Vault of Midnight Comic & Games Store
App Concept & Utilization
The Vault of Midnight App is designed to give you access to their catalog of over hundreds of thousands of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and shop online for merchandise including figures, trading cards, and board games. Shop online and order ahead for in-store pickup, delivery right to your door, and check out local employee and user reviews. Get breaking news on all things comics, and follow all of the latest events in downtown Grand Rapids. Sign in to keep track on your wish lists, rate your purchases, and sign up for a Premium subscription that gives you access to free content weekly and special bonuses including but not limited to; discounts, free digital comics on the house, and more to come.
The Problem
How to design an app for both the casual & the hardcore enthusiast pop culture consumer that entices them to shop specifically at the Vault of Midnight.
The Solution
Create an enticing shopping experience tailored to the local business model and provide a service that greatly benefits repeat and avid customers.
Personas
Three Personas were developed for the design process based after real-life testimonials and personalities of people I know;
- Caleb, a young adult who greatly enjoys comics/graphic novels and uses all sorts of media as inspiration for their own work in animation and creating original content. Essentially they are the core demographic that would benefit from using the app consistently.
- Rebecca, while not a big avid reader of comics, enjoys spending her time play video games and board games. She would save up and spend some income on purchasing larger (and expensive) art books or special edition graphic novels. However, she is socially anxious and spending too much time in small areas or around a large group of people can make trips to the store a little unnerving.
- Ethan, though similar to Caleb's persona, takes a more pessimistic approach and likes to find ways to save money. He searches for more opportunities to shop elsewhere for cheaper. He is also the only persona to live far outside of Grand Rapids and thus he shops there much less (if at all) than the other two.
PERSONAS
"I shop [at Vault of Midnight] a lot already and like to spend a couple hours looking around, I almost have no idea what I would like to buy though because there's so much to explore and wishfully buy. It's almost TOO much.
- Caleb
"People suck sometimes, and if I can order ahead and not feel weird standing around looking for something to buy, I'd rather much do that."
- Rebecca
"If I'm ever back in Grand Rapids I'd still shop there, but at the end of the day I can either just read comics for free online or get all the other stuff cheaper from Amazon."
- Ethan
What I Learned
Prior to the Personas the idea was just to conceptualize a mobile shopping app. Now I had to take into further consideration going forward.
1) There's so much media to consume now and so little time for shoppers to decide on what they would like to read and buy. Putting an emphasis on user reviews made by fellow shoppers and even employees in store can help readers new and old find something they would like with ease.
2) Shopping online and ordering for delivery or in store pickup is a convenience but could draw away users from wanting to shop in store more often. Going forward I need to keep the importance of in store shopping and engagement in mind.
3) Competition (especially price wise) is already cut-throat in an Amazon dominated market. Vault of Midnight should be able to provide something comparable without taking a loss profit wise.
Competitive Analysis
The biggest competitors to focus on are large retail vendors such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble; both of these vendors provide similar goods in terms of graphic novels and pop culture accessories. Digital e-book applications such as ComiXology (also provided by Amazon) that specifically focus on comic and graphic novels also pose a similar challenge especially in regards to buying digitally vs. physically.
A dark horse (no pun intended to Dark Horse Comics) to the study was Madefire, a comic book application that has a smaller library but focuses more on higher quality content and a feature exclusive to them; motion-based comics and exclusive content only through Madefire designed to take advantage of that feature.
Focus on Quantity
Personalized Shopping
General Shopping
Focus on Quality
Features & Prioritization
Nice To Have
Low Effort/
Expense
- Shipping
- VoM News & Events
- Digital Preview
- Digital Comics
- Notifications
- Wish List
- User Profile
- Questionnaire
- Rating and Reviews
- Shopping &
Pickup In-Store
- Recommended
Products
- Genre Catalogs
- Subscription Service
- VoM Exclusive
Products
High Effort/
Expense
Essential
Should
Could
- Shipping
- Digital
Preview
Won't
- Digital
Comics
Must
- User Profile
- Questionnaire
- Recommended
Products
- Ratings &
Reviews
- Wish List
- Genre Catalogs
- Shopping &
Pickup In-Store
- VoM
Exclusives
- Subscription
Service
- VoM News
& Events
User Flow
Wireframes
The rough wireframes illustrated below give a basic idea of how the clickstream would flow. The mockups further down provide more detail into how the style and function will look to the user and include additional changes since the prototype.
To explore the app, a Navigation scroll is near the top by the Search bar, a Menu Side Bar extends from the left side, and a Home button and Cart buttons for jumping quickly back and forth between the most active sections on the app. The Menu Side Bar provides its users with more options that are tailored more to the user's personal experience rather than the content such as the users' Profile, their Subscription, and more.
Because of the visual noise from multiple sources (such as book covers or advertisement banners), I felt it was best to keep the color scheme simple; a monotone gradient with white highlights for buttons, indicators, etc.
The san serif font is modern and neutral, meant to compliment the diverse typography in the covers and banners as well.
The first thing that users will go through after filling in their profile information is a short questionnaire designed to help tailor recommended material for the user, similar to how movie streaming apps will ask its new users what TV/Movie programs might interest them.
Once on the main feed, the user is greeted with a Homepage with the latest updates on local and comic news with a tailored feed based on what you browse.
The browsing experience is straightforward; Sections include what is New, Featured, Recommended Selections, etc. The user can scroll from left to right on the choices available or choose to see more options, leading in to a list with more details next to the covers providing price, rating, etc. The product's landing page provides a full summary and extends the shopping options to include adding to a wishlist and rating the product yourself.
Similar to subscription applications such as Spotify, the app is designed to bring in users with a service that provides its users with a consistent flow of content on a monthly basis. It would be bare minimum to reward subscribers with just free comics here and there; offering discounts and bonuses for in-store, including exclusive merchandise available only through Vault of Midnight.
As a local business, The app would also inform its users and subscribers with exclusive events in and around Downtown Grand Rapids. The more the user is involved with the app, the more they are involved with Vault of Midnight, and Grand Rapids as well.
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