Availability: Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Amazon App Store, In-Browser (hoopladigital.com), Select Smart TVs
Media types: Movies, Music, Audiobooks, EBooks, Comics, TV Shows
Devices Used for Review: Apple iPhone, Apple iPad, Acer PC (on Google Chrome Browser), and on my TCL Smart TV Accessed through: London Public Library (LPL), London, ON, Canada
Word Count: 1210 words
Background
Hoopla is a digital media service created by Midwest Tape. Midwest Tape originally started as a family-owned video rental store in 1989. The owner, John Eldred, has reached out to his local library and learned about the needs of the library market, leading to his video rental store evolving into what is now Midwest Tape. They act primarily as a full-service library distributor of both library media.
What differentiates Hoopla from other library borrowing apps is that it allows patrons to borrow
content immediately rather than enforcing availability constraints. However, depending on the library contract, you may be limited to how many titles you can take out per month. Through the London Public Library you can take out up to 6 titles a month, but there are no limits to how many copies of the same title can be accessed by LPL patrons.
Review
Image description: white text reading "hoopla" over a blue background. This is the app icon/logo for Hoopla Digital.
For this review, I tried using Hoopla on my Apple iPhone 12, my 5th generation Apple iPad, Google Chrome on my 2019 Acer Swift PC Laptop, and through a " channel" on my 43" TCL Roku Smart TV.
I have structured my review using the above rubric and evaluating the Audio-Visual Appeal, App Engagement, App Performance, User-friendliness, and Customization. I will further break these down below:
Audio-Visual Appeal
The Audio-Visual appeal of Hoopla is one of its strongest components. It makes use of cover art from books, movies, shows, and music, as well as other graphics that point to specific collections within the app. The app icons on the bottom menu of the app make it easy to browse around.
If I was ranking Hoopla's audio-visual appeal with the app and browser alone, it would have gotten 5 stars. I did have to take away a point because the TV channel through my TCL Smart TV was very plain and was lacking a lot of the visual elements that were included on the app and in the browser version. This could be due to programming constraints, but I was also disappointed to see that the color scheme of the TV channel was different and that it was harder to navigate as the additional graphics were not present.
As we see here, on the TV, Hoopla has a black background with white text whereas the mobile app and browser versions both use a light background with dark text. I find that the bright blue accent on the black background is very stark and it's harder to read the white text on the blue.
App Engagement
The Hoopla app on my mobile devices and internet browser kept me very engaged. I was particularly taken by the browsing feature and the way that different media was organized within the app. I spent a lot of time adding different titles to my favorites list and feeling a bit sad that I could only take out six of them at a time.
The TV version was also very engaging once I had figured out how to set it up. I had to keep switching between the Hoopla app on my phone and the remote app for my TV to get everything to sync up properly. I also needed to go back and forth between the TV channel and the phone app in order to find the media I wanted to check out. Browsing the catalog on the TV was not as easy as on the phone, so I could not stay completely engaged with it. However, it was very engaging once I had fully set everything up.
App Performance
In general, the app performed very poorly for me. Particularly the search function. No matter what I searched (including book titles I had seen on the home screen), Hoopla would turn up no search results. This issue was across the board: on the mobile app, in browser, and on my TV. The in-app response time was rather slow. On my TV, I experienced a crash any time I streamed an audiobook. TV shows and movies caused no crashes, but did take awhile to load. Hoopla was still usable on all devices, but was very frustrating to use.
User-Friendliness
Hoopla had some aspects that were intuitive, but there were a lot of drawbacks that made some tasks confusing to undertake:
The built-in menu makes browsing the app very easy, this is mostly in thanks to the app having different media types and genres clearly labeled.
The borrowing process is very easy - only takes one click!
Hoopla makes it easy to sync your library across devices, this means you can start reading a book on one device and pick it up on another without hassle
The Hoopla app has features such as speed and sleep timer for audiobooks, text size and background colour for eBooks, and standard playback features for TV Shows and Movies. However, only standard playback features are available on the TV. So, even though you can listen to audiobooks on your TV, you will have to use the app or browser version to change the speed or set a sleep timer.
As I mentioned in the performance section, I could not get the search function on any device to work. This makes it very difficult or even impossible to find a specific title.
Browsing on the TV had some difficulties, it was not as obviously organized or curated like popular streaming services such as Netflix, AmazonPrime, and Disney+
The main reason for why I gave this app a three out of five on user friendliness is because of the help section. A help section exists, and it does list some common searches and FAQs, but I again had issues with getting the search function to work. The repeated issue of not being able to search for things properly on any part of the app or website is a huge drawback.
Customization
In terms of customization, there is very very little that can be customized through the app settings. The only headings in this section are: Personal Settings, Library Settings, Notification Settings, and Link a Streaming Device. Each section only allows you to change one or two elements. Most are just a simple "on or off" feature. The app developers really need to better consider the current information environment and the needs of library patrons and completely revamp this aspect of Hoopla. The lack of customization lends itself to seeming a bit like Hoopla and Midwest Tape do not fully have users in mind.
Summary
Whether or not I would recommend that someone use Hoopla entirely depends on what their needs are. It is great for being accessible on several device type and for having a larger selection of media types. However, for anyone solely looking for eBooks and audiobooks, I would direct them to Libby rather than Hoopla as Libby is a bit more user-friendly and has more customization options.
Sources
Hoopla Digital. (2022). About. Hoopla Digital. Retrieved April 12, 2022, from https://www.hoopladigital.com/about
Hoopla Digital. (2022). Help. Hoopla Digital. Retrieved April 12, 2022, from https://www.hoopladigital.com/help
Hoopla Digital. (2022). My Hoopla. Hoopla Digital. Retrieved April 12, 2022, from https://www.hoopladigital.com/my/hoopla
Midwest Tape. (2022). Hoopla. Midwest Tape: Librarians #1 Resource. Retrieved April 12, 2022, from https://www.midwesttape.com/hoopla
Midwest Tape. (2022). Our Story. Midwest Tape: Librarians #1 Resource. Retrieved April 12, 2022, from https://www.midwesttape.com/story
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