Reading Enthusiasts Fear No More, I’ll Tell You What to Do With Your Stacks of Old Books.

Growing up, I’ve always been an avid reader. I’d be more excited with a trip to Barnes and Nobles than to a trip to Toys R Us. Reading books not only kept me entertained, but it also taught me through the experience of others. As a young adult, I realized that many avid readers face a problem similar to mine: physical and economic constraint.

Buying books not only requires large lumps of money, it also requires space, which is not easy to acquire. Moreover, the more you read, the faster you tend to devour through a book. This is especially problematic when a thick book begins to last as little as a few days. After the book has been read, it usually ends up gathering dust or as an expensive paperweight. To combat this, digital devices such as the Kindle have been produced, however, although some readers enjoy reading books digitally, 65% of readers still prefer physical books over electronic ones.

The Solution: In order to solve these issues, I am going to develop a simple app for all reading enthusiasts. With the app, they will be able to scan their book, and list it in a marketplace, where anyone that is looking to buy a used book will be able to easily find a seller nearby. After all, books are one of the few items that “work” exactly the same when used as brand new.

Research and Development

Before delving into the development of the app, I conducted market research in order to determine whether it was the correct moment to introduce the app. This practice is vital in order to determine whether the market will benefit from my product, in case that it would not, the product would most likely fail regardless of how good it is. Another key factor that I need to consider and understand is how the competitor landscape for my product is.

P.E.S.T Analysis

The P.E.S.T analysis is composed of a political factor, however in this case, it does not apply, as there is no legislation in favor or against the development of an app. The only “political” factor that one could take into consideration would be the rules of the Apple App Store and the Google Play store, however these are standard in the industry and do not hinder development.

Economic and Demographic Trends

College textbooks form part of the most expensive books one could buy. This, combined with the fact that most are hardly even used for a year, make them very expensive paperweights. When considering that student debt is at an all time high of 1.6 trillion dollars, it makes sense that students would want to sell their textbooks as soon as they are done with them, and new students probably prefer buying used.

Social Trends

With the rise of services such as Ebay and Craigslist, the second hand culture has grown. Currently, a vast number of consumers rather pay less and buy used, than pay more for a brand new item. This is especially true for items such as books, that do not “degrade” over time, unlike cars and technology.

Technological Breakthroughs

The major technological breakthrough in this area is the fact that most people own some sort of device. This makes access to digital textbooks easier than ever before, however, as previously mentioned, most people prefer physical books. On another hand, the fact that devices are abundant among the population means that access to our service is not limited.

Competitor Analysis:

After analyzing various competitors, I came to the conclusion that although most of these competitors offer to sell second hand books, none offer to buy them. Most, if not all of these services do not provide a friendly experience to the user that wants to sell. Thus, it does not serve those who would like to get rid of some books and use the money to buy new ones.

Interviewing Potential Users

After conducting a PEST analysis and concluding that there is space for my product in the current market, I moved on to the next step: user interviews. Interviewing potential users is a key step in the research process. While I may think that my product is solving an existing issue for a group of people, it may be the case that this issue does not apply to them at all. In order to ensure that I am not merely creating a problem and then solving it, I carefully designed my user interviews.

When designing user interviews, you need to be extremely careful as to not show bias within the questions. Any bias may be subconsciously picked up by the interviewee and cause them to formulate answers that cater to your biases.

• Do you enjoy reading? (if yes) Do you prefer physical books or digital books?
• Have you ever restrained yourself from buying a book due to economic circumstances?
• Have you ever bought / are you open to buying a used book?
• Do you own many books sitting on a shelf?
• Have you ever sold a book before?

With these basic yes and no questions I am able to quickly identify and disqualify any potential users or non users. Seeing as my application focuses on people who enjoy reading physical books, it would not make sense for me to interview someone who either does not enjoy reading, or enjoys reading on a kindle.

