and the convenience of online shopping, we crafted an app that blends these elements into a harmonious and user-centric experience.
High-level design goals:
Seamlessness: Create a familiar and intuitive e-commerce experience that offers a smooth browsing and seamless checkout flow, making it effortless for users to discover and buy books.
Community Integration: Incorporate features that foster a sense of community, such as staff recommendations, membership options with perks like free coffee at the store, discounts, and more.
Personalization: Implement user profiles that encourage readers to review books they've read, build wishlists, and share their favorite reads with their friends.
Reliability: Ensure accurate information regarding book availability so users can have complete clarity on which books are currently in stock and ready to be enjoyed, avoiding any confusion or disappointment.
Explore, design, iterate, rinse & repeat
Working directly with the CEO and bookstore owner allowed us to keep a tight feedback loop throughout the design process. Whenever I'd explore a new feature, I could count on my designs quickly being tested with users so I could hear what worked well or what was confusing so I could keep refining the designs.
A few clips of the animations I mocked up throughout various iterations of the app (and even the app's name)
Empowering Little Professor's journey of endless possibilities
From the outset, our work on the Little Professor app was driven by an unwavering belief in its limitless potential. We recognized that version 1 was just the beginning, fueling our excitement to explore a multitude of innovative ideas beyond our MVP. Throughout the design process, we envisioned and mocked up enhanced social features, intricate book discovery pathways, and the inclusion of multiple local stores, all converging within a single app.
It was a joy to partner with the Little Professor team on an app that transcended mere transactions, and instead focused on building a vibrant community hub for the folks in Homewood, Alabama.
Next Case Study: Homepie
Little Professor
End-to-end mobile app design for an independent bookstore
Background
Little Professor is an independent bookstore located in Homewood, Alabama that strives to be a community hub based around literacy and connection, while still offering a personal, but tech-enabled experience.
My Role
As the sole UX/UI designer on this project, I teamed up with Little Professor's leadership to deliver end-to-end development-ready designs for their native iOS e-commerce app.
Collaborators
CEO, Product Manager: Jonathan Robinson
CTO: John McIntosh
Scope
UX/UI, Prototyping, Style Guide and Brand Development
Bridging community and convenience for local book lovers
With massive corporations like Amazon making it increasingly harder for mom & pop shops to compete, our foremost objective was to develop an app that would prioritize Little Professor's target audience: young adults and parents of young children. Understanding their desire for both the warm community experience offered by the store and the convenience of online shopping, we crafted an app that blends these elements into a harmonious and user-centric experience.
High-level design goals:
Seamlessness: Create a familiar and intuitive e-commerce experience that offers a smooth browsing and seamless checkout flow, making it effortless for users to discover and buy books.
Community Integration: Incorporate features that foster a sense of community, such as staff recommendations, membership options with perks like free coffee at the store, discounts, and more.
Personalization: Implement user profiles that encourage readers to review books they've read, build wishlists, and share their favorite reads with their friends.
Reliability: Ensure accurate information regarding book availability so users can have complete clarity on which books are currently in stock and ready to be enjoyed, avoiding any confusion or disappointment.
Explore, design, iterate, rinse & repeat
Working directly with the CEO and bookstore owner allowed us to keep a tight feedback loop throughout the design process. Whenever I'd explore a new feature, I could count on my designs quickly being tested with users so I could hear what worked well or what was confusing so I could keep refining the designs.
A few clips of the animations I mocked up throughout various iterations of the app (and even the app's name)
Empowering Little Professor's journey of endless possibilities
From the outset, our work on the Little Professor app was driven by an unwavering belief in its limitless potential. We recognized that version 1 was just the beginning, fueling our excitement to explore a multitude of innovative ideas beyond our MVP. Throughout the design process, we envisioned and mocked up enhanced social features, intricate book discovery pathways, and the inclusion of multiple local stores, all converging within a single app.
It was a joy to partner with the Little Professor team on an app that transcended mere transactions, and instead focused on building a vibrant community hub for the folks in Homewood, Alabama.