Low brand awareness of Housing Works and a fragmented, confusing donation process.
Lack of emotional connection between the organization and potential donors.
Timeline
5 Months
UX Research
UI/UX Design
Digital Strategy
Prototyping & Interaction Design
Discipline
Research
Synthesis
Ideation
Strategy
Material Testing
Reflection
Responsibilities
Research
Collaboration
Design
Prototyping
Tools
Process Highlight
Challenge
Leverage a multi-disciplinary strategy to transform the donation process into a seamless, story-driven experience.
Enhance community engagement and brand visibility through integrated physical-digital touchpoints.
Opportunities
Growth Strategist - Housing Works Bookstore
Housing Works is a non-profit organization committed to community empowerment, social change, and sustainability. Operating a bookstore, cafe, and thrift store, it creates inclusive spaces where literature, art, and social impact converge. This project focuses exclusively on the bookstore, leveraging its rich heritage to engage donors and build community connections.
About the Company
Housing Works Bookstore Café operates across three domains—bookstore, café, and thrift store. This project focuses on revitalizing the bookstore’s engagement strategy, increasing foot traffic, and strengthening its community impact.
Background
Project Brief
Understanding HousingWorks Bookstore Business Ecosystem
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe sells 100% donated books to support its mission.
The bookstore lacks clear engagement strategies, leading to underutilized opportunities for donor and customer participation. This project seeks to create a seamless, engaging, and user-centered experience that spotlights the bookstore’s unique role in the non-profit ecosystem.
Opportunity Statement
Donation Drop-Off
Book Screening
Cataloging & Pricing
In-Store Shelving & Organization
Ready to Buy
Conducted five in-depth interviews with diverse stakeholders—potential donors, bookstore patrons, and community members—to understand their motivations, pain points, and opportunities for enhancing engagement with Housing Works Bookstore.
Research
User Interviews
User
Motivations
Pain Points
Insights & Opportunities
Maya – The Tech-Savvy Donor
Values a seamless digital experience that connects physical donations to an online system.
Finds the donation process confusing and lacks digital integration.
A QR code system linking donations to an interactive digital narrative would improve engagement.
John – The Regular Patron
Loves the bookstore’s ambiance and mission but is unaware of donation opportunities.
Feels donation guidelines are unclear and lacks emotional connection to the cause.
Step-by-step instructions with storytelling elements could encourage participation.
Sarah – The Community Member
Appreciates the bookstore’s cultural value and sees it as a hidden gem.
Lacks awareness of where and how to donate; finds the process fragmented.
A more streamlined and transparent process, both online and offline, would increase engagement.
Alex – The Engaged Donor
Passionate about social causes and prefers interactive, engaging experiences.
Feels the current system lacks interactivity and engagement.
Adding gamification or digital tracking features could make the experience more compelling.
Analyzed similar non-profit and independent bookstore donation processes. This analysis helped identify industry best practices and gaps, ensuring the solution would be both innovative and user-friendly.
Research
Competitor Analysis
Kinokuniya
What is working
integrates cultural elements
High prices
Language Barrier
limited seating reduce the in-store browsing experience.
unique merchandise
a niche audience appeal
What is not working
Barnes & Noble
What is working
in-store events
High prices
Language Barrier
Corporate Atmosphere
Knowledgeable Staff
Wide Selection
What is not working
Books of Wonder
What is working
rare book collections
High prices
Service Consistency
Event Participation Requirements
Inviting Atmosphere
personalized service
What is not working
Ethnographic research involved direct observation of customer behavior, bookstore layout, and user interactions to uncover engagement challenges and opportunities. The goal was to understand the real-world experiences of visitors and how they interact with the space.
