Goodreads Calendar
Goodreads is one of the first book tracking social platforms available to readers. It provides readers and authors a platform to interact with one another and keep each other updated on their reading ventures.
Problem
In the past 10 years, many apps have appeared which is not only more user friendly, but makes it easier for users to track their reading while maintaining a fun interface. How can Goodreads retain users and attract more users by playing on it’s established social feature?
Solution
Based on public user responses, a Calendar feature to the platform promotes access all information regarding dates (i.e., upcoming book release dates, and when they started and finished what book) that they are primarily seeking when using Goodreads.
Calendar Highlights
Easy User Navigation for all Experience Levels: The user has a number of options on how to navigate to the calendar, simplifying accessibility, which means they can find all the information regarding release dates in one spot quickly.
All Release Dates Available in One Spot: Each banner is correlated to a certain reading aspect, as decoded by the Legend/Filter. Users can interact with the calendar and find more information regarding the books they’ve read, are reading, or are about to be released.
Research
Competitive Analysis
Competitors: Storygraph, Bookly, and Hardcover.app
Other platforms don’t include a screen which shares all information from authors because those platforms don’t encompass author usage.
Target to reader experience. This is where Goodreads and other platforms differ, Goodreads contains a social aspect which allows for the author and reader to interact.
The social aspect of Goodreads is what supports the benefits of having a calendar as the user is able to view the author’s upcoming release dates.
User Interviews
Intention: interviewees wanted to be able to control what they were tracking to better fit their goals
Tracking Application: Interviewees expressed creating their own trackers using non-tracker platforms (i.e., Tik Tok, Instagram)
Features: Regardless of software or platform used, interviewees wanted to be able to segment what they're tracking, and for it to be visually appealing and easy to read
Updates: Lack of progression begins to discourage continuous usage of applications, while certain updates can also discourage usage
Define
Target Audience
How might we make it so users are able to view all the upcoming books of the authors they follow in one place vs. having to go to each individual author or book page?
Develop
Mid-Fi Wireframes
In order to accommodate for this new feature, I re-organized the platforms interface. This meant updating the interface as best as possible while not taking away from the main goal of this project: the Calendar.
The steps I took to achieve this was:
recreate the Goodreads interface by using the platform as a template
add the calendar where it would fit best
move the aspects of the site around to best highlight the Calendar
create the Calendar screens from scratch while maintaining the essence of the Goodreads platform
The homepage is re-designed for the user to easily and quickly locate the calendar, while being able to also locate the other Goodreads features
The profile is made to highlight the calendar and all the relevant statistics the user would want to locate.
The calendar displays all of the upcoming releases dates of the authors that the user follows, and the books the user has completed/started
Delivery
Key Iterations
The users expressed finding the colours jarring. In order to address this, I muted the colours in order to better respect the colour pallet adopted by Goodreads.
All of the users attempted to navigate to the calendar by clicking the drop down menu at least once, which presented that being a viable navigation option.
The calendar was not only updated in the legend colours, but also how the copy label on each date was displayed.
