Project Overview
BOOK LIST is an app designed to help parents easily discover curated book lists suited to their child’s reading level and track progress with joy and confidence. It blends educational utility with emotional motivation, supporting parents as they build strong reading habits for their children — one book at a time.
The Challenge
Parents want to nurture their child’s reading journey but often face:
- Overwhelm from too many book choices
- Lack of clear visibility into progress
- Difficulty keeping reading fun, not forced
Our goal: Build a simple, rewarding experience for parents to find the right books and track reading progress without friction.
Discovery & Insight
Using the Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework, we uncovered the parent’s core motivation:
When I’m helping my child develop strong reading habits, I want to discover curated books suited to their reading level and interests, So that I can track their progress and ensure they’re reading the right material.
This became the foundation of our product strategy:
- Functional Job: Find and organize books effectively.
- Emotional Job: Feel confident and proud in guiding literacy growth.
- Social Job: Be seen as an engaged, supportive parent.
Product Strategy & Experience Pillars
To address these needs, we anchored the design around four core pillars:
1. Guided Onboarding for Parents
- Curated discovery
- Progress tracking
- Rating and milestones
2. Curated Discovery by Grade, Mood & Genre
- Grade level (e.g., K–3, 4–6)
- Mood or theme (Adventure, Funny, Mystery)
- Learning goal (Imagination, Problem Solving)
3. Intuitive Progress Tracking
- To Read
- Reading
- Done
4. Motivation Through Ratings & Achievements
- Completion percentage
- Ratings breakdown
- Most-read genre
- Lists completed
Design Process: From Ideas to Implementation
- Visual representation of progress
- Segmented tabs for To Read / Reading / Done
- Achievements tied to milestones
- Customizable reading reports
This guided the MVP roadmap — balancing delight with core value delivery.
Outcome
- Simple: Minimal steps from discovery to tracking
- Encouraging: Language and visuals celebrate progress
- Empowering: Parents feel in control
“It feels like I’m finally part of my child’s learning — not just monitoring it.”
Next Steps
- 📚 Custom Book Lists
- 💬 Share and discover lists
- 🏆 Sign in and multiple profile support
- 📈 Teacher recommended lists and tracking
Key Takeaway
BOOK LIST is more than a reading tracker — it’s a confidence builder for parents. It transforms the reading journey into something shared, structured, and motivating.