Summary
Due to increased knowledge and advanced technology, e-book reading has expanded dramatically over time. However, Librie from Sony had a far better resolution and a longer cycle life, but it was sluggish as there was no adequate readability or e-book content selection. The first Amazon Kindle, which uses e-ink technology to make the screen display smooth and offer a better reading experience, was introduced. Despite being preferable to Sony’s e-book, it did have flaws, notably slow page turns and button placement, among others. The result prompted the evolution of Amazon’s e-book to Kindle2. The evolution of Kindle might have undergone various research methodologies, which are not limited to, observational research (Cooper et al., 2018). Since the changes made in the original Kindle are related to user experience (UX), Amazon might have employed such processes as UX research and questionnaires, objective definition, and ideation and prototyping in its observational research.
UX Research and Survey
Amazon might have employed the use of questionnaires in designing its UX research for Kindle2. Case in point, a simple sampling of the original Kindle users might have been made, and a survey generated. The survey might have been conducted through questionnaires and sent randomly to original Kindle uses to note their experiences with the device. Moreover, in this context, the designer might have conducted a poll among a sample of literary scholars or bloggers to learn about their preferences while addressing pain points related to hardware, performance, and UX (Yin et al., 2018). The sample design might have been one of the variables affected during the observational study design. In this case, event sampling concepts and theory might have been chosen as one of the best choices for researchers to capture Kindle’s UX and pain points.
Objectives Definition
The findings of the UX study on the areas that need emphasis and attention might have been used to define the objectives. This sort of information gathering involves researchers analyzing relevant data based on the responses to the “what, when, where, and how” questions (Cooper et al., 2018). During objective definition, Amazon might have involved participant observation through interviews. That is, the Amazon team and researchers might have gathered data through active and focused group discussion with a grounded theory research design. As such, Amazon researchers might have first assembled and recorded user interface (UI) observations before asking for UX inputs. The team might have justified the use of participant observation because of the possibility that crucial information might only be available to, or interpretable by, those who are active contributors in the group (Indu & Vidhukumar, 2019). Therefore, goals for this approach might have been described as either resolving present problems or suggesting usability improvements.
Ideation and Prototyping
After identifying objectives, ideation and prototyping constitute the final stages. In this situation, the designer might have worked through multiple iteration cycles to achieve the goals. The stage might have come after a behavioral or non-behavioral observation (Cooper et al., 2018). When doing Kindle research that does not include behavioral observation, Amazon researchers might have used process assessment to examine the flow development and gain a comprehensive understanding of each user’s Kindle interaction in order to collect feedback. As such, upon completion of the ideation and prototyping, the new Kindle2 was launched.
In conclusion, the redesign’s objective might have been to engage with people and learn about their interests. The designer might have established a set of goals to address their immediate problems through UX research and survey to improve the user experience, as might have been incorporated in the objective definition. Case in point, upon ideation and prototyping, the overall readability might have improved, consequently resulting to the current Kindle2.
References
Cooper, D. R., & Schindler, P.S. (2018). Business research methods (12th ed.). McGraw-Hill/ Irwin.
Indu, P. V., & Vidhukumar, K. (2019). Research designs-An overview. Kerala Journal of Psychiatry, 32(1), 64-67. Web.
Yin, C., Yamada, M., Oi, M., Shimada, A., Okubo, F., Kojima, K., & Ogata, H. (2019). Exploring the relationships between reading behavior patterns and learning outcomes based on log data from e-books: A human factor approach. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 35(5), 313-322. Web.