Reader behaviour research

(User Research)

  • To uncover the nuanced behaviors, motivations, and preferences that shape the modern digital reading experience, identifying key trends and habits that will inform a truly intuitive and user-centered app design.

    "Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves." Steve Jobs

    • Motivation: What are the primary goals and motivations driving users to read digitally?

    • Discovery: How do users currently discover new books or content, and what factors are most influential in their decisions?

    • Contextual Habits: How do reading behaviors and session patterns differ when reading for leisure versus for academic or professional purposes?

    • Interaction: What are the most common in-app behaviors beyond simply turning pages

    • Essential Tools: Which features are considered essential, and in what context are they used most?

    • Pain Points & Gaps: What are the most significant frustrations users experience with current reading apps, and what unmet needs or desired functionalities are missing?

    • User Expectations: Do users of open-source software have different expectations regarding customization, data privacy, community involvement, or transparency in a library app?

  • Focusing On:

    • Behaviors of adult digital readers on mobile/tablet apps.

    • The user journey from book discovery to library organization.

    • Interaction with core tools (highlighting, notes, search).

    • User motivations for reading free, public domain content.

    Excluding:

    • Physical book habits.

    • The modern publishing industry.

    • Backend administration.

    • Technical implementation.

    1. How would you describe your current digital reading habits? For example, what device do you usually use, and what does a typical reading session look like for you, how long etc.

    2. What motivates you to choose digital reading over physical books?

    3. Walk me through how you discovered and decided on the last book you read digitally.

    4. Can you describe a specific time when an interactive reading feature was genuinely helpful to you? For example, highlighting, note-taking, or dictionary search.

    5. Is there any specific type of literature (i.e, classic, non-fiction, poetry) that you struggle with reading digitally, and if so, why?

    6. How does your reading approach differ when you're reading for leisure versus professional purposes?

    7. What has been your most frustrating experience with a reading app?

    8. Beyond displaying text, what would make reading a book digitally more valuable or engaging for you?

    9. Describe your ideal digital reading experience from start to finish.

    10. Are there any points or thoughts you would like to add?

personas and archotypes

These are the most critical, actionable insights that should serve as guiding principles for the project.

  1. Design for Two Modes: "Study" and "Focus." The most prominent finding is the split between active and immersive reading. The app's core design should reflect this. Consider a "Study Mode" where tools like highlighting and note-taking are front and center, and a "Focus Mode" where the UI melts away, providing a clean, distraction-free reading pane for leisure.

  2. Master the Fundamentals First. Before adding innovative features, the app must excel at the basics. This means:

    • Rock-solid reliability: Notes and reading position must sync perfectly.

    • Flawless typography: The reading experience must be beautiful and comfortable out of the box.

    • Intuitive organization: Users must be able to easily manage their library.

  3. Lean into the "Classic Literature" Niche. This is the app's unique value proposition. Instead of just providing the text, the app should be the best possible experience for reading classics. This means directly addressing user-mentioned pain points and opportunities:

    • Solve poetry formatting issues, a key frustration for academic users.

    • Provide contextual helpers like character bios, historical notes, or glossaries for archaic language—a desire expressed by multiple user groups.

    • Showcase the book's history with original cover art or manuscript scans to appeal to aesthetically-focused readers.

  4. Prioritize Customization and Control. Users want to make the experience their own. Research showed a desire to create custom shelves for organization, integrate with external productivity tools, and—most universally—control the text's appearance. Giving users robust control will be a key differentiator.

Strong takeaways for the design process

At the core of every successful library app lies a genuine understanding of its users. For this open-source library, the first step is to explore the world of today’s readers and how they discover, access, and engage with content. The aim of this research is to move beyond assumptions and uncover real behaviors, needs, and motivations, creating a foundation for an intuitive and compelling user experience.

analysis and trends

Analysis of the user interviews revealed that a "one-size-fits-all" approach to a digital reading app is destined to fail. While all participants read digitally, their core motivations and behaviors diverge into distinct patterns.

Each group approaches reading with a different goal in mind, from active, goal-oriented knowledge extraction to comfortable, immersive escapism. Understanding the unique needs, frustrations, and desires of these groups is the foundational step in designing an app that is not just functional but truly purposeful and user-centered.

When analysing the data collected, three main characteristic groups stood out. The interviewees can be organized into two main characteristic groups, with one slightly more niche group. The three groups are the following:

Primary User Groups


1. The Active Learner / Power User

  • Core Motivation: To extract knowledge, analyse text, and improve themselves. Reading is an active, goal-oriented process.

  • Defining Quote: "I read to extract information... I can then review my key takeaways from a book in five minutes."

2. The Immersive Reader / Escapist

  • Core Motivation: To relax, escape, and be entertained. The technology should become invisible and facilitate a comfortable, seamless dive into the story.

  • Defining Quote: "My goal is to tune out the world and relax, so my approach is always the same: find a comfortable font size and just read."

3. The Aesthetic Reader / The Purist

  • Core Motivation: To appreciate literature as an art form. The quality of the presentation (typography, layout) is as important as the text itself.

  • Defining Quote: "Reading on a screen with ugly, poorly-set type feels like trying to listen to beautiful music through a crackly speaker."

Key Characteristics of User Groups

1. The Active Learner / Power User

This group reads to extract knowledge and uses the app as a productivity tool.

  • Priorities: Efficiency, analysis, and information retention.

  • Essential Features: Highlighting, note-taking, search, and exporting annotations.

  • Biggest Frustration: Unreliable tools, such as losing notes or clunky interfaces.

  • Wants: Better integration with other productivity apps and in-app contextual information.

2. The Immersive Reader / Escapist

This group reads for relaxation and entertainment, wanting the technology to disappear.

  • Priorities: Comfort, convenience, and an uninterrupted experience.

  • Essential Features: Adjustable fonts and lighting, simple bookmarks, and a built-in dictionary.

  • Biggest Frustration: Interruptions like ads, complex menus, or a disorganized library.

  • Wants: Seamlessness and subtle enhancements like reading timers or stats.

3. The Aesthetic Reader / The Purist

This group appreciates literature as an art form and demands a high-quality presentation.

  • Priorities: Beauty, typographic excellence, and a design that honors the book.

  • Essential Features: High-quality fonts, layout controls, and an elegant interface.

  • Biggest Frustration: Poor craftsmanship, especially bad typography and cluttered design.

  • Wants: An experience that celebrates the art of the book, with features like original cover art.