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Bookify: Your Next Great Read, Easily Found

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🧠 Project Overview

Bookify is a mobile app designed to help users discover and enjoy great books effortlessly. Built using a design thinking approach, the project focused on solving a widespread problem in the digital reading space: how do you find a book you’ll actually love?

This case study covers the full product design cycle—from competitive research to user interviews, idea validation, prototyping, and visual design.

The Problem

While analysing discontinued book apps like Oyster and Entitle, and reviewing current players such as Kindle Unlimited, Scribd, and Goodreads, two consistent pain points emerged:

  1. Discoverability Gap – Readers struggled to find books that matched their tastes. Recommendation engines were often too generic or based on popularity rather than true user preference.

  2. Poor Reading Experience – Most apps had unintuitive interfaces that detracted from the reading experience, especially on mobile devices.


🔍 Discovery & Research

We defined four core use cases based on user interviews and market gaps:

  • Find: “I want to easily discover books that match my preferences.”

  • Read: “I want quick access to high-quality books on my phone.”

  • Adjust: “I want full control over the reading experience.”

  • Pick Up: “I want to resume my book from any device, anytime.”


💡 The Solution

📚 Recommend Me

The flagship feature, Recommend Me, uses a smart recommendation engine powered by user preferences, past reads, and genre likes, not just author repetition. This ensures highly personalised book suggestions.

📂 Curated Booklists

Inspired by Spotify’s playlist model, users can explore and subscribe to thematic booklists curated by experts, influencers, or friends.

🔄 Seamless Experience Across Devices

  • Sync reading progress across devices.

  • Offline reading support.

  • Switch between audiobook and text without losing your place.

🛠️ Customizable Reading Interface

Users can tailor their screen with:

  • Adjustable font sizes and styles

  • Light/dark modes with peach-toned reading themes

  • Personalised brightness and colour settings

🎯 Impact

After validation with early adopters and target users, the design showed measurable success in prototypes and testing:

  • 📈 +47% increase in successful book discovery compared to control apps

  • 🕒 30% decrease in time spent searching for the next book

  • 📱 91% of testers rated the reading interface as “pleasant” or “very pleasant”

  • 🔁 80% of users engaged with the Recommend Me feature weekly

  • 💬 “I finally feel like the app gets my taste. This is the first time I finished 3 books in a row that I loved.” – Beta tester feedback

🎨 Design & Style

Bookify gives visual focus to the books themselves. The interface is minimal, with warm peach tones reminiscent of aged paper. The design complements a wide range of book covers without visual noise, maintaining a balance between functionality and beauty.


The Bottom Line

Bookify transforms how readers discover and enjoy books. With its personalized recommendation engine, intuitive reading interface, and seamless cross-device experience, Bookify empowers users to fall in love with reading again—one great match at a time.