Goodreads App Redesign
Overview
With more than 150 million members, Goodreads is a platform where readers can store book lists, find new books to read, and connect with friends or fans of their favorite genres. However, the interface notoriously outdated as well as difficult to navigate. After downloading the app and observing the sheer number of people who also encounter issues with the platform, I pursued this redesign as an opportunity to improve readers' experiences.
Through user research and interviews, I discovered that many users struggled with navigating the tasks they wanted to complete. Based on my research, I designed some solutions and validated them further with additional usability tests.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Goodreads in any capacity.
Client: Design Challenge
Length: 8 weeks
Completed in: Spring 2024
Collaborator: Hannah Leibovich
Role: end-to-end design, including user research, user interviews, competitive analysis, wireframing, prototyping, usability testing.
The Challenge
Despite having many unique aspects that users love, the navigation of the Goodreads app makes it challenging to utilize these features. In addition, many UI elements have inconsistencies across the app, causing confusion and frustration with popular tasks.
For this redesign, I focused on re-centering the app on its users, addressing crucial pain points that align with the most used features. I also introduced new additions to Goodreads based on competitive analysis and suggestions that both enhance the overall user experience and foster a closer connection with user needs.
Understanding Goodreads Users
Research Goals:
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Understand what motivates readers to use Goodreads
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Identify the most used features and tasks
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Discover usability issues and pain points associated with popular tasks
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Learn how Goodreads can differentiate itself by analyzing competitors
I started my research by compiling 104 open responses from a Reddit survey asking users 3 questions:
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Why do you use Goodreads and what do you love most?
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What would you change about Goodreads or add to it?
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If you don’t use Goodreads, what’s your alternative?
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Biggest Pain Points (in order of popularity)
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Struggling with usability and navigation
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Ugly interface
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No half-star ratings
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Search suggestions don't find what I'm looking for
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Hard to find groups / friends
User Interviews
I conducted my own user interviews with 8 Goodreads users across gender, age, tech-proficiency demographics in order to confirm my findings. This is what some users had to say:
“I love seeing what my friends are reading and I always look at ratings of books to see if they’re worth my while. I really want to be able to give half star ratings – there’s a huge difference between 3.5 and 4 stars.”
"I wish it was easier to navigate. I often find myself pressing a lot of unnecessary buttons.”
“The suggested books are really helpful because it allows me to branch out a little or try something new. The "Want to Read" shelf also keeps me on top of my reading goals, but sometimes I get confused trying to get to it.”
“The interactive social feed is a big pro. I like being able to comment on a friend’s update, discussion thread style. However, I mostly use the desktop version only because the groups are much harder to get to on the app. And I really wish the process of adding friends was easier – I get lost every time I have to do it.”
“I tend to forget about books I read so Goodreads helps me track and remember. I love the annual reading challenge because it gives me a goal and shows my progress... I wish it wasn’t owned by Amazon, so I’ve downloaded Storygraph to see if I like it better.”
Using the user interviews, as well as general knowledge about Goodreads demographics, I created 3 user personas representing users with different needs and focuses.
In order to further breakdown the process of one of Goodreads' most used feature, navigating shelves, I created a user journey of what a current user might experience when using the app. This helped identify specific stages where pain points are occurring.
Competitive Analysis
Many responses showed that an overwhelming number of ex-Goodreads users had started to use Storygraph instead, a similar app with cleaner UI and a focus on analytics. To explore their product offerings against the Goodreads app, I performed a SWOT analysis using the survey responses as well as app store reviews.
Creating a New Experience
From my research, it became very clear that the current site map was not catering to the most used tasks. There were also many basic usability issues contributing to user error and misclicks. Major issues included:
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Certain screens have no visibility of system status
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Overall very little consistency across all UI elements
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Some simple buttons had 5+ hidden, unrelated options – Requires recall over recognition and includes irrelevant or rarely needed information
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Differently named and styled buttons leading to the same location
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2+ locations that served the same purpose with different layouts
Current App Site Map:
Revised Site Map:
Wireframing
I used rough sketches in order to quickly try out multiple layouts and navigation methods before committing to specific designs to prototype.
Usability Testing
After creating a hi-fi prototype, I tested my design with Goodreads users representing the range of user personas. Each user was asked to perform several tasks that reflected the most popular features I found during research. I noted misclicks, how they were able to recover from them, and other comments that were made during testing.
The tests also involved A/B testing two separate flows for the social component for the app, where I asked users to complete different "social" tasks and rate their ease of use for each.
Results & Improvements
Out of the 8 tasks across the app that users were asked to complete:
7/8 tasks completed with 0 misclicks.
100% of misclicks were recoverable.
88% of users were able to find Shelves, Profile, Reading Challenges, Groups, Recommendations, Notes, Reviews, and Search.
Seeing and listening to people think out load while using the prototype confirmed the design of most of the app and helped me refine the details of my user flow, like menu access and adding additional indicators.
For example, one task that seemed to confuse some testers: moving books between shelves. I revisited the designs and used my observations of participants' tendencies to make adjustments. While keeping a short-cut handy for more experienced users, I added a more obvious dropdown for shelves in the Book Page, following the current design in both Goodreads and Storygraph.
Before:
After:
Final Prototype
More elements are being added as I continue working on this project. But for now, feel free to interact with the current prototype below!
Reflection & Next Steps
I was excited to take on this project because I knew it was going to involve a lot of re-organization of the many features that Goodreads offers. I was able to hone in and further develop my documentation skills while gaining additional practice creating and facilitating user interviews / tests. Throughout the project, I frequently revisited research, which ultimately helped me recreate the app and how users interact with it.
Next steps: I would love to do additional usability tests and gather more feedback from Goodreads' massive user base. What would a more interactive or social Reading Challenge look like? How would this platform be translated to the desktop form? What if we added more games, achievements, or quizzes as a social aspect? How can the analytics get pushed even further? I'm looking to further address these questions as I continue this project, but for now, check out the current state of the app in the final prototype!