Threadable Books

More than a reading tracker.

Threadable set out to be a social space where readers share insight, discover books, and connect with a community that gets them. The product worked, but the value was not landing. New users were not finding a reason to stay, engagement was inconsistent, and the brand looked different in every place a reader encountered it.

I joined as Lead Product Designer, owning UX and UI, user research, and a design system that had to serve both the product and the brand. The goal was simple to say and hard to do: help a new reader feel the point of Threadable in the first few minutes, then keep them.

Where the product was losing people.

I ran a UX audit, mapped the existing flows, and interviewed readers, influencers, and casual users to understand what actually motivated them. I paired that with usage data to find exactly where people dropped off after signup.

• Onboarding was front-loaded. Too many steps stood between signup and any real value.
• The cold start problem. With few connections, the social product felt empty, so new readers left before it could fill in.
• Inconsistent brand. Mismatched visuals across app and marketing eroded trust and made navigation confusing.
• People wanted conversation, not scores. The demand was for genuine discussion, not another star rating.

Three readers to design for

I synthesized 15+ interviews into three archetypes that guided every prioritization call after.

• The Curator loves visual storytelling: aesthetics, quotes, shelves worth sharing.
• The Critic wants depth: detailed reviews and nuanced discussion.
• The Community Builder thrives on interaction and brings other people along.

One question to design against.

How might we help new readers feel the value of Threadable quickly, inside a cohesive system that can scale as the product grows?

That framed three goals: cut friction in onboarding, surface community early so the product never feels empty, and unify the brand and UI into one system the team could build on.

A system, not a set of screens

I built a modular design system in Figma: tokens, components, and usage guidelines, plus a brand identity covering logo, color, type, and voice. Every component shipped with rationale, so the team could execute consistently as it grew. I treated the system as documentation, not decoration.

Solving the empty room.

The core challenge was creating social value before network density. I tested wireframes and prototypes with readers and iterated on what the data showed.

• Onboarding dropped from many steps to three, focused on interest selection and immediate content.
• Feeds blended curated community activity with friend activity, so a new reader saw a living conversation instead of a blank slate.
• Algorithmic curation surfaced relevant discussions and readers by book preference, not just the social graph.
• Iterations from testing: simplified optional profile fields, added feed filters so people could ease in, and tuned color and type for legibility.

Readers with fewer than five connections still showed 34% higher retention when exposed to community content. The point was to deliver social value immediately, not only at scale.

What shipped, and what it moved.

The relaunch combined a streamlined onboarding flow that shows relevant content right away, a hybrid social feed with ambient social proof, and a scalable design system with consistent type, color, and components. We measured everything through feature-flagged releases and cohort analysis, tracking micro-conversions like first book add, profile completion, and first social interaction.

Before and after

What I would carry forward.

This project reinforced two things. Social experiences have to be validated with users who do not yet have a network, because that is the moment most products lose them. And a design system pays off fastest when it goes in early, before inconsistency becomes debt. It also kept me honest about balancing stakeholder requests against what testing actually showed.