Redesigning Goodreads
"How can we update the look, feel, and functionality of the mobile app?"
Timeline
6 weeks
Tools
Figma
Role
UX Designer, UX Researcher
w/ Ari Gaitan, Cat Lagman, and Beth Cerabona
"How can we update the look, feel, and functionality of the mobile app?"
6 weeks
Figma
UX Designer, UX Researcher
w/ Ari Gaitan, Cat Lagman, and Beth Cerabona
Goodreads, despite its large user base, struggles with outdated functionality and a lack of meaningful feature updates. Compared to other book cataloging apps, it has been slow to innovate, falling behind in both user experience and relevance.
We wanted to fix that. Our redesign goals included discovering and understanding major pain points in the existing app, improving existing features and functionality, and innovating new features to further fulfill user needs.
Step 1: Understand the existing Goodreads app
What are the core functions? What are its major issues?
To begin, we performed an initial cognitive walkthrough with the following user types and tasks:
User 1
Utilizes Goodreads to track reading habits, view recommendations and track annual reading challenges
User 2
Enjoys reading regularly and wants to connect with other avid readers to discuss their recent reads
Tasks
1. Add a book to your shelf
2. Find a new book to read
3. Add a friend from your contacts
4. Leave a rating and review
We found the following issues:
Step 2: Identify key strengths of competitors
What are Goodreads' competitors (StoryGraph, Bookly) doing better? What is Goodreads lacking?
We compared things such as app store ratings, number of users, unique features, and public sentiment and found:
Step 3: Gather initial user feedback
Which issues have users already pointed out?
Analyzing app store reviews for Goodreads, StoryGraph, and Bookly allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of their user bases and identify specific pain points and suggestions for improvement. Some specific findings include:
Step 4: Prioritize research and narrow down scope
What are the most impactful changes we can make within our time frame?
While we had numerous ideas for new features, we needed to narrow and prioritize those that aligned with our project timeline, leaving time to focus on improving existing features. To achieve this, we developed a survey to gather user preferences and feature suggestions. We then had users rank these options based on their importance, helping us focus on what mattered most to them.
We were able to narrow our scope and highlight some key factors to focus on:
With a robust body of research serving as a foundation for our project, we built towards a deeper understanding of user needs with our first round of user testing. Our pool of participants performed a series of core tasks using the existing Goodreads app. With the recorded data, we compiled a list of pain points to address in our initial prototype.
Before introducing new features, we thought it was important to address existing pain points. Using the tasks from our first user testing session (see previous section) as "zones" to focus on, we ideated and implemented a series of changes in direct response to user feedback.
Adding books to shelves
Existing
Proposed
Existing
Proposed
Leaving a review and rating
Existing
Proposed
Existing
Proposed
Finding new books to read
Existing
Proposed
Adding a friend
Existing
Proposed
Existing
Proposed
Existing
Proposed
Joining a group
Existing
Proposed
Existing
Proposed
Existing
Proposed
Profile Page
Existing
Proposed
Our second round of testing was necessary to validate our design assumptions, ensuring participants were able to perform tasks more efficiently and accurately with the new interface. We slightly modified our scenarios to gather feedback inclusive of ALL the changes we made:
Unfortunately, we ran into a lot of issues with our prototype's functionality, which led to a high percentage of errors and a low task success percentage. Despite this, we validated many design decisions and gathered invaluable feedback for future prototype improvements.
After receiving feedback specific to our prototype, we incorporated the changes our participants wanted to see AND implemented some of the suggested features from our initial user research.
Adding books to shelves
Old Prototype
New Prototype
New Prototype
Leaving a review and rating
Old Prototype
New Prototype
Old Prototype
New Prototype
Exploring the "Discover" Page
Old Prototype
New Prototype
Adding a friend
Old Prototype
New Prototype
Old Prototype
New Prototype
Joining a group
Old Prototype
New Prototype
Old Prototype
New Prototype
Exploring the "Profile" page
Old Prototype
New Prototype
New Prototype
In the timeframe given, we elected to prioritize improving existing features, which I stand by as the correct approach! A few things we would love to consider in future iterations of our Goodreads redesign:
Overall, we were very happy with the direction our redesign took. As my capstone project, it is something I look back on very proudly, and I'm happy I got the opportunity to work on something I'm passionate about!
