For a senior user experience design course, my teammates and I analyzed the current experience when engaging with The MIT Press as a brand. We proposed a collaborative reading experience via a website redesign and a new eReader interface to encourage deeper exploration and the unpacking of complex ideas.
I primarily designed and prototyped the eReader interface, however I was also responsible for the project’s visual design, graphic design (weekly slide decks), motion graphics, quality control, and research.
The Press values provocative and transformative work, publishing leading professionals to advance knowledge in challenging and ground-breaking ideas, and to recognize new interdisciplinary fields. They are also committed to accessibility and equity, distributing knowledge and research as broadly as possible—they are increasingly adopting an Open Access1 A model of scholarly communication that aims to greatly improve the accessibility of scholarly research and books. Open access publications are digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions (Canadian Association of Research Libraries). model and their publishers translate academic and research content for non-specialist readers.
The MIT Press has built an extensive network of platforms involving various microsites and interfaces. To understand how readers and stakeholders engage with this content, we conducted surveys and interviews with over 70 participants2 Participants were aged 18-64 years old and involved professors, industry professionals, PhD students, university librarians, and bookstore managers. .
eBooks are efficient and convenient. The Press releases new titles for Open Access but many readers are unaware.
Reviews and Referrals
Readers rely on reviews and word of mouth when deciding to purchase a book.
Discussions Online (Entrypoints)
Industry professionals use Slack, LinkedIn, and Twitter as channels for sharing and discussing books.
Lack of Engagement
Very few readers discover or interact with the Press’ online channels and platforms.
Casual Readers
Those who know nothing about MIT Press and do not read books often, but read short form articles.
Avid Readers
Those who often read nonfiction books and enjoy learning more about interdisciplinary topics within their field.
Academic Readers
Those who look to books as a way to further their understanding of their academic field or to teach others (typically educators).
We saw a space to create community and dialogue amongst interdisciplinary thinkers and leaders, specifically through accessible dialogue because the Press is focused on publishing progressive topics and creating resources for a wide variety of non-specialist readers.
We further defined the scope to focus on trade4 A book intended for general readership. eBooks and the customer segment of avid readers—specifically industry professionals working in STEAM5 An acronym representing the fields of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics. related fields, who regularly read nonfiction books related to their industries.
Upon analyzing the current experience when discovering and engaging with eBooks on The MIT Press Direct6 A platform to access over 3000 MIT Press eBooks and subject-specific collections, with approximately 150 added each year. Readers can print and download PDFs by chapter. website, we concluded that the experience is scattered and cut short. The Press does not leverage their pre-existing content to create a guided experience for their audiences.
Details (especially Open Access) and sharing options are difficult to discover, creating cognitive overhead7 How many logical connections or jumps your brain has to make in order to understand or contextualize the thing you’re looking at (David Damaree) .
To gain access to book contents, guests must redirect to the MIT Press Direct site.
There is a lack of accessibility when actually reading Open Access books, readers must download each chapter individually and read them as PDF files.
Leveraging existing eBook-related resources, we proposed a redesign and extension of The MIT Press Direct platform to create a community space for readers to engage in dialogue around The MIT Press publications.
This proposal intervenes at three different stages in the reader’s journey.
The focus of the redesign was to reduce cognitive overhead and feature Open Access.
A CTA9 A piece of content intended to induce a viewer, reader, or listener to perform a specific act, typically taking the form of an instruction or directive (Oxford Languages). banner creates awareness of community features and prompts readers to Open Access. The animated GIF10 10 Graphic Interchange Format: A type of computer file that contains a still or moving image—A GIF may contain more than one frame, so it can be animated (Cambridge Dictionary). illustrates the value these features deliver.
The book overview content is now organized and presented in a more digestible and approachable manner. Keywords allow for scannability.
The focus of the dashboard was to foster conversation and community, and to provide a centralized location for all reading-related activities.
