Book Breaks App

Harlequin, the romance-focused division of HarperCollins, is a household name in publishing. Founded in 1949, they've been a leader in traditional publishing for over 70 years, with over 6.8 million books sold. But as the popularity of the internet exploded in the early 2000s, Harlequin recognized the need to become a leader in digital adoption.

They realized that although readers didn't want to carry thick paper books everywhere, most kept a phone in their pocket. So in 2015, they came to Iversoft with an idea.

HarperCollins wanted an app to introduce more people to their authors and get them excited about romance stories. We developed Book Breaks, an iOS and Android app that gives romance lovers access to hundreds of free serialized stories.

Knowing how much HarperCollins values delivering entertaining and unforgettable experiences, we focused our design around reader convenience. Users can search for new content by how much time they have to read, the author, or their current mood.

Because the app's content needs to be refreshed regularly, we had to make it easy for HarperCollins' marketing team to manage content. We designed a custom CMS that would allow anyone on the team to select which stories to feature in just a few minutes.

The launch was a success! But after years of bringing joy to a growing base of dedicated readers, Harlequin knew they needed to update their app. In 2019, they went back to Iversoft.

We leveraged Apple's Auto Layout update to better optimize the user interface for a variety of screen sizes. We also made changes to reflect new UX best practices, including moving the navigation bar, clarifying wording, and redesigning search results.

To increase engagement, we automated random selections of featured content to refresh every 2-3 days, and automated push notifications. For monetization, we created a feature that suggests similar eBooks when a reader finishes their story.