Improving the navigation of the Early Bird Books website.

Constraints: No budget for research, one codebase for all content sites.

Impact: ↑ 4k new users ↑ 12.3% + clicks on the content

Constraints: No budget for research, one codebase for all content sites.

Impact: ↑ 4k new users ↑ 12.3% + clicks on the content

Constraints: no budget for research, one codebase for all content sites.

Overview

Early Bird Books is a content website owned by Open Road Integrated Media. The Early Bird Books website provides daily content for book readers. Early Bird Books started as a newsletter featuring deals on popular ebooks and evolved into a branded content site. The homepage was originally designed as a funnel to get users to sign up for the newsletter. ORIM also owns A Love So True, The Portalist, The Archive, Murder & Mayhem, and The Lineup, content marketing sites that cater to niche audiences of book readers.

Role

UX/UI Designer

Team

Product Manager

2 Software Engineers

Content Editor

Senior Designer

Tools

Figma

Adobe CC

User Interviews

Timeline

Ongoing

Company

Open Road Integrated Media

Users

Voracious readers 60+

Problem

73% of users abandon the Early Bird Books homepage, leading to missed opportunities for customer acquisition and brand engagement.

Solution

I eliminated the gated content sign-up since it was interfering with users' ability to discover content

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Before

A gated sign-up prevented users from navigating content efficiently. Since the business needed to change to a more content-curated landing page, the team agreed to remove it.

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After

Users can get access to content. A sign up was left on the homepage to allow users to sign up for newsletters.

Research

I did not have a budget for research so I reached out to ebook readers in online communities and groups.

I did not have a budget for research so I reached out to ebook readers in online communities and metrics from Clarity MS.

I did not have a budget for research so I reached out to ebook readers in online communities and metrics on Clarity from MS.

Results

I found out users are not able to navigate the site efficently since the hamburger menu is difficult to use

According to Clarity MS 26.3% of users are rage clicking on the header. From user Interviews, I discovered that users cannot navigate the site efficiently since the hamburger menu is difficult to use.

TECHNICAL CONSTRAINTS

Due the one codebase all styles needed to be similar.

Desktop design

The design needs to be able to be repurposed for the other content websites. I used blacks, grays and whites to match the other content brands.

Mobile and Tablet

Mobile and tablet users are prioritized since, the users read primarily on their tablet and get email promotions on their mobile phone.

Mobile

I designed a secondary navigation is created to help users navigate on mobile devices. It also prevents blocking too much content for users.

I designed a secondary navigation to help users navigate on mobile devices. It prevents blocking too much content for users.

click on image to enlarge

Tablet

Users prefer to read eBooks on their tablet device.

Users prefer to read eBooks on their tablet devices. The design needs to be optimized for tablets on both horizontal and vertical layouts.

Outcomes & Learnings

I worked with the team to balance the needs of the users with business needs.

Impact

4k new users

Added 4,000 new users in the first few months after launch

0% endless scrolling

According to Clarity MS, endless scrolling frustration went from 7.27% to 0%

12.3% + clicks on the content

Users can read book related articles and buy books from our publishing partners

I learned a lot about our users,

I worked with the team to balance the needs of the business for engagement and conversion with the needs of the user to navigate efficiently and get what they need from our sites.