Designed a dashboard interface that allows readers to efficiently find book information and complete basic tasks
This was an independent case study.
This was a solo project.
Figma
What exactly is Goodreads? As a reader, Goodreads is a book cataloging site that I frequently access to update my reading progress and explore new book options. With a user base of more than 90 million readers, I anticipated the platform to be user-friendly. However, I found that completing tasks was unintuitive and time consuming.
Through the criticism the r/Goodreads community voiced, I realized that I wasn’t the only one that felt that way.
I discovered that users commonly criticize how much time it took to find basic information and complete tasks.
To gain a deeper understanding, I interviewed 11 Goodreads users and this confirmed my previous finding:
Readers want to be able to efficiently find information and complete tasks, but the interface of the Goodreads app makes it time consuming.
Moreover, with the interviews, I also discovered the primary and secondary goals of using Goodreads:
With this in mind, I wanted to find out why. Why is the interface time consuming?
By conducting an audit of the Goodreads app and reviewing user feedback, I made the following insights:
With a better understanding of the problem, I began brainstorming.
I used post-its and brainstormed features to target the problem. After exploring multiple ideas, I decided on some options.
I created low-fidelity wireframes to explore these features:
✅ Centralized Access: Serves as a central hub where readers can easily access basic features
✅ Efficient: Users can complete tasks without navigating away from homepage
❌ Clutter: Design might appear cluttered with too many sections
✅ Centralized Access: Toolbar serves as a central hub where readers can easily access basic features
✅ Efficient: Users can complete tasks without navigating away from homepage and tools are customizable.
❌ Screen Space: Occupies valuable screen space, limiting the display area for other important information on the homepage
❌ Redundancy: Some features available in the toolbar might already be accessible through other parts of the app
Based on the pros and cons of each feature, I decided to go with the dashboard because it serves as a centralized hub yet reduces redundancy. Additionally, dashboards are more commonly used as an app design practice, while Quick Access Toolbars are more prevalent in editing softwares such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs.
In terms of helping against clutter and irrelevant information, I decided to use a combination of all the solutions to create a more intuitive and user-friendly experience. None of these solutions were exclusive of each other.
I continued to iterate the dashboard interface and focused on the following goals:
To design the final interface, I conducted an analysis with other book cataloging apps. One design that particularly stood out to me was Apple’s Books app.
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Being unable to efficiently complete basic tasks in Goodreads can be frustrating for readers, especially since the app is designed to complete these goals. Having a dashboard allows readers to complete tasks efficiently without leaving the homepage, creating a seamless and frustration-free experience.
This was my first case study so I sought a lot of guidance from various resources, such as the Design Buddies community and my design mentors. I learned the importance of intentionality and being able to back up my design choices with reasoning.
