Project Overview & Goals

Client: Self-initiated project
Industry: Education, Publishing Companies, Marketing Companies
Timeline: 8 weeks (September to October 2025)
My Role: UI & UX Designer

The primary goals were to modernize and standardize iconography, simplify the book-loan process, and enhance discoverability of essential content such as FAQs. The result is reduced cognitive load and improved overall usability.

Current Design

The Problem

Problem #1: The system is outdated

• Icons and symbols are not up to modern standards. Not scalable.

• The Read, Locate, and Audiobook buttons use the same icon, which is visually confusing.

Problem #2: Inconsistency

• Inconsistent icons

• Colors are somewhat consistent but font sizes and links are not

• Hamburger menu is present in desktop version, which is counterintuitive.

• Some content placement are not uniform

Problem #3: Information overload

• Not all elements on the screen (especially in the navbar) are necessary. It competes with and reduces the visibility of important content.

• Some text are not legible and hard to scan

• Using colours and links in a distracting way. Not purposeful or thoughtful.

Problem #4: Inaccessible help and documentation

• FAQs and Help not prioritized and difficult to find

  
  

Design Process

The User

Before I started redesigning, I first needed to identify who will be using the website and why. I mapped a summary of her story, her goals in life, and her current situation.

The User Flow

Next, I mapped her user journey, centered around her goal of borrowing a digital book, preferably for free.

Initial Designs

Now that I've established the who, why, and how, I began making rough sketches. My goal here is to establish the key features of the website and how many pages are required.

Next, I developed mid-fidelity wireframes based on the sketches above. I explored multiple iterations before refining and finalizing the examples shown here.

Final Design

• Overall consistency and usability improved

• Reduced cognitive load

• Modern, standardized, and scalable iconography

• Essential content such as FAQs can be easily located

• Simplified book-loan process

Go to prototype

Reflection

Constraints

A key constraint of this project was working within an established branding and design ecosystem. Redesign decisions needed to respect existing community contributions and legacies while still improving the user experience.

Rather than a full redesign, I focused on maintaining its current aesthetic, but more modernized, and meeting today’s technical standards.

Iteration

Blunders or mistakes are learning opportunities. As a matter of fact, I prefer them happening in the beginning stages. Catching these problems in low-fidelity stages prevents costly changes later in development.

This is why repeated iteration is so important as it gives you a better chance of catching these problems and growing as a designer.

"Skillfull pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests" — Epictetus