Goals for iOS redesign
Maintain familiarity, keep it simple, focus on content, streamline the navigation, and make browsing more logical and intuitive.
Maintain familiarity, keep it simple, focus on content, streamline the navigation, and make browsing more logical and intuitive.
The biggest challenge of the redesign was the app architecture. Nothing is more critical to app design. By replacing the menu options with a tab navigation this allowed us to reorganize the app into a small number of easily accessible top level sections. Every click adds cognitive load. By reducing the number of clicks for every single navigational step a user had to take previously, this made the redesigned app much easier to use.
Process: User Research and User Journeys
It’s our job as designers to let our users get as close as they can to the content they love. This is who we are truly working for. So everything we do we have to ask if this will improve the lives of our users. Before starting we ask our users for input. Who is the user? What are their user’s goals? What problems does it solve for the user?
Process: Brainstorm and Stakeholder input.
Before starting, I facilitated meetings with all of the stakeholders: Marketing & Development, Customer Support, Community, Developers, Brand, Manga team, Translators and International and Ads. This was part brainstorm and part information download. For each stakeholder we asked for three pieces of input:
Before starting, I facilitated meetings with all of the stakeholders: Marketing & Development, Customer Support, Community, Developers, Brand, Manga team, Translators and International and Ads. This was part brainstorm and part information download. For each stakeholder we asked for three pieces of input:
1. Their Goals
2. Metric - to measure their goals
3. Their Suggestions.
This feedback was captured in a Google doc as a reference and shared.
This feedback was captured in a Google doc as a reference and shared.
Process: Wireframing
With the stakeholder feedback and user journey maps as a guide, I started wire framing and mapping out specific architecture flows.
With the stakeholder feedback and user journey maps as a guide, I started wire framing and mapping out specific architecture flows.
Midnight Mode
For the UI I created both light and dark modes. This was in 2016 a few years before dark mode was built into iOS. Dark ui is better for dark lighting conditions like when watching anime and it's much easier for eyes to adjust to dark screens and the dark lighting conditions. Also many people love dark interfaces as a personal preference.
For the UI I created both light and dark modes. This was in 2016 a few years before dark mode was built into iOS. Dark ui is better for dark lighting conditions like when watching anime and it's much easier for eyes to adjust to dark screens and the dark lighting conditions. Also many people love dark interfaces as a personal preference.
Video Player
Clean UI with 10 second skips, play next episode, picture and picture, autoplay, volume control, and Chromecast.
Clean UI with 10 second skips, play next episode, picture and picture, autoplay, volume control, and Chromecast.