After choosing the interviewees, I proceeded with follow up questions. These are purposely open ended, as to allow the interviewee to fully express themselves without leading them towards a specific answer.

• How have you made space for new books?
• What have you done with your old college / AP / SAT books?

Depending on how the interviewee answered these questions, I followed up with specific, per-case questions in order to fully understand their experience and situations. After conducting the interviews, and discarding the irrelevant ones, I was able to come up with the general experience and challenges that potential users of my apps were having.

All of my participants enjoyed reading, whether it was in the field of fiction, history, biographies, or purely academic books. However, most participants faced a situation where they could not obtain a book due to its price or because they had already exhausted their budget on entertainment for the month.

Some bought used books, others did not. The ones that had never bought used books had an availability issue, where they did not find used books at “used prices” in their area, and they did not feel comfortable with digital resellers such as amazon due to lack of description about the book condition.

In order to make space for new books, most users donated their old books. Those that could, sold their books, however this was almost exclusively limited to college and other academic textbooks. No user reported selling a non-academic item. Those that did report selling books, described the experience as difficult, having to “hunt” for other people in hopes of selling their books, only to find out that they did needed a different edition.

The Final Stage, The User Stage

In the final stage of product development, I need to focus solely on my end user. In order to do this, I will create user stories, which will help me “step into the shoes” of my potential customers and understand their perspectives when it comes to using my app. I will evaluate users from different ages and demographics, as my product should appeal to the masses. Although the stories are made up, they should help anyone understand what my product does, as well as help me create whatever is necessary in order to ensure my user has the experience that I have in mind.

John Doe:

John Doe is a freshman, entering his first year of college. After reading through his course load and their syllabi, John decides to purchase all of the textbooks that the teachers will use. Although it is a hefty investment, John considers it a cost of his education and does not hesitate too much as they will be a tool. The school year passes, and John realizes that he used some books often, only used some of his books a few times, and there were even books that he never once opened. This was frustrating for John, as he now had thousands of dollars worth of books that he would never again use in his life. John realized that in order to avoid this expensive mistake, while minimizing the impact, he had to purchase used books and sell his old books to next year’s students. He scanned all of his books and listed them at fair prices, and within a week, students from every nearby college had taken them off his hands. Even better, he searched for used books using the app and he was able to buy all of the books he needed for the next year, and still have some money left over from the ones he sold earlier!

Jane Smith:

Jane is a 16 year old highschool student who loves reading. She read every book in the Harry Potter series and waits eagerly each year for Rick Riordan’s new releases. However, she lives in a relatively small home, and does not have enough disposable income to satisfy her passion for reading. The only library in her vicinity has not stocked books in the past 3 years and every major library is at least 2 hours away by bus. However, ever since she discovered the app, she has been able to sell her old books, freeing up space and money in order to buy new ones. Moreover, she has found fellow book lovers who purchase brand new books upon their publishing and list them a week later for someone to buy — at half the retail cost! This allows Jane to read as many books as her heart desires, without causing financial strain for her family.

Wireframes:

In order to have a clear idea of what my app will look like, I sketched some wireframes by hand. These wireframes serve as blueprints, allowing me to visualize my app before starting to code it, reducing time spent on changing and fixing the design — after all, it’s easier to sketch by hand than by code. I recommend wireframes as they are a great rough draft and they allow peers to make recommendations before investing the time it takes to develop an app.

After finishing the wireframe, I have a better understanding of my own app. I have reduced the amount of screens to a bare minimum, making the user experience more natural and intuitive.

Can It Be Done?

After conducting the user interviews, researching into the competition and studying the market conditions, I decided that my product can and will be developed — and successful. The amount of “one time use” books sitting in people’s homes is never ending and the financial cost of acquiring books, especially academic ones, is a burden on people’s shoulders. Current buying and selling services are not tailored for used books and their user experience is poor. With this in mind, I have decided to develop the app in order to help every fellow book lover!