Some Background: What is Maple?
Maple was a startup that aimed to develop a new webcomic app designed to improve how users interact with and read webcomics. The app offers a comprehensive platform where fans can easily discover, track, organize, and read webcomics.
In 2022, I joined Maple as a 1st UX designer. I was tasked with developing a minimum-viable prototype within a 3-month timeframe and my responsibilities included designing the entire mobile platform from scratch while collaborating with a software engineer and product manager for technical and business guidance.
How it Began
Webcomic enthusiasts often encounter frustration when attempting to discover and manage new content within popular platforms. Many users express dissatisfaction with the lack of effective organization tools, leading to a cumbersome and time-consuming process of finding and navigating through their desired webcomics. What users truly seek is the ability to curate and organize their webcomic collections according to their personal preferences, enabling them to easily access and enjoy their favorite content without the hassle of sifting through endless options.
These were some of the pain points that we also shared as an avid webcomics readers.
Sneak Peek of the Solution
Exploring the Problem
We wanted to first validate our hypothesis: do people struggle with organizing their webcomic collections and desire more control over their reading experience?
Were there also other problems that readers faced that we should also be aware of?
After doing some casual research on online forums, we came across some common pain points relating to using webcomics applications such as Webtoon and Tapas.
Some of these problems stemmed from the sheer volume of available content and how they are organized, making it time-consuming and even difficult to discover appealing content.
With some of the UX problems to explore, we then wanted to look into see how we could enhance the user experience to mitigate these challenges. This involved delving into aspects such as interface design, navigation pathways, recommendation algorithms, and user feedback mechanisms
And as it turned out, through a survey we conducted, 60% of respondents found it challenging to discover new webcomics to read. Additionally, 76% expressed a desire for a more personalized browsing experience — which I will detail more later in this study.
Primary Research
Considering the brief research conducted on the matter, it seemed as if readers wanted more personalized content with better organization design so that they access comics they want more easily. Which may seem obvious but then the question was, how does that look like for webcomics?
To gain some more perspective and understand pain points of the users, I interviewed 5 casual to frequent webcomics readers. The main questions we wanted to look into were:
- What platforms do they use?
- What do they like about it?
- What do they dislike about it?
- How do they discover or interact with content?
- What does the ideal reading experience look like to them?
We conducted 5 user interviews with our stakeholders, including casual to frequent readers. We also created a survey each, with about 50 respondents total.
The common pain points were related to how the comics are organized and the time that they need to put into in order to navigate and interact with content efficiently. Here were some key insights:
1. Users want to have the homepage to be personalized
“Homepage is the most important page but more often than not, it is very vague or generic for other apps.”
2. Users want quicker and faster ways of discovering new content
“I don’t want to check all the comics out there to know which one is interesting. Sometimes I just want to check out the best bits to see if it is interesting.”
3. Users can’t track or view their saved content easily
“I want to be able to access my saved comics and my past history easily. I don’t want to scroll through the featured section again to find them.”
Some additional findings were:
My hypothesis was correct in a sense that content organization and navigation was crucial to their experience. However, there were more to the problem. Users not only desire a personalized homepage but also quicker content discovery methods and easier access to their saved and past content.
Secondary Research
I first started with a couple of well-known competitors to see what they tried and failed and what I could do differently. Alongside that, I also included two indirect competitors (Hoopla & Netflix) to analyze how they curate their content for their users.
From a feature perspective, some opportunities that we recognized were:
- Creating a subscription feature to help users automate the way they consume content.
- Implementing a quick view tab to enable users to explore new trending comics or feeds in a short duration.
Primarily, these two features were meant to address the discovery problem we identified during the research.
Additional Features
Although not a comprehensive list of all other smaller-scale UI features that we explored, we also focused on other aspects based on our user research:
- Homepage experience, to better organize and display users ongoing reading and potentially other trending content.
- Dedicated page for specific comics, to allow in-depth ratings and background prior to reading.
- Dedicated page for creator, to view their other works and able to subscribe for any potential update.
- Personalized library, to allow users to access their ongoing and past comics.
Persona
We also realized that personas were going to be a crucial part in terms of establishing empathy with our audience. We focused on two distinct person: casual and avid comics reader.
Designing the Product — Information Architecture
To optimize the user experience for webcomic readers, we selected the top 3 that most addressed our persona’s needs and stood out against the competitive landscape. These included:
Personalized Recommendations:
- Utilized algorithms to analyze reading history and preferences, offering tailored webcomic suggestions.
- Highlight these recommendations prominently on the homepage or a dedicated section.
Centralized Update Feed:
- Developed a centralized dashboard that aggregates updates from all of a reader’s subscribed webcomics.
- Made the feed easily accessible with clear notifications for new chapters.
Advanced Search and Filtering:
- Enhanced search capabilities with advanced filters for genre, popularity, update frequency, and user ratings.
- Allowed readers to save their search preferences for quicker future access.
Wireframes, Ideation, & Process
Here are the high level overview of the final prototype:
Homepage Experience
Culminating to the homepage, the primary features that we designed were:
- An Instagram-inspired quick view feature for quick discovery and exploration.
- Categorizing the user feed based on the types of content they want to read.
- Continuing reading the comics where they left off, with these being recommended as the first thing they see.
The overall UI design was focused on providing users with the most relevant content based on what they selected during the onboarding process and whatever content is trending at any given time.
Also, going back to our user research, users want to spend more time reading than browsing. That is where the Instagram-inspired quick view feature came in handy. With this feature, users can quickly glance at comics within a short duration, enabling them to efficiently explore and select content without extensive browsing.
Webcomics Overview
Readers have the opportunity to access comic information before diving into them. Our aim was to enable readers to easily find creator details, explore their other works, and subscribe. Informed by our user research, we incorporated specific features:
- Ratings
- How long it takes to read, to inform them whether they want to continue
- Tags for easier search in the explore stage
- Chapters organized
- Other similar works based on what other readers viewed
Furthermore, by integrating creator information and links to their additional works, readers can further immerse themselves in the universe of their favorite artists and unearth new content. Our goal was to ensure a seamless transition between comics, making discoverability effortless.
Explore and Library
Last but not least, we dedicated a separate page for exploration and library access. In line with the insights from our user research, our aim was to ensure that the explore feature remained distinct from the homepage, providing users with a dedicated space for discovering new content.
Furthermore, the library section includes the history of the user’s reading content, where they can pick up any ongoing comics they are reading, view the ones they have completed, and access any potentially saved comics as well. Since readers wanted an organized section where they can easily track their reading history, creating a separate tab made sense.
Future Consideration
With more time, I would prioritize refining the following aspects to ensure a more comprehensive and adaptable solution that covers a broader range of scenarios beyond our current discussions. These include:
- Including creators/artist into the user research: While I was able to talk to 1 webcomic artist for their feedback on what their ideal experience is, with more time I would like to conduct further analysis and research to create a platform that satisfies the needs of both.
- Integrating social feature: Due to time and technical limitations, we opted not to implement social features into our current prototype. I would like to conduct further testing to explore how social or online community features could be integrated into the app.
- Testing discoverability experience: While I enjoyed designing ways to optimize the discovery experience, I recognize that this area is subject to constant iteration by many startups and companies. Therefore, I am eager to delve deeper into industry trends and best practices to stay informed and continually improve our approach.
Peter Yoo
User Experience Designer
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