In 2019, 25% of Americans read an ebook (source). The largest online ebook discussion forum, MobileRead, has nearly 300,000 users. In one poll on MobileRead, 50.91% of respondents stated they had purchased more than 200 ebooks (source). Assuming there are 332 million people in the US and Amazon has a 61% share of the ebook market, I estimate there are approximately 25.8 million Kindle customers who have more than 200 ebooks in their collections. This is a sizable market Amazon has previously seen value in as they purchased the social book platform GoodReads, in 2013.

As a “power-user” eBook reader, I have experienced firsthand the frustrations with the available apps.

I wanted to learn about the digital reading habits of adult Kindle ebook readers with libraries of significant volume (100+ books) — particularly how they like to organize and browse their eBook collections and any pain points they have in these areas. The goal was to determine what opportunities and needs aren’t being met by the current Kindle app.

Below is the data I collected from interviewing 5 Kindle users with libraries of at least 200 ebooks on their needs, pain points, and how they use apps to read eBooks.

Key Findings

Recommendations

I sourced relevant insights from 21 research articles, mostly academic papers. 14 additional academic papers were evaluated but determined to not be relevant.

Key Findings

Recommendations

Market Research

As part of my research I compared Kindle to 4 other major ebook apps across 4 major categories: Organization, Filtering Options, Sorting Options, and General Features. I also compared their top level navigation structures.

Main Navigation Comparison (Information Architecture)

Kindle:

Apple Books:

Google Books:

Marvin:

Libby:

With the key research findings and personas in mind I generated several HMW questions which were then consolidated into the above question.

Child HMWs

With the HMW question in mind I generated dozens of ideas using the Crazy Eights method of rapid idea generation.

Using a Complexity-Value matrix, I mapped out all of my ideas to prioritize which to validate. With the needs and goals of my user personas in mind I selected 4 top priority ideas to implement and several secondary ideas to keep in mind.

One user commented that they wanted purchases made on one device to automatically be downloaded on their other devices saying, “I don’t want to deal with storage of the eBooks”. Kindle on iOS requires purchases be made in a browser. It would be a better experience if users could make purchase on a laptop and know that those books would be automatically downloaded and ready to read on their phone.

Area 1: User-Focused Home Screen

Update the home screen to increase focus on user’s library and reading goals while still balancing business goals.

Personalized Recommendations Best selling books section has been replaced with personalized recommendations of recently released titles with quick Wishlist action.

Optimized Thumb Zone Search, library suggestions, and recently read books are all moved into the lower third of the screen for easy thumb taps.Search, library suggestions, and recently read books are all moved into the lower third of the screen for easy thumb taps.

Reading Goals with 🌲 The Reading Tree Brand Reinforcement & Positive Habit Building

I see an opportunity to reinforce the Kindle’s brand, build positive reading habits for users, create a new revenue stream for Amazon, and differentiate the Kindle app from competition through the introduction of what I have named The Reading Tree.

The current app’s home screen puts a heavy emphasis on recently opened books in the From Your Library section. With recently opened books moved into the bottom nav Bookshelf, the space can be used to more help users build a reading habit and track their reading goals. Part of this includes the introduction of The Reading Tree—whose leaves take on the colors of read books and helps reinforce the Kindle’s brand (a child reading under a tree). When a user is maintaining their reading habit the child appears under the tree. Each year’s tree will be unique because the colors of the book covers read that year will vary.

If they’ve completed their reading goal at the end of the year readers can order a free poster of their tree from the previous year (via Amazon’s existing Amazon Prints service)—the poster would also show the reader’s trees from previous years as well. The Reading Tree poster is a way of showing friends and family what Kindle users have read recently. The ability to have a bookshelf of their favorite books which serves both as personal expression and as a conversation starter is something missing in the ebook reader’s experience.

As Peter Fernandez writes, in “Books online: e-books, e-paper, and e-readers.” Library Hi Tech News (2020), print books are “cultural artifacts. People often associate printed books with certain meals and as expressive objects that indicate intellect and serious focused attention.” There are even companies that have turned this insight into a business and will sell books by-the-foot for decorating your office or home (see BooksByTheFoot.com to learn more). The Reading Tree poster brings this aspect of physical books to the digital reader’s life.

A minimum of 12 completed books are required so there’s enough content to print and this also encourages more ebook purchases. Additional posters after the first would require users to pay for printing and shipping. For each tree poster ordered Amazon could plant an actual tree which further reinforces the Kindle brand and helps build positive association with the Kindle brand.

Amazon could offer free downloadable wallpaper images of a user’s Reading Tree at the end of the year for free as well as homescreen widgets that show the user’s current tree and reading habit streak. Throughout the year the tree could change based on the user’s current time-of-day, season, and local weather. Presents could appear under the tree on the reader’s birthday and Christmas (including actual digital gifts such as Amazon ebook credit!).

Upon finishing a book an animation might show the book’s cover with text flowing out of the cover. As the words flow out of the book the cover slowly disappears from top to bottom. The words flow to the tree becoming leaves on the tree. Text appears below the tree with a message from The Reading Tree thanking the reader for saving one of its real-world siblings from being cut down.

🌲 Reading ebooks saves trees. 🌲

Area 2: In-Book Overlay Menu

The in-book overlay menu needed to be updated to include the Bookshelf for quickly switching books. In the process I found one-handed usability issues and felt that the book cover should be included as that is such a key part of a book’s identity.

Optimized Thumb Zone All common actions are moved to the bottom of the screen for easier tapping; modern phones have grown in size and touch targets at the top of the screen are more difficult to tap with one hand.

Author and Cover Added The book’s cover and author text have been added to the in-book menu to help readers recognize the book they are reading and builds a stronger association between the text of the book and its cover image.

Added Menu Icon Labels Research shows that most icon usability is poor without labels.

Area 3: Search Empty State

This empty state for search in the current app is…rather empty.

Recent Searches By adding recent searches users can quickly find a book again. This applies the principle of recognition over recall. Users now only need to recognize a recent search term rather than recall it and type it in again.

Trending Searches Another addition to the empty state is providing suggestions for possible terms a user might be about to type manually by using recent top search terms by other similar users.

In the process of completing this case study for the Udacity UX Design Nanodegree course I learned the value of using Figma, Miro, and secondary research in my UX design process.

Previously I used Sketch for UI design and have now migrated to Figma for it’s superior built-in prototyping, collaboration, and developer inspection tools. I now use Figma for designing client projects and have mentored junior UXers in using it as well.

Miro is an excellent infinite digital whiteboard tool that made the process of analyzing my research data easy; even though it took a huge amount of time to go through the data itself (which was another take away: processing data from just 5 users and 2 dozen research papers will take a single UXer several hours or more).

Reading research papers empowered me with additional insights into user needs and the ebook market. This is a technique I will keep in my UX toolkit going forward and encourage others to use as well when appropriate. I learned some fascinating insights beyond what was included in this case study — I encourage you to read the cited papers if you want to continue exploring this topic.

As avid readers influence the purchase decisions of casual readers in their social circle, Amazon should work to address the pain points of ebook power-users. The existing Kindle app is designed to push readers towards purchasing more books rather than reading their existing library - this strategy may have been effective at the Kindle's birth but, with strong competition in 2021, Amazon must work to strengthen its platform to keep customers loyal to the Kindle ecosystem.