LitAfrique!

Visual Designer

UX Designer

Figma

Miro

Zeplin

Problem Overview

For English undergraduates, there’s barely enough time to read all recommended books or texts for their courses, which is why summaries are their best friend. Summaries usually improve timing and allow them to cover more books.

With African literature, however, summaries are pretty scarce, and students would have to study in groups or under study for their exams.

This is where LitAfrique! comes in. The app aims to help English undergrads find summaries of African literature easily.

Discovery & Analysis

Research on this project began with understanding our core user: university undergraduates who are taking English courses.

While this project extends to secondary users like high school Art students, teachers, and lecturers, English undergrads are the most affected based on the volume of books they have to study.

Research Method

To understand the needs of our core users, I recruited and set up a 30 - 45 minute interview with 5 English undergrads taking African literature courses.

I looked at students' behavior when it comes to finding summaries of African literature books, what platforms they use, what challenges they encounter and their needs.

Research Questions

[Needs]

What is necessary for English undergraduates to use a summary app for African literature?

What are the users' current pain points?

Why are they looking for summaries of African literature?

[Behaviours]

How do users find summaries of African literature?

Do users really need another summary app product?

What platforms do users prefer to read African literature summaries on?

NOTE: You can find the full research plan document here

Key Findings #1

80% of the participants couldn't easily find summaries of modern/contemporary African literature.

I found many classical popular African literature like Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. But the newer African books were a lot more difficult to find - Participant 1.

The significant user needs found within this study are:

Most English undergrads rely on digital tools to find summaries of African literature.

80% of the participants want to be able to access African literature easily.

Some of the platforms I like have a paywall that I cannot access - Participant 3

I don’t like that it’s a website. I’d prefer for it to be offline, something I can download - Participant 5.

Key Findings #2

The significant user behaviours found within this study are:

Screenshot of Participant 2’s search process.

80% of participants are required to read and study an average of 23 books per course.

At least half of the participants rely on Google as their first point of contact when searching for African literature summaries.

50% of the participants place more relevance on summaries written by African writers.

70% of the participants shuffle between different digital platforms to find relevant sections.

80% of the participants rely on group tutorials and shared readings to get African literature summaries.

Digital Tools

Users use platforms like LitCharts and SparkNotes to access summaries of late colonial and early post-colonial era African literature.

I used LitCharts, SuperSummary to find summaries of African literature of the late colonial and post-colonial era. - Participant 2

Many times, a payment prompt is already obvious.

Sometimes when we're reading summaries, they would ask us to pay to see more of the analysis - Participant 1

Many English students studying in Africa are unable to get past the paywall due to a lack of funds.

Some of the platforms I like have a paywall that I cannot access. - Participant 3

Data Collection & Analysis

Design: Concepts & Sketching

Based on the findings, I narrowed down the following recommendations for the app:

The summary app (LitAfrique!) should prioritize summarizing modern African literature books.

The app should have a download feature that lets users read African literature summaries offline.

The app should have an obvious and powerful search feature. The app should group content according to different categories.

The app should provide different payment options so it can be easily accessible to English undergraduates.

The app should support English undergrads in studying for their exams.

Interview Notes

Themes and Opportunities

Feature Ideation

Feature Prioritization

Paper Sketch (Iteration 1)

Digital Prototype (Iteration 1)

Usability Study

Digital Prototype (Iteration 2)

Develop Prototyping

In building a solution for African literature summaries, I developed a high-fidelity prototype that was tested among our target audience - university undergrads.

Find prototype here