Roles

UX/UI Designer, Graphic Designer

Tools

Adobe XD, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator

Proposal

Challenge

How might I help users create a community where novice writers can publicly share their own work, receive feedback, and connect with publishers?

Key Objective

Pursuit of Publishing should enable users to publish their own written works, browse the works of fellow aspiring authors, submit anonymous/public edits, and connect with publishers. After engaging with the Pursuit of Publishing community, users should have constructive edits on their own projects, a sharpened ability to edit the work of others and feel inspired to write.

Solution

I created Pursuit of Publishing to allow users to publish unfinished written work, offer/receive free feedback, and to connect with other novice writers and publishers. I designed the landing page with opportunities for the user to investigate other authors and written works, encouraging a seamless navigation of projects based on genre, author or short excerpt. I also included visual elements of published works to inspire users by the successes of their fellow authors. I ensured the website was designed holistically, considering both UX/UI development and branding concerns throughout the process.

The primary differences in the two variations of landing pages depicted below revolve around the display of the published works available for browsing. Text heavy display versus imagery heavy display transforms the experience of the website: including excerpts demands the user's attention for a longer period of time, while larger, exclusive imagery coaxes the user to click into a project.

In both scenarios, the imagery I picked is bold and colorful, counteracting the beige background that overwhelms the rest of the page. Rounded shapes soften the grid layout and provide cohesion amidst a wide range of colors.

Below: two versions of the initial landing page for Pursuit of Publishing

Below: A side-by-side contrast of the imagery heavy versus the text heavy layouts

Design Analysis

User Pains

• Missing a community of writers to sympathize/empathize with

• Struggling to find people who are willing and capable of editing their work

• Wants free edits throughout the writing process, not just at the end

• Wants to help other writers along their journey to publication

• Has writer’s block and needs to be inspired

• Doesn’t know how to connect with publishers

User Desires

• A community of writers to sympathize/empathize with

• Free edits on their work throughout the writing process

• The ability to collaborate with other novice authors on their own works

• To be inspired and encouraged by other authors in the same situation

• To find and connect with publishers with the end goal of becoming a published author

User Persona

• An avid reader/writer

• Loves story telling, poetry, plays etc.

• Works in career they tolerate but don’t love, spends free time writing

• Works on their written projects before day job and late into the night after hours

• Attends book signings and submits to writing contests and magazines

• Still owns a library card, loves a good library or coffee shop

• Wants to be a well respected published author

Execution

• Provides a space to connect with writers who are also struggling to be published

• Hosts a forum where users can receive workable, constructive feedback on their projects

• Gives users the ability to practice sharing feedback with other writers and sharpening their critical eye via a chat forum

• Inspires users to eventually have a clean, holistic work that is ready to be submitted to a publishing house by displaying other published works

• Gives users opportunities connect with publishers/become more educated on the process of taking a book to print

I decided to make the landing page whimsical but grounded, with a focus on pushing the eye towards the works/products users would be putting on the page. The color palette is a combination of earthy blues and reds with a warm beige to neutralize the space and provide a clean background where a vast variety of colors could communicate well with each other without overwhelming the space, as they would on a purely white background.

I chose paper plane imagery for the top of the landing page because it embodies the idea of pages taking flight, an effective depiction of words being captured and lifted by inspiration. I incorporated the paper airplane itself into the logo to reinforce this concept.

Below: examples of a purchase pages I created as a side project for Pursuit of Publishing

In completing this project, I learned that both layouts effectively promote the purchase of a written work, even if there is a difference in an imagery heavy versus text heavy layout. I would love to test both of these landing pages on users to discover just how these variations would affect their navigation through the page. If I created a third iteration of this design, I would design a layout option that combines the opposing top and bottom halves from the pre-existing landing pages.