Kindle in Motion
Jul 2016 - May 2017
Project Overview
In 2016, Kindle in Motion was a novel Amazon initiative to enhance ebooks further than before. The new format features full-edge bleed for visual assets, page textures, re-flowable text, irregular text wraps, and more. KiM launched with a mix of live-action and illustrated books at the end of summer 2016, and has since branched out into nonfiction while doubling the number of available books.
My role
Digital Content Specialist turned to UX Designer
As a Digital Content Specialist, I worked on a small team dedicated to the production and development of KiM titles. We initially focused on perfecting the 2016 launch titles, making sure that the design worked on a variety of handheld devices. This involved paging through a build, logging bugs, and iterating on the base InDesign file before starting the QA process again.
As KiM production moved to a different team, my role shifted to design-heavy work. With the success our initial titles had, more publishers and authors were interested in creating KiM versions of their stories. To attain buy-in and show what we could accomplish, I worked on several prototypes for both internal and external review. This involved designing and laying out the books, as well as creating concept art and mockups with provided assets.
Challenges
Keeping it user-focused: One of the tenets I always stuck to throughout the process was “Will this enhance or detract from the reader experience?” With any new format, it’s easy to get lost in showing the new features that are available. Especially with our visual angle, it would be easy to overwhelm readers and detract from the text. Whenever I thought this was happening, I made a case to remove or change assets.
New process troubleshooting: While we had new tools to help create these complex ebooks, there were many times when my team needed to take charge on fine tuning certain details to make our deadlines. We did not have an SOP on getting these books to market, so we made one. Going into it, we didn't know much about it, but became SMEs on the process and epubs by the end.
Format and device constraints: As we moved onto more complex and exploratory titles, we were pushing the bounds of what ebooks could do on device. These proprietary ebook constraints forced us to find creative solutions both in InDesign and in the epub to create our desired reader experience. In order to reduce churn and workload on our dev teams, I began directly editing epubs (HTML/CSS) to manually troubleshoot and fix them.
Toolkit
- Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and After Effects
- Atom
- Handheld devices (Amazon tables, iPads, mobile phones)
- HTML/CSS