Strive Publishing
Redesign & Content Strategy
My Role:
UX Designer and Researcher
My team:
Sarah Monson, Luke Rivard, & Pana Vue
Methods:
Secondary research, competitive analysis, directed storytelling interviewing, survey, concept evaluations, and usability testing.
Tools:
Figma, InVision, Sketch, Keynote.
Overview
Strive Publishing is an independent book publishing company founded by Mary Taris: a lifelong lover of books and an educator for 16 years; she saw firsthand the lack of culturally relevant resources for her students.
Mary initially created Strive Publishing to solve two critical problems:
The need for more culturally relevant children’s books
The underrepresentation of Black authors in children’s book publishing
Mary is interested in shifting her current website to a community engagement platform that will serve both emerging authors and storytellers from within the larger black community--not just African Americans but anyone who identifies as Black, inclusive of the African diaspora.
The Problem
Mary has an abundance of ideas and is looking to create a holistic yet inclusive strategy to provide resources and provide publishing pathways for emerging Black authors, illustrators, editors, book designers, and storytellers. Overall, Mary wishes to reduce the amount of friction between engaging with the Black community, getting stories published, and facilitating pathways for sustainable revenue.
Primary Users
Current and potential authors looking to publish their stories in book form
Educators looking for books and resources that are more representational of their students’ life experiences
Black community members looking for ways in which to share and spread their stories and stories of the Black community in other formats: video, online, etc.
Secondary Users
Parents looking for books and resources that are more representational of their children’s/students’ life experiences
Black community allies looking for ways to lift up and spread stories from within the Black community
Strive Team Members - Internal team
The Solution
The proposed solution is a web interface and design strategy that will communicate Strive’s refocused mission and increase community engagement. The proposed web interface and design strategy will seek to increase opportunities for community involvement in ways that are discovered to be most meaningful. Mary will be provided with actionable steps for moving Strive towards a more sustainable business model, keeping immediate constraints (time, energy, and resources) in mind.
Client Kickoff Meeting
We first met with our client to gain insight into the following:
Client’s short-term engagement goals
Long-term organizational goals
Project area of influence/focus
The Research
After our meeting, we gathered our insights together as a team and began our research. We started with secondary research, and conducted a competitive analysis to see what other similar companies were doing with their website structure.
Competitive Analysis
Secondary Research
We sent out a survey where we wanted to:
Gain deeper insights into the barriers that exist and what is most helpful within the black community for sharing their stories
Identify which formats would be most helpful in facilitating story sharing within the Black community
Gain insights into existing strategies for accessing stories and identify opportunity areas for allies and supporters who want to support Strive’s mission.
“In my opinion, one of the biggest hurdles for many non-Black people is becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable. Anything that can help make that not feel so scary benefits everyone.”
The participants
From the survey responses and interviews, we learned that the primary barriers are feelings of vulnerability and fear of how these stories will be received. Survey respondents also noted that limited resources and a lack of guidance for preparing a manuscript presented significant obstacles for publishing stories.
I moderated remote, directed storytelling interviews with authors, educators, and members of the black community.
Key Findings
Educators
Significant gap between initiatives to promote reading and literacy and a lack of culturally appropriate reading material for children; also not teaching kids the skills of how to comprehend what they’re reading
Educators often refer to their local libraries, as well as YouTube and Google, to find supplemental books and resources
Authors
One participant suggested creating a community poem book for Strive
Could be annual or every two years
Strive would publish the book, recuperate publishing costs from sales and then donate the remaining proceeds to a community organization (enacts the community publishing mission)
Some participants indicated a need for editors and an understanding of what it is they do.
All participants expressed a need for affordable publishing options.
Most participants indicated, in their journeys as authors, a moment where they had to overcome a sense of uncertainty or feeling of fear regarding if their story was worth turning into a book or not.
One participant indicated how important in-person networking is to building relationships. between the local African American and African communities in the Twin Cities area.
Synthesized findings of research
“If we can tell our stories and get credit for them, the story will be told right.”
The Redesign
After our team conducted a content inventory design of Strive’s current website, we re-evaluated how the user flows might go based on our research and keeping the users in mind.
Multi-touchpoint Strategy Map created by Pana Vue
Information Architecture Diagram created by Pana Vue
Implementation Plan for Strive Publishing
Click below to explore our interactive prototype created in Figma!
Conclusions
When we first started our research we sought answers to what is meaningful to users and discovering what current barriers exist in publishing a book and sharing stories within the local community. Our proposed redesign conveys Mary’s mission that educates and informs the community at large about the process of publishing, actionable steps that can be taken to share one’s narrative, and demonstrates to the BIPOC community that it is achievable to become a published author all while building up the community.
Check out Strive Community Publishing to see the great things they’re doing.