How can "home" be found within bookstores?

Role

Product

Goal

Independent Freelance

Yu & Me books @ Manhattan Chinatown

Build a community with bookstores

Yu & Read.

A Home in Books

A Home in Books

Inspired by Yu & Me Books.

Did you know?

Did you know?

In a random sample, only 5% of books in a typical bookstore are written by POC.

According to a study by the NYT, 2020

Well…

Well…

Yu & Me Books

FLIPS

that metric.

Yu & Me Books is a bookstore located in the heart of NYC-Chinatown that "serves books, beer, coffee, and community.

Yu and Me Books focuses on the strong, diverse voices of our community, with a focus on immigrant stories."

Yu & Read is an app inspired by Yu & Me Books

Find belonging in

Books

After the pandemic, there was a rise in independent, POC-owned bookstores, according to the Washington Post.

Yu & Read gives you a curated experience, letting you stay up to date with events in independent POC-owned bookstores, like Yu & Me Books.

Keep up with your community

Recommend books to friends

Find reads

Add reads to your Bookshelf

It's the sense of

home, comfort & belonging

that we aim to foster.

Support—and be supported by—your local bookstores

Find local bookstores & events based on your location

See which of your local bookstores carry your book

Process

I started this project because my friends & I got sick of using Goodreads.

FIRST ITERATION

Leaning into communities

Shifting focus from rating books to finding local events and bookstores.

SECOND ITERATION

Intentional socials

Even though social interaction is a key part of the app, we don't want it to be social media.

THIRD ITERATION

Books as a medium

Finding ways to make visual design distinctive for books.

FINAL ITERATION

Making it more Yu & Me

Taking inspiration from Yu & Me Book's website and merch to inform branding.

FOLLOW UP & REFLECTION

Designing for Small Businesses

At the start of the design process, I decided that Yu & Read should be able to stand alone as a product, rather than soley supporting Yu & Me Books. Through this, I realized that most local businesses' main source of profit aren't digital products, yet creating digital access to these businesses might be valuable for customers.


In the future, when I'm moved to NYC, I'd like to get real feedback from Yu & Me Books!


Helen Peng - Designer