Improvement of Book Catalog, Borrowing, and Reading Feature of Ipusnas E-Reader Application

a study for the final project of UI/UX Design Bootcamp

Hi everyone. It’s been a while since I wrote something here. For the past two months, I started a final project from the UI/UX Design Bootcamp on dibimbing.id that I took part in for the past few months. This time, I learned from one of the applications that I often use recently named Ipusnas. Please note that this study is not affiliated with Ipusnas or related institutions.

About Ipusnas

Ipusnas: Reading Socially

iPusnas is a social media platform for accessing e-Bookstores & e-Libraries, building networks with fellow readers, and as an e-Reader for reading eBooks. You can use iPusnas to connect with fellow users and other communities as a digital library equipped with social media features. You can also provide recommendations for the book you’re reading, submit reviews, and get new suggestions. (Ipusnas, 2022).

My Role: UX Researcher, UX Designer

Scope: User research, analyzing, user flow, information architecture, wireframing, mock-up, design system, prototyping, and Usability Testing (UT)

Timeline: All process takes approximately 1.5 months (Final Project period)

Tools: Google Forms, Zoom, Whatsapp, Google Sheets, & Slides

Project Type: Personal Portfolio

1. Empathize

Planning The Research

Research Plan

Research Background

UNESCO said that Indonesia is the country with the second lowest ranking in terms of reading literacy. According to UNESCO data, Indonesian reading interest is very concerning, only 0.001%, which means that out of 1,000 Indonesians, only one reads diligently (Kominfo, 2017). Quoting data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) for 2022, it states that Indonesia’s overall reading interest rate is 59.52, with a reading duration of 4–5 hours per week and 4–5 books per three months. This number is not representative enough because the availability of libraries in Indonesia is not evenly distributed, and not everyone can afford to buy books.

Digital books can be an option besides physical books. Users do not need to go to the library. Reading books can also be done on smartphones and can be accessed anywhere. The use of digital books is gaining popularity in Indonesia, and its users are increasing, especially during the pandemic. The number of users of the iPusnas application, made by the National Library of Indonesia, in April 2020 increased to 94,833 users (who registered), or increased threefold compared to 2019. (Republika, 2020)

Objective & Hypothesis

Objective:

• Improvement of Book Catalogue, Borrowing, and Reading Features of Ipusnas E-Reader Application
• How to increase the satisfaction of active users of the Ipusnas application, which tripled during the pandemic?
• Among e-reader applications, why choose to use Ipusnas? What are the motivations and the advantages?
• Understanding Ipusnas user behavior

Hypothesis:

• Users can borrow books according to what they want, given alternative book titles if the book is on a waiting list or not available, with an efficient borrowing and book storage system
• Users can read books of various genres anywhere and anytime comfortably through smartphones for free
• The application is more comfortable to use with an organized book catalog according to the genre you like, with filters, reviews or ratings from other users to make it easier to sort books or select books you want to borrow

Research Methodologies

1. Survey
2. In-depth Interview

Respondent Target & Criteria

Target: Ipusnas app users, whether they only use the Ipusnas e-reader app or those who also use other e-reader apps:

1. People who have borrowed Ipusnas books at least twice in the recent month
2. People who read Ipusnas books at least 2–3 times in the current week

Criteria:

• Demographic: people who like to read books among students, workers, and the general public aged 15–40 (have their mobile phone)
• Behavior: active users of the app in the last month

Conduct Research

2. Define

Primary Research

Of the 35 respondents, 25 have passed the screening with the criteria of having borrowed Ipusnas books at least two times in the recent month and read Ipusnas books at least 2–3 times in the current week.

Insights from The Survey

You can check the questionnaire result through this link for more details.

Qualitative Research

In-depth interviews with Ipusnas users were conducted to determine their behavior, likes, pain points, and needs/expectations using the Ipusnas application. Six individuals from the survey were selected, three women and three men.

Respondent Profiles

Competitive Analysis

Before asking about the user’s experience using the Ipusnas app, I try to identify other e-reader apps used to understand the market trends and find opportunities regarding the newly developed design.

Main Findings

Note: all information in this part was in Indonesian

Miro link: Click here

Affinity Diagram Analysis

Theme: Behavior

• Based on the interview results, respondents stated that they use the Ipusnas app in their free time at any time, either on weekdays or weekends, at night, and in situations, while commuting, waiting in line, when their children are sleeping, in between activities, and when they want to explore book genres.
• The motivation of Ipusnas app users is because the books are free and legal, there is difficulty in accessing the physical library (due to personal conditions and the pandemic situation), the registration process is easy, don’t have to wait long to use the app immediately, as an alternative when the users have no money to buy a physical book, and as a preview before buying a physical book.
• While reading a book, the reader usually opens the application several times a day; in a day, the application can be opened non-stop until finished reading.

Theme: Likes

• Anyone can access the app’s main features anytime, even without internet access (needs to download the books first).
• The borrowing system is easy; the only problems are related to the internet connection.
• It looks exactly like a book, but some aspects still need improvement.
• Read books for free legally (no subscription fees); some users use this to preview the book’s contents before buying a physical book.
• The books available are complete and varied, including serial books. Interesting books that are not widely known are also available.
• Ease of reading books for those who have difficulty accessing the physical library due to busy activities
• Ease of member registration (no waiting time, accounts ready to use immediately), although some things still need to be improved.

