Kindle Reader

I am a heavy reader and I own a Kindle Reader. I don’t like the user interface because it takes several taps to do common reading tasks such as browsing my library, jumping between pages of a book, or going back to bookmarks. The following wireframes show how I’d like my Kindle to be.

Home page: Current UI

List view Grid view Either view, with menu
Kindle list view Kindle grid view Kindle menu

Home page: Proposed UI

Bookshelf view Bookshelf view with menu
Bookshelf view Bookshelf view with menu

Improvements

  • Less time to browse the library: 3x more books than list view and 4x more books than grid view
  • More user control: Go to a bookshelf non-sequentially through pagination at the bottom
  • Visual appeal: Bookmarks peeping from the books show current reading position rather than percentages
  • Less clutter:
    • Actions are moved to a hamburger menu on top
    • Most common action (Search) is separate, so needs fewer taps
    • Actions not relevant on a bookshelf page are removed

Book-open page: Reading

Current UI Proposed UI
Current UI Proposed UI

Improvements

  • Visual appeal: Indicator of unread pages on either side of current page
  • Less clutter: Page number in ‘Page X of Y’ format for just-enough-information

Book-open page: Menu options

Current UI: Menu Proposed UI: Menu
Current UI: Menu Proposed UI: Menu

Improvements

  • Less thumb strain: Most frequent actions are at the bottom, less frequent ones are at the top
  • Fewer taps: Common reading actions, such as notes and highlights are available upfront
Current UI: More menu Proposed UI: More menu
Current UI: More menu Proposed UI: More menu

Improvements

  • Less clutter: Actions not relevant to reading are removed from menu and pushed under the Home icon
  • Fewer taps: Easy to access bookmarks, notes, highlights, and do other common reader actions when a book page is open and is being read