UX RESEARCH

The Problem
‍Though Goodreads is home to millions of readers, it hasn't been updated to keep up with users' evolving needs and tastes. Redundant pages, clunky navigation and dated UI is begging for a facelift.

The Research Goal
‍Determine where users feel Goodreads can improve, discover what they think Goodreads does well, and learn if they use competitor apps to supplement Goodreads, or have solutions in place already to fix their problems.

Competitive Analysis

User Interviews

Five users from the Instagram book community were asked to complete a questionnaire which asked them about their Goodreads usage habits, other reading apps they use, and their feelings about what the app does well, and where it could improve.

Findings

1.

Users primarily use Goodreads to track the books they've read and want to read, and to read others' reviews.

2.

Users like seeing what their friends are reading and want to read and expect that to be the main item on their feed.

3.

Unappealing UI, poor navigation, complicated systems, and coding problems make the app less enjoyable

Designing

Defining The Problem
Users want an app that emphasizes tracking their reading, and interacting with friends' reads want-to-reads, and reviews. By updating the UI and the navigation, Goodreads can be pared down to what readers actually use and want to see more of.

Next Steps
Now, after conducting crucial research on competitor products and diving deep into user's wants, needs, and mental models, it's time to start designing.

Information Architecture

Wireframes

UI Exploration

I showed each round of UI tweaks to users for their feedback. For revisions two and three, they said that changing the main colors too much made the app feel less like Goodreads and more like a new app entirely. For revision three, users felt the "pill" shaped containers for each post made it harder to see what their friends were actually saying about the books.