The adult literacy rate in Malaysia has been steadily growing-,Literacy%20rate%2C%20adult%20total%20(%25%20of%20people%20ages%2015%20and,compiled%20from%20officially%20recognized%20sources.) from the 1980s until now, peaking at 95% in 2017. Malaysians are reported as one of the top buyers of books yet not the most read. Our previous prime minister, Dr. Mahathir spoke about our reading culture affected by digitalisation:
“One of the challenges we face today in encouraging the reading culture is the digital influence on society. This digital influence is so huge that traditional reading sources such as newspapers and books are increasingly sidelined.”
At the same time, makeshift initiatives across the world have been actively engaging people to read in passive moments like during commuting hours, deploying mobile libraries and hidden books in goodwill and trust.
Problem: non-readers still read little 🤷♀️While these movements stir up curious individuals and casual readers alike, there are some gaps that prevent converting non-readers to active readers:
- It’s not about the distribution of books: putting books in front of you might make you pick one up, but it hardly incentivises you to read more.It’s about learning a skill with incentives: books themselves can intimidate new readers. Without starting small with clear goals & instructions ahead, no habit will last long, which means…It needs to be targeted for a select audience: we can’t help everyone read more all at once, but we can understand the needs of a particular group to discover how reading can actually grow them in an area of life.
Users: non-reading working professionals👨🏾💼With this context in mind, I figured that working professionals would be good starting audience to improvetheir reading habits due to their predictable commuting patterns and unoccupied time while commuting.The average working professional is either actively or passively preparing for their workday in the morning. This enables opportunities to maximise their commuting time by reading something helpful on-route to work.
Understanding what goes into their morning process, the notion switched from ‘how to help working professionals read more’ to _‘how to better prepare working professionals during their commute’ _— shifting empathy towards addressing their primary needs at work through the benefits of reading and ultimately forming the project outcome:
To help professionals better prepare their day at work by curating digestable content that is improves their work-life — while growing their reading habits.
#ux #user-experience #gamified #professionals
