Empowering authors
to comprehensively grasp
the publishing process
Timeline
Sep-Dec 2023
(15 weeks)
Role
UX design
User Research
Team
Qingqing Zhou(myself)
Leticia Li
Yiwei Cheng
Iris Hu
Client
Ampersand Print
Advisors
Roger Mader
Criswell Lappin
HIGHLIGHT
Ampersand is a desktop app that authors can use to have more control over the publishing process. It features author’s page and offer publishing guidance materials for completing challenges.
MY ROLE
Conducted secondary research, user interviews, and expert interviews
Turn the insight from research into viable design ideas
Created storyboards to visualize solutions
Crafted hi-fi user interface
Propose the business model and MVP plan
CHALLENGE PROMPT FROM ampersand print
How might we make writing and publishing
more fun and creative,
with less confusion and hard work?
DEFINE-BACKGROUND
DEFINE- CONTEXT RESEARCH
Ampersand Print is hybrid publisher, support authors with a professional team, reducing time and costs for publishing, allowing greater focus on writing.
DISCOVER- USER INTERVIEW
BasWe conducted 9 qualitative user interviews to discover their needs and obstacles.
DISCOVER- EXPERT INTERVIEW
We interviewed 3 industry experts to understand the market and explore opportunities from the company and product side.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
ORIGINAL CHALLENGE PROMPT
How might we make writing and publishing more fun and creative, with less confusion and hard work?
REVISED CHALLENGE PROMPT
How might we help author in the hybrid publishing process with less confusing?
OUR GOAL
DESIGN - STRATEGY
We aim to comprehensively enhance the author experience throughout the publishing process by providing an author-friendly collaborative publishing progress management software.
Normal case: The author gets lost in the long and repetitive process of publication.
Our solution: Make the process more transparent.
DESIGN - SOLUTIONS
Cooperate with other project management platforms.
Specific author page.
The cloud stores all versions of file changes.
A clear view of the progress of various publishing matters that the publishing house is responsible for.
Why cooperate with an existing platform?
Lower cost and more professional management are the reason we choose to cooperate with an existing platform instead of building a completely new application.
Why do we need author page?
DESIGN - SOLUTION PROTOTYPE
DESIGN - STORYBOARD & TESTING
DESIGN - MAIN FEATURES
01
Author and editor pages are designed to synchronize with new updates and share data seamlessly.
02
Editor page is an interface resembling the backend, specially for editors to use.
Trained editors can adeptly manage and utilize this interface in a highly professional manner.
03
The author page is specialize designed for authors, all the features are included in one page.
04
Project progress overview.
To do list.
File gallery.
05
Chat with editors.
DEPLOY - BUSINESS MODEL
Pricing
Total Addressable Market
Revenue Forecast
RESULTS & FEEDBACK
Positive feedback from sponsor
Sposor thinks the partnership with Monday and the idea of building a project management platform are great, but because of the company's funding and growth goal, he will consider taking the solution at the next stage.
REFLECTION
Consider the business aspects in combination with the future development direction of the company is important.
Our original design direction was to build a new collaboration software for Ampersand Print(our sponsor), but we decided to work with monday.com first, and then launch in 3 stages, due to the company's budget.