Mobile app interface for comic book collection management, featuring three screens with stats, release lists, and collection details.

Compile

reshaping the way comic enthusiasts manage their collection

Role
Research, UX, UI

Category
Productivity

Buy, collect, sell. Repeat.

Everyone has a different reason for why they might collect something. For some comic collectors, it could be to snag the rarest #1 issues you can find. For others, it could be to get every issue of their favorite series. What all collectors have in common is the need to manage their collection.

Compile was created to help collectors sort their collections and provide realtime data and statistics. It can also help them track down old issues or the latest releases. A collector can now manage their entire collection all in one place.

Project objectives

Provide collectors a highly detailed system to sort and organize their collection

1

Ensure collectors have accurate data about their collection

2

Introduce commerce tools to facilitate barrier-free buying and selling

3

Check out the prototype.

Mobile app interface for comic book collection management, displaying sections for collection stats, comics list, tags, search options, and market listings.

Project takeaways

It can be overwhelming to tackle a product when there’s a desire to include many features. Ensure all features are absolutely necessary and always point back to project goals and solving users’ problems.

Prioritize essential info
Having too many features on a dashboard defeats the purpose of a quick, scannable tool. Use insights to determine what’s most important.

Black and white image of a stylized, simplified penguin with its wings outstretched.

Prototypes don’t have to be perfect
Focus time on key tasks of the product in the early stages to narrow in on areas for improvement.

Griffin mythical creature illustration with eagle head and lion body

Key features

Mobile app dashboard showcasing comic book collection stats, a pull list featuring "Power Rangers Universe #6," "Catwoman #46 Variant," "Hulk #8 Variant," and recommended comics. Display includes a user's total comics collected and wishlist numbers.

Dashboard
The main objective of the dashboard is to provide useful information for a growing comic book collection. Having a pull list and custom recommendations based on collection helps cut on down on lengthy searches.

Mobile app interface displaying a comic book collection summary, showing the number of comics owned, wishlist count, estimated value, read comics, spending, and sales. Also includes categories like unread, read, bins, 5-star, and tags such as horror, LGBT, sci-fi, and indie.

Piles vs. Tags
It was important to give users a way to categorize issues beyond a traditional tagging system. Piles serve as lists that can be customized based on a user’s personal sorting preferences.

Mobile app interface displaying a comic market with sections for searching and filtering by comic ages like "Golden Age" and "Silver Age." It shows active bids, watchlist, and listings summary. Includes comics expiring soon with titles like "Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #1," "Spawn #8," and "Marvel Super Secret Wars." Also features a "Recommended for You" section. Bottom navigation includes dashboard, search, collection, and market icons.

Market
Buying and selling comics often takes place in person or in other places around the web. It only makes sense to tie such an important part of collecting to the place users manage every other aspect.

Competitive analysis

Identifying where similar applications failed their users was the driving force behind the features selected for Compile.

A one-star review titled "Incorrect sorting wrapped in a pretty UI" by user ENDER84041 dated 05/10/22. The review criticizes a fast, powerful interface that fails to sort properly. It mentions that the List view does not sort issues sequentially within a given title. The image includes a comic book icon on the right.
A 2-star app review by user THEREALFISH dated 08/13/21 for the CLZ app, criticizing it as 'Worthless without comic values'. The review states that the app was valuable because it updated comic values, and without this feature, there's no reason to pay for it anymore.
Online review showing a low one-star rating by user UVUGU on 07/08/21, criticizing an unspecified product or service with the title 'Lots of room for improvement' and expressing dissatisfaction with clutter and lack of improvements.

Solving the number one problem

Adding a comic
One of the biggest critiques users had of competitors was with issues adding a comic to their collection. This flow keeps the process simple and gives the user as many tools at their disposal to ensure they can add a comic with as much or as little detail as desired.

Flowchart for adding a comic to a collection, starting from the dashboard. Options include searching a library or scanning a barcode. Search features offer issues, trade paperbacks, and hardcovers. Series results are viewed, an issue is selected, added to collection, with details including CGC, tags, rating, variant, and storage bin before ending.