Readers are presented with the most up-to-date titles, as well as curated events and resources relevant to the books they are currently reading. This supports guests beyond just the reading experience and prompts further exploration and discovery.
Readers can now create and join groups directly through The MIT Press Direct, similar to collaborative functions on Google Drive or Slack. Teams can read Open Access titles together and start discussions through their shared annotations and comments.
The focus of the in-broswer eReader was to provide an accessible and streamlined interface to read, reflect, and stay engaged with communities.
Although I was involved in all aspects of the project, I was primarily responsible for curating and executing this eReader experience. I designed and prototyped the interface, supported by research that I conducted both individually and with my team. I also wrote 90% of the UI and UX copy.
The collapsible menu stores all annotations and comments made by readers and their teammates.
Throughout the experience, readers are presented with guiding questions curated by the publisher(s) and the author(s). These questions are intended to help unpack the complexity of the content being read and encourage personal reflection, as well as challenge the reader’s ways of thinking.
Readers can choose to share quotes from the book directly from the eReader to social media platforms. A custom MIT-branded image is generated and appears consistent across all social media platforms.
We found that many readers—specifically industry professionals—are discovering, sharing, and discussing books on platforms such as Twitter and LinkedIn. However, it is currently only possible to share book overview pages from The MIT Press site.
The site refresh and new eReader interface encourages deeper exploration paths and extended engagement with The MIT Press Direct. They also create community and dialogue around The Press’ publications and content.
The proposed interventions also reduce cognitive overhead for those visiting the site as book details are approachable and conveniently digestible, with Open Access being featured. Readers are also supported when unpacking complex and new ideas.
“ The books did not always have the answers, but they always fostered a good conversation. Sometimes we applied the things we learned directly, sometimes we adjusted to our culture and other times what we read simply reinforced what we were already doing.
Dmitry Koltunov (Co-founder and the CTO of ALICe—a software development company, 2020)
Looking at how industry professionals currently engage with books can support that our intervention aligns with their goals of learning about new topics, discussing with colleagues, and applying what they learn into the workplace.
The Press publishes progressive topics for non-specialist readers.
There is a lack of awareness surrounding Open Access.
eBooks are efficient and convenient.
Industry professionals engage in discussions around books on platforms such as Slack and LinkedIn.
How might we support The MIT Press’ goals of creating dialogue around progressive and interdisciplinary topics?
How might we create an accessible and engaging book discovery experience for academic and non-academic readers?
Customer segment: avid readers—specifically industry professionals working in STEAM related fields who regularly read nonfiction books related to their industries.
A collaborative reading experience: A redesign and extension of The MIT Press Direct platform to create a community space for readers to engage in dialogue around The MIT Press publications.
Explore - Book Overview Page (Redesign): reduces cognitive overhead and features Open Access
Community + Dialogue - Member Dashboard (New Feature): fosters conversation and community, and provides a centralized location for all reading-related activities
Reading + Reflections - eReader Experience (New Feature): provides an accessible and streamlined interface to read, reflect, and stay engaged with communities
Going into this project, I intended to refine my visual design and prototyping skills. I took responsibility for these roles within the team and now feel more confident with my abilities.
Research, content strategy, and copywriting have always been some of my weaker skills. Throughout the project I worked with my teammates who are stronger in these areas to learn from them and actively improve on my own skills.
A major goal within our team was to focus on a healthy work-life balance and to create an honest environment. We also intended for this project to be a space for learning and growing.
At the end of each week, we did reflections and check-ins as a team. This prompted open conversations and held each of us accountable for our personal goals.
The MIT Press is quite a large client with an extensive network of platforms. This made it difficult for us to define an opportunity and problem space, however through our research we were able to identify a user group of interest (industry professionals) which informed our frame.
Another major challenge was working completely remotely. To combat this, we utilized tools such as Notion, Zoom, Discord, and Google Drive for time and file management.
If we had more time to execute the project, we would conduct more user testing to optimize the UI and understand if/how our intervention improves upon the current experience. We would also like to polish the UI and UX copywriting.