The client
blinkbox Books is an innovative ebooks service with a suite of responsive web and native iOS and Android applications, encompassing a bookstore, cloud library and e-reader. blinkbox Books Android app is pre-installed on Tesco’s Hudl tablets, bringing ebooks to new audiences.
blinkbox Books is a truly ‘mobile first’ service, and this is reflected in our approach to design. Every feature is considered across the suite of products and tailored for each platform to strike a careful balance between native interaction patterns and cross-platform consistency of brand experience.
My role
I worked with blinkbox Books as a contract UX consultant. Alongside product management, design and development teams, I helped to devise new features and iterate the existing website and apps to improve user experience.
My projects included:
- User experience design of the iOS store front
- Faceted search interaction for web and native platforms, scaling across all screen sizes
- Improved accessibility features and display options for the cross-platform e-reader
- Service design; examining customer touch points to understand and improve the complete user experience
- Onboarding; communicating the product offering to users unfamiliar with ebooks
- Information architecture; defining a logical screen hierarchy and platform-appropriate navigation for iOS and Android apps
- Preparing prototype materials for usability testing
- Heuristic evaluation and recommendations for the checkout and payment process
Sample deliverables
Storybaord for advanced filtering with faceted book search for mobile web
Faceted search concepts presented for review
iOS app screen hierarchy including proposed store front
Wireframe exploration of tabbed navigation for iPad and iPhone, introducing native UI components, e.g. popovers, split views and segment controls, to minimise design and development effort and maximise usability
Wireframe concept for ultra-native iOS product screen as possible MVP
Wireframe showing reading position display within the cross platform reader
Annotated wireframe variations for design review: providing purchase option within store preview and sample reader