Libby: pause a hold without losing your place
Libby lets readers use a library card to borrow library ebooks and audiobooks. Place a hold when a popular title is unavailable; if you are too busy to read, pause delivery and resume when ready.
Form your own approach first, then explore the reasoning to check trade-offs and validation you may have missed. There is no single right answer.
01
DESIGN QUESTION
Help readers choose between pausing and canceling
Suppose you are designing a library hold list with both “Pause hold” and “Cancel hold.” For this exercise, pausing preserves queue position and requires manual resumption; canceling ends the hold.
- Task: Design the local action menu beside one book so readers can choose correctly in two situations: “I am busy for now but still want to read it” and “I have already read it and no longer want to borrow it.” You may use action names and short explanations. Do not redesign the whole shelf or create a status card shown after resuming.
- Deliverable: Sketch the menu and write one sentence describing the consequence of each action. Ask a reader to choose in the two situations, then ask whether they think their queue position remains and what they would do to borrow later. Record wrong choices or misunderstandings and revise accordingly.
Explore the reasoning
- List what each reader intends to preserve or end, then decide how the menu should express the difference.
- Prioritize consequences that affect the choice. Avoid giving both actions vague descriptions such as “look at it later.”
- Test the choice and the reader’s understanding of its consequences. Do not merely ask whether the menu looks good, and do not give away the correct option before testing.