The e-book market is dominated by household names that most people will recognise, however a survey I conducted found that the cost of e-books is making them inaccessible, with 44% of respondents citing e-book pricing as a barrier to reading. To combat this issue, I conceptualised Lana. Lana is a native app for iOS and Android that allows you to borrow books for a fixed period of time, like a library in your pocket.
I developed a simple user flow and set of Low-fi wireframes for Lana, using UI patterns common to e-book apps to provide a prototypical experience in terms of navigation. A separate set of wireframes was designed for iOS and for Android.
I designed Lana to be clean, trustworthy and friendly. All design decisions were made with these brand values in mind. Blue was chosen as the brand colour as it is associated with calmness and relaxation, making it a good choice for reading; an activity that requires focus and concentration. Fonts were chosen for their readability and the use of curves in both the Serif and Sans-serif font. The organic shapes and lack of harsh edges convey a sense of warmth and playfulness, making them a great choice for Lana.
As e-book apps can sometimes be seen as cold compared to holding a physical book, I decided to create several illustrations for Lana to convey the sensation of being drawn into a book and getting lost in the world within it. Lana’s illustrations also served another function: visual progress indicators. The illustrations provide a representation of progress, which can encourage continued effort towards a reading goal. As Lana is a subscription-based app, keeping users motivated to read is a top priority.
I developed separate UI kits for both iOS and Android to adhere to the Human Interface Guidelines and the Material Design Guidelines respectively.
Lana’s home screen develops and changes as users interact with the app. When users first open Lana, before they borrow a book, they will see a different version of the home screen. I made this decision as personalisation provides users with an internal locus of control, they feel like the app is responding directly to their input.
Users are automatically given a free trial with no necessity to enter card details and no automatic renewal. A streamlined onboarding helps to mitigate sign-up abandonment.Users maintain visibility on how long is left in their trial directly from the home screen.
The search function can be accessed directly from the home screen or from anywhere within the app using the navigation bar for ease of use. Users can browse by genre or search for something specific.
The ability to customise the reading experience was an incredibly necessary feature. Customisable page colours, fonts, font sizes and line height allow users the freedom to choose what works for them. I also included a dyslexia friendly font and a bionic reading font that assists users with ADHD to retain focus. This not only makes Lana as inclusive as possible but by doing so widena the potential user base.
Users can organise their books with Lana’s library feature. They can view the books they are currently lending, find all of their saved books, group books into collections using the shelves feature and renew expired loans.