Theme: Pain Points

• Books on the home page appear randomly (AI doesn’t work very well), and even when filtering by book genre, the book titles that come out are still random (not systematic, alphabetical/rating, etc.)
• The name of the author and publisher when opening the book title is not clickable (to search for other book collections from the same author/publisher)
• Not all books in the physical library are available at Ipusnas
• Popular books have long queues; the waiting list does not match the order number. So, if a user returns a book, everyone else still has to race quickly to borrow the book.
• Searching through the search feature must use specific keywords, or search results cannot be found or are inaccurate.
• There are books whose chapter list is available, but there are books whose chapter list is unavailable but have bookmarked feature. In addition, there is no annotation feature.
• Bookmarks are lost if the book has been returned and borrowed again.
• The page scroll feature is less efficient, especially if you want to access certain pages quickly.
• Cannot set the font size, background, and brightness level of the reading page
• Logging in problems and unresponsiveness to readers’ complaints (users end up finding solutions to their problems)
• Error (bug) when opening the application on two devices (must log out on one of the devices)

Theme: Needs/Expectations

• Besides genre, book filters are based on popularity and the number of book pages. The main page also contains book recommendations based on book genres read or similar genres (relevant to the preferred genre).
• Reading page: Font size, reading page background (lighting), which is more comfortable for the reader’s eyes (customizable), Bookmark feature is available in all book collections, and available highlight feature to mark favorite book sentences, Page layout improvements when reading a book (a clickable table of contents that leads directly to the chapter/page and can move pages more freely)
• Search feature: book recommendations of similar types if search results are unavailable; search results require more accurate results.
• Limiting the book comment section only to those related to book reviews, not for complaints queuing for borrowing books, etc
• Adding popular book stocks so that the queue is not too long & takes a long time to get books (alternative: improving the waiting list system or adding a wishlist feature)
• Audiobook feature for the blind
• Sync if the users open the app on more than one device

User Persona

After that, a User Persona representing my target user is made to understand the target audience better and create appropriate design decisions.

Customer Journey Map

Way Forward

Recommendations

Based on affinity diagram analysis, user persona, and customer journey map, the recommendations proposed are:

Actionable Plan

Limitation

1. The proposed design of the mock-up and prototype is limited to the home catalog, borrowing, and reading features.
2. The UT process is carried out through activities to browse books through the home catalog or Search bar, borrowing books with the added wishlist feature, and the reading page improvement.

3. Ideate

User Flow

The following is the user flow of browsing, borrowing, and reading a book.

Information Architecture (IA)

Wireframe

Before creating a mock-up, a wireframe is made to get ideas for the design outline I would work on. The redesign of the Ipusnas application can be seen in the following image.

Mock Up

Improvement of Books Catalog & Filter

Improvement of Search Feature & The Results

Improvement of Borrowing & Storing Feature (Wishlist)

Improvement of The Reading Page

Prototype

After carrying out the empathize, define, and mock-up stages, I made a prototype in Figma.

Test

Usability Testing (UT)

This Usability Testing (UT) was conducted to evaluate the new proposed design of Ipusnas, including the book catalog, borrowing, storing, and reading feature through a more hierarchical catalog of books.

Objective:

• We want to know the user behavior in finding or browsing, borrowing, storing, and reading books through a more hierarchical catalog of books.
• Identifying the easy-of-use user when finding or browsing, borrowing, storing, and reading books through a more hierarchical catalog of books

You can see the more complete Usability Testing (UT) report here.

Scenario

1. Find Books through Categorized Catalog, Filtering Feature, and Search Bar

• The user is given 2 scenarios when he doesn’t know what book title he wants to read and when he already knows what book title he wants to read

When you don’t know what book title you want to read:

• See all book collections in Home by categories: Books For You, Popular Books, and New Collections. Then see all book collections in the Popular Books category
• Opens the book category filtering tab (contains book genres, popular & top-rated book categories, new collections, and books according to the number of pages). Then look at the collection of books in the Popular & Top Rated section.

When you know what book title you want to read:

• Type keywords in the Search Bar according to the keywords given

2. Borrowing and Storing Feature

• Borrow books from the recommendation catalog available at home
• Adding a book to the wishlist if the book you want to borrow is not available due to the queue

3. Reading Feature

• Set the font type and size and layout/background for reading books.
• Highlight/annotate selected sentences in the book

Summary Insight

After asking some questions and asking users to perform the Usability Test (UT), all users agree that the newly developed design is better for some reasons.

Summary

• After throwing a few questions and asking users to perform a Usability Test (UT), all users agreed that the newly developed design is better and looks more modern. The reasons are that the book catalogs at Home are more categorized, as well as the addition of features that support the reading experience, such as the layout color setting, type, and font size.
• Some things still need improvement regarding the addition of information, information hierarchy, the technical appearance of setting bars on book reading pages, and button naming.

Design Recommendation

Things I’ve Learned

Through this project, I learn that conducting end-to-end processes from UX research to UX design is not easy. But it is worth it for my future career. There is still a lot of improvement needed as I am still a learner.

Therefore, any comment is appreciated and will be used for future learning, and kindly give a clap if you find this writing interesting (ps: you can give up to 50 claps by holding the clap button for a few seconds).

Thank you for reading!

Find me on LinkedIn

Appendix

Screening questionnaire link: http://bit.ly/Survey-Ipusnas

Screening questionnaire result: https://bit.ly/Hasil-Survey-Ipusnas

Design System