Ethnographic Research - Housing Works
Operational Constraints
Customer Experience
Community Engagement
Charitable Mission Impact
Event-Based Traffic
Cozy Café & Artistic Vibes
Supportive Staff
Inconsistent Stock
Limited Seating & Space
Accessibility Issues
Limited Non-Book Merchandise
Noisy Environment
Research
Creating a user persona helps me better understand the target audience, guiding design, marketing, and business decisions. It ensures a customer-centric approach, enhancing trust, engagement, and sales while addressing key pain points in the online shopping experience.
Research
User Persona
Maya P -
The Story-Seeking Tech Enthusiast
Age: 26 | Location: New Jersey, NJ | Occupation: Software Engineer | Income: $100,000/year
Lifestyle: Tech-savvy professional who enjoys immersing herself in stories through reading
Goals:
Achieve financial stability while staying connected to meaningful causes.
Make a positive impact by supporting sustainable and community-driven initiatives.
Gain recognition for her contributions to the tech and local communities.
Seek fulfillment by blending her love for technology with her passion for storytelling.
Pain Points & Frustrations:
Concern about losing touch with storytelling due to the digitalization of reading habits.
Difficulty finding consistent updates and curated experiences in second-hand bookstores.
Frustration with a lack of personalized engagement that resonates with her interests.
To create a seamless bookstore and donation experience for Housing Works Bookstore that enhances user engagement, communicates mission impact, and ensures convenience in navigation and purchase processes.
This includes:
Ideation
Developing a Solution
Enhancing User Engagement
Promoting Sustainability
Effective Communication of Value
Optimizing Convenience & Usability
Narrative-Driven Experiences
To address Housing Works Bookstore’s engagement challenges, the ideation phase explored innovative ideas that enhance user interaction, donation transparency, and personalized storytelling.
Key brainstorming outcomes included:
Ideation & Concept Development
Brainstorming Solutions
Engagement challenges
Donor-to-Donor Connection
Introduce a feature where donors can include personal messages, stories, or reflections with their donated books. These messages would be passed along to future buyers, creating a story-driven connection between donors and readers.
Create an online and in-store display where donor stories and recipient experiences are highlighted, fostering a sense of community and continuity.
Incorporate physical and digital spaces where donors and readers can leave reviews, share thoughts, and engage with each other’s experiences.
Allow donors and buyers to track the journey of a book, documenting its impact through personal stories from previous owners.
Develop an interactive system that shows donors how their contributions support the Housing Works mission, making the impact of each donation visible.
Personalized Book Journeys
Impact Visualization
(Digital) Story Wall
Community Message Boards
Tested the concept with peers and an active residential book club, where participants donated 32 books with personal reviews/stories. This validated audience interest and concept feasibility.
Prototyping
Concept Testing
What is the idea?
Collected
30+
Books
Presented idea in Book Club
Proud to announce that Beacon Book Club is actively implementing this idea in their residence and supporting an organization through their thoughtful book collection initiative.
The idea lets donors give books with a personal note, creating a connection with future readers. It helps build community and shows the impact of each donation.
Create initial wireframes and user flows to visualize key touchpoints and test core ideas of the marketing strategy. These prototypes will focus on user engagement, storytelling, and donation experiences.
Final Campaign Strategy
Redesigned Donor Journey:
A donor selects a book to donate
writes a heartfelt message
attaches it to the donation
The Idea
Buyers don’t just purchase a book; they also receive a personal review from the previous owner.
Campaign Posters:
The next steps involve planning the campaign rollout on a city level with local events, partnerships, and targeted promotions to engage the community. We’ll execute a social media strategy that leverages city-specific content, influencer collaborations, and location-based hashtags to drive awareness and participation.
Launch Startegy
Next Steps
Launch Timing
Summer/Winter
Marketing Strategy
Targeted Campaigns
Content Marketing
Partnerships
Promotions
Logistics
Inventory Management
Packaging & Shipping
Donation Tracking
Execution
In-Store
Real-time Updates
Website
Social Media Strategy
Influencer Partnerships
Live Events
Hashtags
Engaging Content
