Copper Books: Web Experience

Established an early-stage startup’s web responsive product to engage new members and drive lead generation growth towards early access waitlist ahead of launch.

Copper Books’ website and download the iOS app → to learn more.

Overview

Over the course of intermittent sprints of a year-long timeline, I led designs for our team to deploy 3 main web destinations and 4 customer support destinations. I developed initial designs for a web app experience, and collaborated directly with devs to implement a seamless user experience for an internal admin panel. Additionally, I worked closely with Copper’s CEO and board members, to shape, craft, and deliver speculative designs for the Author Dashboard.

Problem

Copper Books had been rocking the same look & feel for the last 2 years. It served well up to this point, yet the company was struggling to stand out among competitors. We’re flattered to see many newcomers in the book and reading space, but it was time to differentiate in the market. How far do we push these changes on the website, and suite of products?

Goals

User Goals

• I want to know that Copper cares as much about the overall experience as they do about the books.

• I don’t want to second-guess Copper’s message and value. Browsing the website should feel connected to Copper’s advertising and iOS app.

Business Goals

• Apply Copper’s new look & feel to the website to create a fresh and relevant lead generation experience to drive early access signups.

• Align the website with marketing efforts to build brand consistency and affinity.

• Create a components library that we can build upon and reuse for years to come.

• Expand Copper’s products beyond marketing to internal and external web apps.

Solution: A resilient brand across a product ecosystem.

First, a brand playbook and component library to rule them all, learn more here.

Marketing Web

It was important to establish the main web destination with enough information to evoke reputability and differentiation from the market.

I lead 3 main mobile-first designs for the home page, an about section, and one page to speak to authors whilst highlighting product features; including 4 customer support pages like FAQs, Community Guidelines, Terms of Service, and Privacy Policy. 

I worked with the engineering team to establish a responsive grid, type styles, components, and modules (component groups) to make sure our website worked beautifully on all screens, mobile-first.

Landing website at a glance.

Internal Tool

Connecting the API and backend development with the mobile iOS app, Copper developed an internal tool called Admin Panel to enable our core team’s operational velocity, and customer experience, and to support the iOS app. 

I worked closely with one front-end and one back-end engineer to implement a seamless user experience, using Tailwind UI components. As more customers were onboarded into the platform, and thousands of books were ingested, it was important to design a minimal yet intuitive experience that would serve as a one-stop dashboard to help with onboarding, account creation, author verification, and event organization, discussion moderation, and user status. 

Web Dashboard

Last, but not least the author dashboard became an important product to establish and close the loop for a two-sided marketplace, and in doing so transform the way authors & publishers reach readers.

I worked closely with Copper’s CEO, board members, and author strategists, to shape and craft a minimum viable dashboard pitch that included features like Profile Management, Book Launch Timeline, Community Management, Live & Ticket Management, and Insights & Metrics.

Results

• As a growing pre-seed startup, Copper captured approximately 6,500+ early-access users that have signup up via lead generation form; including thousands of testimonials for the need and desire for a digital product to cater to these underserved consumer groups.

• Early engagement with two dozen beta authors for user testing, and persona building. A total of 14% of early-access users (685 individuals) responded to a 24+ question reading survey to improve upon the product features, roadmap, and user experience over 75 days.

• As of March and April 2022, Copper transitioned from beta-mode on Testflight to the App Store via invite-only codes first, and a public launch on May 5, 2022. 

• For the first month (30-days) of launching, Copper Books received a total of  2.1K direct app downloads, 2.5K product detail page impressions, and 8K app store overall searches.

• To date, Copper counts with 38+ 5-star reviews app store ratings, two dozen positive user reviews, and over 150+ testimonials of onboarded members indicating favorite features and responding to evolving needs, improvements, and additional features. 

• What’s next? Copper is actively working towards a targeted goal of 1,000 Monthly Active Users (MAUs). Fast follows to be implemented include ‘social sharing’, a ‘feed’, a more robust ‘notifications center and preferences’, ‘global search’, and other meaningful features to improve the way authors reach and deepen their relationships with readers.