Lynn Zhang | Iwen

Lynn Z

Work

Resume

Etc.

About

Iwen

Redesign for the English Reading App

Startup Program

User Experience Design

2021.04 — Ongoing

Duration

Team

April 2021 — Ongoing

Zhenglin Zhang (UX Designer)

Bran (Product Manager)

Zelin (Front-End Engineer)

Paveen (Back-End Engineer)

My Role

Iwen was my

UX internship

project with an interdisciplinary team. It was my initial exposure to the SCRUM process, where I defined user profiles, researched the market, reorganized the information architecture, and handed off a high-fidelity prototype.

Research:

User Interview, Competitive Analysis, Information Architecture, and Research Analysis

Design:

Branding, Visual Identity, Ideation sketching, Wireframing, Prototyping, Interaction & Visual Design

Project Overview

Context

Problem

Solution

Iwen is an English reading app designed and developed by a start-up. Unlike reading platforms like Kindle, Iwen integrates more features that help users improve their English skills, like word books, comprehension quizzes, etc.

By reorganizing the information architecture to streamline the user flow, creating a reading community to enhance user motivation, and adding word books and quizzes to strengthen user reading ability, the design goal is to make users more focused on English reading and improve English learning.

Users get lost in the

messy and redundant navigation

and functional sections, losing focus on reading

It is difficult for users to discover the various functions due to

lacking signifiers

Users are

not passionate

about reading and lack motivation

Solution Preview

Process

DISCOVER

DESIGN

DELIVER

KICK-OFF

Product Introduction

SITUATION

TASK

ACTION

RESULT

I CAN'T FOCUS ON READING

IWEN

is an English reading App designed and developed by a student start-up. The app has been given too much functionality at the cost of the reading function.

Identify

user needs

Analyze

competitive products

Sort

out Information architecture

Design

hi-fi prototypes

Discuss

with the product manager to adjust functionality and logic.

Design

UI interface & interactive functions, complete the front-end design.

Successful launch

of the project.

33,259 users

with 0 cost investment.

Interface & interaction

considered to be user-friendly and innovative.

Persona

KATHY

MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT

No free reading resources / Suffering from advertising / Matching of levels / Removing cultural barriers

Introduction

Motivation

Confusion

Expectation

Kathy is required to read a cumulative total of 60-80,000 words or more beyond the textbook. However, she has no time or energy to search for suitable reading materials. Nor does she have the budget to pay for reading.

Improve her English through reading

Don't know the cultural context and background

Free and massive reading resources

Insights

CURRENT PROBLEMS IN ENGLISH EDUCATION

CURRENT PROBLEMS IN READING SOFTWARE

Limited

Difficult

Boring

Inadequate

Too Much

Expensive

reading material in English makes it difficult to access further content.

English originals are not suitable for users' English level.

reading lacks interactivity, making users lose interest in reading.

content and books are features of most English reading software.

new reading materials need to be sifted and processed Manually.

manual processing and reading materials require high fees.

Information architecture

HOMEPAGE

NEWS

BOOK

(Today)

(Timeline)

(Book | news)

daily

attendance

automatic

recommendation

Search Page

Daily Attendance Page

Recent Reading

News Collection

Reading Page

Vocabulary Notebook

Vocabulary Test Page

Recharge Page

Message List

Overview Page

Bookstore Page

Book Details Page

Reading Page

associative-word

tag suggestions

history

news discussion

news recommendation

book recommendation

book reviews

sorting

recent reading

news collection

news information

user profile

new word

vocabulary test

vip

message

reading data

account & security

general

about us

sorted by category/source

cover/title/time/difficulty/source

avatar/username/level/vip/feather

book cover/title/author/abstract

book cover/title/author

difficulty/theme

length of reading/number of pages /words learned/length of study

sorted by author/award/genre/arrangement

collected/uploaded/downloaded /free/vip

bookstore

bookshelf

book information

related content

Iwen has four main tiers,

which are

HOMEPAGE

BOOK

NEWS

Core Functions

AI Questions

Culture Expansion

Recommended Algorithms

Audio reading

Based on the articles, AI rapidly asks questions and adjusts the difficulty according to the users' English level.

Natural language processing is used to identify contents that can't be fou- nd in dictionaries.

Iwen makes recommendations based on the content and users' preferences, and identifies the difficulty of reading .

With audio reading, the screen follows the scrolling. Users can customize the speed and pitch of the voice.

Color Palette & Typography

Iwen chooses a unique and serene blue-purple color to make the brand and app more vibrant. Poppins is chosen for the brand font, which in turn enhances the youthful and relaxed spirit of the brand.

R: 107

G: 129

B: 253

# 6B81FD

R: 152

G: 107

Font Family

8 Weights

Light

Regular

Medium

Bold

B: 253

# 986BFD

Visual Identity

A new visual identity was created to show the brand's affinity and youthfulness. Every element reflects this idea: the curves of the logomark and the rounded edges.

The logo, just like the brand enables mobile reading to deliver the same textured reading experience as traditional paper books, conveying the concept of creating an immersive reading space. The brand offers a vast range of reading resources and information and hopes that users will have an endless reading experience.

Auxiliary Graphic

The rounded and soft shapes in the logo are extracted to show the comfort and fun that reading brings. The combination of lines and circles helps visual focus, emphasizing that Iwen brings the improvement of focused reading.

Innovative integration of news and book reading

When users open Iwen, the home page first indicates the record of days they have been reading with Iwen, which serves as an incentive.

Iwen offers both news and books to read. Users can choose the proper reading content according to their English reading levels and category preferences. And on the reading page, it provides translation, mode, font, audio, and recording as auxiliary functions.

Reading Record

Content Integration

Record your English reading learning

The duration of English reading and the number of pages are recorded, thus motivating users to read with acquired words that can be learned repeatedly in the wordbook.

Diversification of reading experience

Users can enjoy a sense of reading satisfaction and companionship by giving their favorite books a like and seeing how many users have read the book. Users can also interact with other readers in the comment section to gain book friends with the same reading taste.

The reading progress bar is displayed, not only to let users know the reading progress and position, but also to motivate them to finish reading the whole book.

Reading Community

Reading Motivation

Grid System

The design is all about flexibility and modularity, to account not only for today's needs but to also future-proof Iwen's ideas and make the product as scalable and as flexible as it can be.

Design System

Buttons

Tags & Badges

Switches

Selectors

Sources

Text Inputs