Goodreads App Redesign

Overview & Problem
Goodreads is a social cataloguing and book discovery platform that allows users to search, track, and discuss books.

My goal was to update the look and feel of the app’s interface, but I discovered an issue where users were not satisfied with the books recommended to them. Users felt frustrated looking extensively through the app for books that are more aligned to their interests.

My role
Solo personal Project

Skills
UX/UI design, service design, UX research, heuristic evaluation, product design, design system, wireframe, prototype, user flow

Tool
Figma, Google Survey, FigJam

Duration
3 Months

Discover your favorite book

The new design allows users to select their interests, and the app offers a curated selection of books based on their preferences. Whereas before, users wouldn't receive curated recommendations unless they had rated books within Goodreads.

UI Redesign

It started with a vision to redesign the app’s look and feel.

Style Guide

Discover🔎

Then I found a problem…

Below are comments from a user research I conducted.

Problem🤕

The book recommendation section fell short of users’ expectations.

People use Goodreads to find new books, but many were frustrated at the personalized book recommendation section suggesting irrelevant books.

Feature #1

Filter System

Prototype🔧

Try it out below

Reflection🪞

My original goal was to improve the app’s user flow, but everything changed when I discovered the bigger issue was the book recommendation part of the app. I want to thank the Goodreads users that completed my survey and helped me with feedback.

Something I learned while working on this project was to make prototypes separately depending on the task goal. I initially had this vision to prototype an entire app that “works,” but through talking to my mentor (on ADP list) I learned that prototyping an entire app would cause the Figma file to run slow during user testing. So, if I could turn back time, then I would prototype each interaction separately to avoid slow prototypes and to keep my file organized.

If I had more time to take this project further, I would prioritize conducting user testing on the prototype to reiterate and eventually measure success metrics.