The problem
BLAM! being a magazine that focuses on multiple topics such reviews, comic life and others; the information can be vast specially to be keeping hard copies or even printing all articles as well for readers to keep a track. with such vast amount of information, is there a possible way for readers to read and organize the articles they were interested in a simple easy way?
The solution
BLAM! app, it is a free download app on which you can read daily articles about the comic life, where you can not only stay updated but also save your favorites articles, created your own lists, leave comments and reviews, as well subscribing to obtain the hard copy magazine and collect comics for you to read at any time. BLAM! app would be a small library of articles and comics all fully personalized by the user while staying connect within a community.
business goal
The mission for this app is to provide readers a service for them to stay updated, keep track of their information, create a community and inspire users to subscriptions to obtain hard copies of the magazine as well e-book comics for them to collect and read at any time during their subscription.
Income: generated by users who join the monthly subscription, either by monthly fees or yearly fees.
user goal
Users can stay connected and feel within a community of other peers with similar interests. Not only the user will stay itself informed but also will be free to create its own libraries of articles and comics.
Things the user can do within the app are:
•Search for articles and news.
•Create personalized libraries of articles and comics.
•Feel connected while interacting within a community.
•Search for articles and news.
•Create personalized libraries of articles and comics.
•Feel connected while interacting within a community.
my role
User Research, User Interviews, Persona Creation, User Journey, User App Flow, Wireframes, and Comp creation.
USER interview
Before even diving into the features and the overall UX of our product I conducted some user interviews.
Some of our interviews included friends and classmates from the comic community for understanding of the problem. These are some the key take away from those interviews:
Some of our interviews included friends and classmates from the comic community for understanding of the problem. These are some the key take away from those interviews:
KEY INSIGHTS
1) Organizing e-books or online articles for the users is quiet stressful and tend to lose their data after some time and certain amount of articles saved on their favorite folders on their browsers or on their e-book folder.
2) Search tends to dedicate hours for users to find an article that would interest them, specially since in the comic community there are many different topics, comic brands, and trends.
3) online comics are a big deal today for comic readers, since they can read and obtain faster their comics at any time and anywhere without damaging their print copies. but sometimes for many users can be a struggle to read new comics without knowing if they will really get into it.
KEY EXPERIENCE PRINCIPLES
1) Organization: letting users to reorganize and create different libraries that can be easily found, identified, and customize.
2) Accuracy: allowing the user to make a very accurate search on their topics or articles will save them time to find the exact articles for them.
3) Reviews: The addition of reviews not only from the BLAM! crew but also from other readers will benefit others readers to view the articles, and possibly share them with their peers. Reviews on comics will bring extra confidence for readers to obtain their e-book copy.
Persona
Based on the research found in the discovery period of the project a persona was developed, Braian. Designing for Braian helped in making informed design decisions as I had the end user always in mind.
User journey
Keeping Braian in mind, we mapped his user behavioral flow from searching for articles to obtaining new comics. Understanding his decision making and flow within his search experience allowed me to brainstorm the necessary features and opportunities required for Braian to successfully navigate through the app.
defining content & information architecture
By analyzing Braian's journey I was then able to narrow down the features via card sorting for the necessary features for Goal Builder to function. I then created a content taxonomy map, to give meaning to the defined features, and a site map to organize the pages, information, and navigation of the app.
User TESTING
User testing tasks
1) search for an article about Marvel.
2) Add the article by creating a new collection.
3) Search a comic by its high reviews
User results
Task 1
4 out of 10 of the users tried to use the search interface at the home page, while the rest went to the menu and then to the news section. Once there they used the search interface and typed Marvel. after that they all opened the first article available to read.
Task 2
by this part all the users opened the nav, and went to the comic reviews section. they searched by high reviews and tapped on one of the comics with high reviews. after opening the review comic they follow the on way procedure until the point they were asked for a subscription.
Task 3
After this first User testing with few complications I did the minor changes on my wire frames and did a second test. on which it was successful. I after proceed to some final comp creations to show case a closer look of the final app.
final comps
