Mobile app · Redesign + library
IQUP
A Muslim super app with a built-in library: prayer times, Quran, duas, Qibla and books in one place.
- Role
- Lead product designer, owned the design decisions
- Year
- 2024
- Platform
- iOS & Android
- Team
- 2 product managers, 5 developers, 1 UI/UX designer
Task
Create one app with everything a Muslim needs to learn and practise: the Quran, duas and books. The existing app looked outdated and its logic was unclear, so the job was a full redesign plus a new library for buying and reading Islamic books.
Research
We studied the Islamic apps popular in Kazakhstan, like Sajda and Quran.kz, and the best reading apps: Kindle, Apple Books, Yandex Books and Litres. From each we picked what works best for reading, including the fonts and background colours people actually choose, then tested those choices with users before building. The product team also ran 50+ customer interviews, which shaped the backlog.
Screens
Main screen
The main screen is built around prayer times, and that is what brings people back. They open the app several times a day to check the next prayer, and from there move on to the library, the Quran and duas.
- Countdown to the next prayer
- Settings in one tap
Library
From the main screen people step into the library: shelves, categories and a top 10. Every book has its own page with reviews and a free sample.
- The library’s main screen
- Open a book
- Check the order
- Continue in My books
Reading
Reading is the heart of the app. The backgrounds and fonts in the reader are the ones users preferred in testing, and everything can be adjusted for comfort: background, font, text size and spacing. Try it below.
Женитьба – это важный аспект счастья человека в этом мире. Пророк, мир ему и благословение Аллаха, сказал:
«Счастье заключается в четырех вещах: праведной жене, просторном жилище, праведном соседе и удобном средстве передвижения»
Неправильный выбор жены или мужа приводит к несчастной совместной жизни, либо к распаду семьи. Это не означает, что ты будешь жить всю оставшуюся жизнь несчастно по отдельности, однако само по себе это не есть хорошо.
Жизнь после развода тоже есть, но это уже другая тема. Об этом мы поговорим отдельно. Но ради понимания важности темы выбора…
Try it: change the background, font and size.
Quran
Read by surah or page, listen with the ayah highlighted, and adjust the text, reciter and font for comfort. For Arabic we chose Scheherazade, the font most used in Islamic readers and the clearest for non-Arabic speakers thanks to its readable harakat.
- Choose a surah
- Read the page
- Select an ayah
- Listen with the ayah highlighted
- Pick a reciter
- Adjust the display
- Search the Quran
- Read in sepia
Duas
Duas are what people come back to every day: morning, daytime and evening adhkar, each a set of duas recited several times. A tap counter shows how many times you have recited each dua, and a small reward marks the end of the set, which turns the habit into a daily return.
- Pick a dua
- Browse other duas
- Duas after prayer
- Read with transcription
- Count your dhikr
- Get a small reward
- Dark mode
Qibla
Calibrate once, then turn until the Kaaba lines up.
- Calibrate
- Find the direction
- Facing the Qibla
- Location off
Islamic library app
Maktaba
Because of authors’ copyrights, the library in IQUP was later closed. The idea stayed with me, so I built Maktaba: a free web library of Islamic books for Muslims.
Most of these books exist only as PDFs, which are hard to read on a phone. Maktaba turns them into a reader mode, where you can change the background, font and text size, just like in the IQUP reader. Comfortable reading, and completely free.
Open Maktaba ↗Results
The new design was approved and released, replacing the old interface. It is cleaner and more modern, and more people use the app than before. I led the full redesign and built the library section, from research to the final screens.