PAGEPALS
PagePals is a user-centered digital library and community platform that modernizes outdated book sites by solving their navigation complexity, stale interfaces, and weak social ecosystems.
Users will read more — and catalog consistently — if the platform feels relatable, engaging, and social rather than a cold utility.
Existing book platforms suffer from outdated interfaces, complex navigation, and weak community — recommendations feel generic, and discovery feels lonely.
A static book catalog turned into an interactive, gamified social space — filter by mood, track milestones, read together.
Validating social reading engagement.
The core goal of PagePals was to increase social reading engagement — getting users to discover books through each other, not just algorithms. Here's how a usability test with 20 participants played out around a single shared activity post on the homepage feed:
Prototype test · n=20 · Homepage feed interaction task
- Reacted (liked)10 / 20
- Left a comment2 / 20
- Added book to library3 / 20
- Re-shared the post1 / 20
- Clicked book detail7 / 20
- Joined a challenge4 / 20
- No interaction5 / 20
75% of participants engaged with at least one element of the shared feed post — validating that social activity on the homepage drives discoverability. 3 users (15%) added the book directly to their library after seeing a peer's post, representing peer-to-peer book adoption without any algorithmic recommendation.
Having established the problem, the core hypothesis, and a proposed solution, the next step is conducting user research to validate these theories.
A quantitative + qualitative survey.
15 active book-platform users, ages 18–40, were surveyed to surface core friction points and drop-off behaviors.
Cite complex navigation and stagnant community features as immediate friction.
Are frustrated by generic, unvetted recommendations — personalization is a top priority.
Discover their next book via recommendations from friends or family.
Stay active when they can see what their network is reading.
Want real-time tracking of live reading status; 33.3% are driven by reading challenges.
Advanced filtering.
Break away from rigid catalogs. Sort and filter directly on the homepage by Genre, Author, Awards, Length, Mood (Sad, Happy, Calm, In Love), Series, Country, Release Date, and Duration.
Social reading challenges.
Set a book goal, track personal stats, and invite friends or groups into collaborative or competitive reading challenges.
Comprehensive shelf management.
Categorize a collection into Favorites, Read, Currently Reading, Want to Read, and DNF — with optimized status tracking.
Interactive hub & rewards.
Discussion groups, virtual reading clubs, user reviews, and a rewards program with earnable badges that incentivize engagement.
Information Architecture
Value before sign-up.
The public gateway lets unauthenticated visitors feel the platform's value immediately — maximizing conversion.
- —Conversion-focused homepage with global reading trends
- —Curated public discovery and popular lists
- —Frictionless global search across the database
- —Multi-parameter advanced filtering (mood, length, country)
A personalized workspace.
Once authenticated, the platform becomes a member workspace split across three engagement routes.
- —Personalized dashboard around individual interests
- —Interactive challenges — personal targets and group milestones
- —Tailored discover feed — no more generic browsing
- —Centralized profile: live activity, badges, custom shelves
Bringing it to life
Design System
Components
Structure first
