Moleskine Smart System:
Innovative Social Features
& App Improvements
Role
Lead UI Designer, UX Contributor
Skills
User Research, Prototyping, UI Design
Result
Design Proposal with Mid-fidelity prototype
Team
Product Manager
3 UIUX Designer
Moleskine, renowned for its premium notebooks that embody creativity and sophistication, introduced the Smart System to merge traditional writing with digital convenience. This case study explores our approach to enhancing it with social sharing, collaboration, and seamless cross-platform integration.
Expanding the Moleskine Smart System
Moleskine’s Smart System combines the simplicity of handwriting with the convenience of digital, allowing users to capture, save, and organize their ideas seamlessly. Writing by hand has a unique cognitive benefit, activating 14 regions of the brain to boost focus, memory, and creativity. However, user awareness of Moleskine’s digital capabilities remains limited, and we want to change that.
Our mission was clear:
Introduce a social-sharing feature to the Smart Notebook, giving users a new way to connect and share their creations.
Enhance usability and functionality by exploring how Moleskine products are currently used and identifying areas for improvement.
To guide our design, we took a comprehensive research approach, leveraging:
Screener Surveys to understand our users’ diverse needs and User Interviews for deeper insights
Affinity Mapping
Competitive Analysis
Competitive Analysis and User Reviews to assess Moleskine’s position among similar products.
Through this research, one insight stood out: Moleskine users need a straightforward way to share their work, connecting the physical page to the digital world.
Persona
Our user research introduced us to two personas, each representing a unique aspect of Moleskine’s audience:
Hannah – The Creative Sharer
Hannah, a 25-year-old interior designer, begins her design process with hand-drawn sketches, refining her ideas digitally before sharing them on Instagram and her company’s portal. Sharing is essential to Hannah’s career
it’s how she builds connections and grows her reputation. Although she was drawn to Moleskine’s aesthetic, she didn’t know that the Smart Notebook could help her bridge her analog and digital workspaces seamlessly.
Emma – The Organized Academic
Emma, a 22-year-old psychology student, depends on flexible, well-organized notes to excel in her studies. Moving between physical and digital platforms is challenging, as she needs consistent access to her notes across devices. For Emma, syncing her notes digitally would be a game-changer, allowing her to focus on learning without worrying about compatibility or access.
Problem Statement
Our research revealed a clear, overarching challenge:
Moleskine users need an intuitive way to share their work from the page to their network.
This insight shaped our design approach, guiding us to prioritize social integration, enhanced organization, and collaboration tools. We focused on:
Leveraging Moleskine’s existing social presence.
Creating an intuitive filing system for better organization.
Building partnerships with popular content-editing tools like Canva.
How Might We
For User
How might we help Moleskine users to feel confident in organizing and sharing their work?
For Business
How might we increase the awareness of Moleskine’s innovative technology?
Solution Overview
Based on our insights, we designed key features that make sharing, organizing, and collaborating easier and more meaningful:
For many users, sharing rough sketches can feel intimidating. Our “Moleskine Mockup” feature lets users apply an artistic digital mockup to their sketches, showcasing them within beautiful Moleskine-styled backgrounds. This makes even rough drafts look polished, giving users the confidence to share their creative process.
User Flow Walkthrough
Let’s step into Hannah’s journey with the updated Moleskine app
On a sunny afternoon, Hannah finds herself inspired by the sunflowers in her garden. She grabs her Moleskine notebook and sketches them, capturing their vibrant essence. Later, she opens the app, accesses her "Idea Notebook," and with a few taps, uses the Mockup feature to transform her sketch into a polished digital piece.
Pleased with the result, she saved it to her project folder. Proud of her work, Hannah shares it on Instagram, using the Moleskine Tag to connect with other creatives. If she prefers, she can save the sketch within the app, ready to refine later.
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Site Map
On a sunny afternoon, Hannah finds herself inspired by the sunflowers in her garden. She grabs her Moleskine notebook and sketches them, capturing their vibrant essence. Later, she opens the app, accesses her "Idea Notebook," and with a few taps, uses the Mockup feature to transform her sketch into a polished digital piece.
Pleased with the result, she saved it to her project folder. Proud of her work, Hannah shares it on Instagram, using the Moleskine Tag to connect with other creatives. If she prefers, she can save the sketch within the app, ready to refine later.
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Sketches
Sketching was challenging as we worked to capture our ideas on paper and transfer them digitally—how we wished we’d had a Moleskine Smart Notebook at that time! Some features and functionalities were initially a bit hidden within the app, so we decided to bring them forward, placing them on the homepage or in the hamburger menu to make it easier for users to interact with the Moleskine App. We focused on wireframes for the new features, emphasizing a clean, user-friendly layout that stays true to Moleskine’s minimalist aesthetic.
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Design System
I’ll walk you through our Moleskine app’s design system. We stayed close to the existing branding, using primary colors like black, white, and grey for a clean look, with orange accents to highlight key areas. Helvetica Neue keeps typography clear and adaptable, while line-based icons are simple and intuitive. Our voice is direct yet encouraging, with touches like 'My Notebooks' to create a personal connection. Accessibility was also key, with high-contrast colors, readable font sizes, and clear icons to ensure usability for everyone.
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Prototype
To validate our designs, we created a low-fidelity prototype based on our finalized sketches.
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Usability Testing and Results
To validate our designs, we conducted usability testing with our low-fidelity prototype.
The tasks included adding a frame to a sketch, saving it to a folder, and sharing on Instagram. Here’s what we found:
Task Completion: 100% of users completed the tasks successfully.
Satisfaction: Users rated their experience at an average of 4.6 out of 5.
Encouragement to Share: 66% of users agreed that the mockup frames motivated them to share their work.
Our System Usability Scale (SUS) score was 71.6, well above the average threshold of 68, indicating that users found the app intuitive and enjoyable.
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Final Solution & Impact
Our expanded Moleskine Smart System features allow users to:
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Effortlessly sync and share their creative work, transforming rough sketches into polished digital mockups.
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Collaborate on ideas seamlessly using the Canva integration.
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Stay organized with a new folder system that works across both the physical and digital worlds.
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Easily purchase Moleskine products through the app, ensuring they never run out of supplies.
By aligning our design with Moleskine’s core values of creativity, tradition, and innovation, we’ve provided users with tools that not only meet their functional needs but also inspire and enhance their creative processes.
