Fable is an early-stage startup focused on helping people build a reading habit by making reading more fun and social. We lower the barriers to creating and managing book clubs.
Process overview
Zero-to-one
As Fable's first Designer (employee #6) my job was to advocate for the best design outcomes for app, website, brand and marketing and execute. Defining goals and principles with stakeholders upfront was esstential to insure alignment and that we were respectful of resources.
The design processes extremely fast and was highly iterative driven by user signals and resourcing availability.
Role & team
Lead Designer with contract illustrator, 5 SWEs, PM and CEO. Post-launch: we added 3 Designers.
Timeline
This work spans 16 months from initial idea to launching in the App Store and Google Play. Includes UXR with GenZ readers.
Skills
User research, concept developement, brand design, UX design, visual design, prototyping, negoation, stakeholder management.
Fable app – 2021
Onboarding – Goals and mood check-in
Onboarding – Goals and mood check-in
Guest curator book collection
Discussion Prompts
While reading books on Fable, users are prompted with a thoughtful question and option to discuss with other book club members from inside the book.
Fable Reading Tree – tracks progess towards reading goals and acheivements
Profile view
Book Detail
Viewing a book detail is one of the most important screens for user enagement and sales – so we wanted to give it the design love it deserves. We used color extaction theming for background and CTA and text borrowed from Material Design dynamic color tool to give give it depth and make it feel vividly seductive.
Results & lessons learned
Fable launched in the App Store and Google Play in late 2020. Since then, it's been embraced by book lovers around the globe. The success of the app helped Fable get Series A funding ($20M) and has become especially popular with BookTok influencers.
Lessons:
1. I literally can't do everything. I should have asked for help, delegate or ruthlessly prioritized for my mental wellbeing.
2. Focus on relationships: productive collaboration is more important that being right.
3. It's helpful to make sure the team understands UX research saves time and money in the long run: Interation in design vs code is cheaper than engineering and re-engineering.
#50
Top 50 Books app (2021)
5k
Book Clubs created (2021)
$20M
Series A funding (2021)