Add a Feature:
Goodreads
Calendar
A calendar to aid Goodreads users to have release dates of the authors they follow in one place, including what book they start and finish when.
Introduction
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. However, 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.
Problem Identified
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.
Project Duration
Tools
15 Days
Figma
Role
Team
Lead UX Designer
Solo
The Calendar
Easy User Navigation for all Experience Levels
Once logged in, the user has a number of options on how to navigate to the calendar. This makes it easier for the user to have the calendar accessible at all times, 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
Market Research
With the number of book tracking apps that have been produced within the last 10 months have given Goodreads a good level of competition in user retention. With that, the three platforms I focused on were 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. Instead, they’re targeted 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.
Learning Objectives
If and how people incorporate hobby tracking
What features would attract users to use a hobby tracking app
How and why folks use a (digital or physical) calendar
Interviews
Five Participants
1 male, 4 females
22 - 40 years old
“I prefer using Excel because I could then manipulate the tracking entirely to my needs.”
“I used Tik Tok to track my interests by creating groups. At a time it gets messy but it's what works for me.”
“Goodreads is my go to platform as a reader, but the need to navigate through multiple screens to find information is annoying.”
“I wouldn’t mind to start tracking, I just don’t like how tedious it is sometimes to do so.”
“There used to be a time when I used a calendar to help track my workouts - what day was what workout and PR’s”
“How might we make it so users are able to view all upcoming books of the authors they follow in one place vs. having to go to each individual author or book or book page?”
HMW
Define
User Personas
New User
The new calendar feature would help Lucy to keep track of her new journey as a reader visually, while being able to view upcoming release dates when she’s added a book she’s interested in.
User Attraction
Experienced User
Alexis would find the calendar motivating as being able to see when she finished books would encourage her to keep reading. This would also help entice her to look forward to new books coming out of authors she enjoyed reading as it would mean adding to her list of completed books.
User Retention
Task Flow
Prior to this flow, users would have to navigate to each individual book or author page to collect when certain books are to be released, or what book they completed recently. This new flow makes it so the user navigates to the calendar and is able to access all the information in one screen.
Low-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 essensce of the Goodreads platform
Homepage is re-designed for the user to easily and quickly locate the calendar while locating other features of the Goodreads platform.
The calendar displays all of the upcoming release dates of the authors followed by the user, and the books they’ve completed and started.
The profile is made to highlight the calendar and all the relevent stats the user would want to locate.
Testing & Iterations
Completing the screens, were followed by testing with provided 3 iterations that were made in order to enhance the user experience of the new calendar feature.
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.
Before
After
All of the users attempted to navigate to the calendar by trying the drop out menu at least once, which presented that being a viable navigation option.
Before
After
The calendar was not only updated in the legend colours, but also how the copy label on each date was displayed.
Before
After
High-Fi Wireframes
use the arrows to navigate through the wireframes!
Homepage with the calendar designed to have the user notice it and navigate to the calendar screen. The colours would entice a new use to select the calendar out of curiosity.
The drop down menu now presents the option of the user to navigate to the calendar.
The profile is designed with the calenar being visible upon landing on thye page. It fits being on this page as it houses the information and interests of the user.
The calendar page depicts author events, upcoming book releases, and the books started and finished. The filter on the right allows the user to control what information they view at a time, else they see all of the dates.
When the user selects a specific book from their calendar, this is how the book information pops up: author name, rating, and a quick synopsis with the option to navigate to the book page.
Conclusion
Usability Testing
During the usability test, the users who were readers found this new feature helpful with future release dates more than anything, and that they would take advantage of such a feature should it be implemented.
It should be noted, that those who don’t read also recognized how this feature would benefit the specific reader demographic.
“This is so helpful! How does Goodreads not have this?”
Challenges
One of the challenge faced was re-designing the site’s interface to ensure the calendar is portrayed as a highlight feature.
Solution: Tracing the site and creating a template, then re-organizing from their was the easiest way to overcome this challenge as it allowed me to ensure that the layout pattern remained consistent in this new design. The goal was to add a new feature - the calendar.
Key Takeaways
Keep it Simple
The design doesn’t need to be over-the-top crazy in order to provide an attractive user experience. As a designer, it’s important to remember who the target demographic is, and based on the research how to best solve the identified problem.
Iterations
Not all iterations recommended out discovered are necessary, but should be considered. Where is this recommended iterations coming from, and why? Would it help improve the design and usability? How many users would benefit from this iteration?