UX Case Study- Kindle App Redesign
Disclaimer: Use of the ‘kindle’ does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by the author.
Note: Do check out my other works on Behance.
ABOUT KINDLE APP
Kindle is basically an ebook reading app by amazon, which lets you browse free books on Kindle Membership and buy books online and read a digital version of the book. You can easily download the app on your smartphones or buy its proprietary device to store all your eBooks. This app allows you to read over seven million eBooks online at any time, anywhere.
Let’s Dive more into it.
Why This Case Study?
This case study is dedicated to all the learners and Readers who use Kindle App and likes to devote their time to learning and sharing the knowledge. As with the arrival of the pandemic, the need for indoor activity increased up and thus people have started devoting their time learning more indoors making use of technology and Digital medium to the best.
So I myself being a frequent user of this app encountered many gaps in the Kindle app current UX and made me realize that it requires certain amendments for its smooth User Experience Journey. So I took this up as a challenge to myself and also as a learning project. And my process is what I have described through this case study. Let’s get to the bottom together.
About The Project
My goal was to Redesign the Kindle app (Digital reading app). This application is used by millions of people worldwide and I decided to show an improved alternative version of it by refining its UX experience journey and providing it with better UI (User Interface) than before.
Goals and Motivation for the Redesign
My goals for the Redesign
- To interact with User and identify what their needs are.
- To deliver a personalized experience and intuitive user interface and overall usability.
- Propose a more engaging and seamless reading experience so that users are comfortable while reading and grabbing knowledge.
My Personal learning goals
- To take full ownership of the various roles such as User Researcher, User Experience Designer, UI Designer involved in designing a product.
- Enhancing my learning experience by challenging some design decisions and addressing their solutions.
DISCOVER PHASE
Discover phase is a journey of discovery with the aim of getting to know user pain points, frustration and to gain an understanding of the user.
Research
(Quantitative Research)
Kindle is a digital reading app. You can easily download the app on your smartphones or buy its proprietary device to store all your eBooks. The robust and well-designed Kindle app allows you to read over seven million eBooks online at any time, anywhere.
Unique Features of this app includes :
- Kindle unlimited membership availability
- Text page customizations available
- Brightness and background customizations available
- Offers a built-in dictionary for all the Kindle books
- Reading progress tracking
- Ebook synchronization across devices
Existing User Research
To understand in detail about the Kindle app. I decided to dive into deep platforms like Reddit, play store reviews, Quora. I found actual users who have faced issues with the features and their frustrations.
[Pain Points]
- The user is expecting more flexibility while using the app and selecting options while reading.
- User Faces problem while viewing the wishlist.
- The user Would like to have the addition of more valuable free books and audiobooks.
- UI is not satisfactory, it confuses the user more while locating the stuff.
- Finding problems while tracking for the no. of books.
- It should be visually more creative and engaging.
- App Should provide the user with multi-format options.
- Often feels the need for the community to better exchange the views.
- Users are not able to see the time while reading the book on the app.
(Qualitative Research)
User Interview
It is a process to understand the user and his behaviour and asking him/her a set of questions about the product and services and finds out about their issues while using them and then list down the given feedback observations and usability issues.
So I have interviewed 10 people through an online platform and via Telephone and listened about their experience with the product and listed down the issues encountered and their feedback as to what all features do they love to interact with.
Target Range- 15–60
User Interview Questions
- Do you read books online on Kindle app or any other app?
- What are your views about audiobooks?
- Do you face any difficulty in reading books online?
- Can you share your experience of using the Kindle app?
- Do you get distracted while reading on this app? Why is this so?
- Is the whole process on the Kindle app is Time-consuming or Time-saving?
- What problems do you face while searching for a book?
- What do you do if the book you want to read is not affordable?
- Do you face any problem with the language of the book?
- Do you like the overall look of the app and why?
- What all features you like about the app most and what more you want to add?
[User Insights from Research]
- The majority of people like to read books online as it is time-saving for them.
- People really love to access audiobooks in addition to the reading option which is lacking in the kindle app.
- Reading books on the kindle app lacks engagement of user for a long time due to clutter UI.
- While using the app most confront lagging features, Downloads problems, Wishlist access problem, reading in night mode issue and so on.
DEFINE PHASE
In this stage, I sorted out the frustrations of the users and the needs to create personas.
Affinity Mapping
The main aim behind doing this was to organize all the collected insights from the research, feedbacks, outcomes and arrange them in such a way that they could generate some valuable information that could lead to a possible solution ahead. In short, it is a method that can help us gather a large amount of data and to organize them into groups.
Problem Statement
- Unorganised UI — Users finds difficulty staying on the home page as it is filled with so many options, relevant and irrelevant which creates so much confusion for users to locate books.
- Irrelevant categories — UI is not designed well based on users needs and preferences. It loses the sense of control from the users perspective.
- Connect People — It lacks the medium for users to build and talk to like-minded people based on their subject interest and shares and gain relevant information.
- Audio Books- This option is very relevant for the kind of users who wants to listen to the audiobooks and immerse themselves in a good reading experience all in one single place.
- Book read history — This feature is very poorly designed in this app, as it does not serve its purpose well and leaving with poor UX experience for the user.
- Declutter App- Provide an engaging book reading experience for the user which should be highly functional and aesthetic too.
- Book summary — This option is very much needed for users who are multi-tasking and can give much less time to read, thus gaining fast insights which are lacking here.
User Persona
Personas are fictional characters, which we create based upon our research in order to represent the different user types that might use your service, Product site, or brand in a similar way. Creating personas will help understand our users’ needs, experiences, behaviours and goals.
Empathy Mapping
Visualizing user attitudes and behaviours in an empathy map helps the UX team align on a deep understanding of end-users. The mapping process also reveals any holes in existing user data.
IDEATE PHASE
In this phase, we will explore and come up with as many ideas as possible.
[HMW]
The “How Might We” method creates an atmosphere for innovative solutions by reframing known challenges that surround your product, service or initiative.
Following are my HMW questions which I framed by converting the users’ challenges and frustrations.
Q. How might we make the reading experience more engazing for the users on this app?
By improving the UI of this app and also making the functionality of icone more easy to understand and follow.
Q. How might we provide the proper access to the wishlist feature to the users?
By interating this feature on this app ans make it more functional and usable for the user.
Q. How might we include audio book option too in this app for users?
By adding the audio book option in the app and give the variety of options to users to increase the engazement.
Q. How might we increase trust for the users?
-Verified Authors
-Easy to use platform
-Keeping discounts and offers
Q. How might we build a book community for the readers?
By introducing the feature of chat option and sharing reviews in the forum option.
Q. How might we save time for the users?
By adding the feature of book summary insights in the app.
Q. How might we make the search process easier for readers?
By giving the proper structure to the UI of the app and categorized many variables effectively.
User Flow
A user flow is a visual representation for the users to map out each and every step the user takes from the entry point right through to the final interaction.
Information Architecture
IA is a visual representation for users so that user can get to know about the features and functionality of the product and they could find anything easily. It is the practice of deciding how to arrange the parts of something to be understandable.
DESIGN PHASE
In this phase, we look for many possible solutions and reduce the number of possibilities or choices to determine the most effective and efficient way to construct the solution.
[Low-Fidelity Wireframes]
[High-Fidelity Wireframes]
UI Design
[StyleGuide]
DELIVER PHASE
Next Step
Being a UX Designer, what I would love next is guidance, perspective, and feedback from others, make iterations and test them on users in order to refine and validate the solution.
