Callibre ebook manager design document

CALIBRE - eBook Manager Interface Redesign Master of Arts Degree, Interactive Design Louisville Center for Design, Lindsey Wilson College Professor: JASON OCCHIPINTI, Information and Interface Design

SHEKHAR P BAGAWDE December 9, 2014

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Project Backround

Table of Contents Project Backround

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User Centered Design Process

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Initial Research & Evaluation

04

Competitor Research

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Concepts for Redesign

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Iterative Process: Wire-framing

07

Finalizing Redesign Solution

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Conclusion

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CALIBRE - eBook Manager Interface Redesign | LC4D Lindsey Wilson College | December 2014

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PROJECT BACKGROUND

Project Background Interface Redesign for Calibre eBook Manager Calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books. It has a cornucopia of features. If you are a lover of eBooks, this is an indispensable tool. It allows you to transform PDFs into ePubs and eBooks that can then be viewed on the iPad, Kindle, Nook and more - and vice versa www.calibre-ebook.com Improve overall User Experience Calibre is a fantastic open source program with lots of power, but its branding, interface and overall aesthetic needs improvement. Our task is to redesign the interface for selected screens and improve the overall user experience to make the application intuitive, easier to use and visually appealing

CALIBRE - eBook Manager Interface Redesign | LC4D Lindsey Wilson College | December 2014

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USER CENTERED DESIGN PROCESS

User Centered Design Process

A User Centered Design Process was followed to redesign Calibre eBook Management app.

Usability Evaluation To get first hand experience of the app, we installed Calibre and went through the application.

Also, we went through similar apps to do a quick research on UX / UI, and features provided by eBook reader apps like Kobo, Kindle and applications such as Google Books, iBooks etc.

Iterative Design An iterative design process was followed to come up with redesign solutions.

CALIBRE - eBook Manager Interface Redesign | LC4D Lindsey Wilson College | December 2014

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INITIAL RESEARCH & EVALUATION

Initial Observation and Evaluation

Sitemap of existing application

When I installed Calibre and started interacting with the application, I will be honest, it was a bit frustrating and overwhelming experience. There were potential issues in terms of navigation, organization or interactions: - Too many options available for the user - All the available options are displayed upfront within the navigation, without any organization - These available options are not grouped and hence it could potentially be confusing for the user unless she/he reads the help guide

Initial User Research and Evaluation Improve organization and make it easy to navigate I tried to draw an analogy, that I was given a closet that was a bit messy and not so organized. Someone went shopping and just throwing in clothes.

The same way, this application had slew of features and someone just kept adding these features as-and-when they were developed over the time.

At a high level, users can leverage this eBook Management tool to: - Organize, add eBooks, and edit metadata - Search for eBooks and convert them to different formats - Manage eBooks (send eBook to device, configure or remove)

Revised Sitemap

CALIBRE - eBook Manager Interface Redesign | LC4D Lindsey Wilson College | December 2014

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COMPETITOR RESEARCH

Competitor Research

Kobo - eBook Reader We went through similar apps to do a quick research on UX / UI, and features provided by eBook reader apps like Kobo, Kindle and applications such as Google Books, iBooks etc.

Kobo eBook Reader provided good information in form charts and graphs on reading stats.

Google Books

CALIBRE - eBook Manager Interface Redesign | LC4D Lindsey Wilson College | December 2014

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CONCEPTS FOR REDESIGN

Concepts For Redesign

Conceptualization phase started off by putting together quick sketches for the installation screens and for the overall application.

CALIBRE - eBook Manager Interface Redesign | LC4D Lindsey Wilson College | December 2014

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ITERATIVE PROCESS FOR WIREFRAMING

Low-Medium-High Fidelity Wireframes

CALIBRE - eBook Manager Interface Redesign | LC4D Lindsey Wilson College | December 2014

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FINALIZING REDESIGN SOLUTION

Refining Design from sketches to high fidelity UI comps Sketches The design process involved doing lot of iterations. This helped in refining the design.

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

Medium-Fidelity Wireframes High-Fidelity Ui Mockups

CALIBRE - eBook Manager Interface Redesign | LC4D Lindsey Wilson College | December 2014

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FINALIZING REDESIGN SOLUTION

Finalizing Redesign Solution: Homepage Medium Fidelity Wireframes

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Branding and Navigation

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Reading Statistics

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Newly Added Books User can browse books using the ‘slider’ or the ‘next arrow’

CALIBRE - eBook Manager Interface Redesign | LC4D Lindsey Wilson College | December 2014

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FINALIZING DESIGN SOLUTION

My Library

Toolbar

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Related Actions

CALIBRE - eBook Manager Interface Redesign | LC4D Lindsey Wilson College | December 2014

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FINALIZING REDESIGN SOLUTION

Edit Metadata

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Edit Metadata

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Manage Cover

Edit Metadata screen is designed in an overlay pop-up

CALIBRE - eBook Manager Interface Redesign | LC4D Lindsey Wilson College | December 2014

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CONCLUSION

Conclusion

With this redesign project we refined our design solutions from initial evaluations to sketches to wireframes and visual design mockups.

It is essential to institutionalize ‘design thinking‘ while conceptualzing, i.e. to come up with multiple ideas and design solutions and to keep refining and iterating.

THANK YOU.

CALIBRE - eBook Manager Interface Redesign | LC4D Lindsey Wilson College | December 2014