Goodreads Research

Conducted usability research on Goodreads to identify pain points, improve user experience, and inform design recommendations.

Project Overview

Our team conducted a comprehensive usability study of the Goodreads mobile app to identify pain points, evaluate its strengths, and generate actionable recommendations for improvement. The project combined expert evaluations, user research, and task-based testing to uncover both minor and major usability issues.

Project Goals

The goals of this research were to:


  • Identify usability problems, ranging from minor frustrations to major obstacles.

  • Highlight positive elements of the Goodreads app that enhance the user experience.

  • Generate actionable recommendations to improve overall usability and user satisfaction.

Methods & Process

We used a multi-step approach to ensure thorough evaluation and insight gathering:


  1. Expert Evaluation

    • Conducted a heuristic evaluation and cognitive walkthrough to identify potential usability issues and cognitive burdens in the app interface.


  2. User Research

    • Screened participants to align with our target audience.

    • Conducted interviews to explore attitudes toward books, reading habits, and experiences with book-related apps.


  3. Usability Testing

    • Participants completed specific tasks within the app while we measured:

      • Task completion time

      • Errors made

      • User confidence

      • Satisfaction levels

      • Overall task success

    • Observations from these tests helped pinpoint areas for improvement in usability and overall user experience.


By integrating these methods, we gained a clear understanding of the Goodreads app’s strengths and weaknesses, which informed our final recommendations.

Personas

Usability Test Findings

  • Users were often confused about where to navigate within the app.

  • The search bar was not intuitive for finding groups.

  • Users were not informed when their discussion posts were successfully submitted.

Final Results & Recommendations

From our findings, we developed recommendations to enhance the Goodreads app experience:


  • Improve navigation clarity by highlighting primary actions and reducing cognitive load.

  • Enhance search functionality to make groups and discussions more discoverable.

  • Provide clear feedback when actions are completed (e.g., posting a discussion).

  • Streamline the interface to remove or reorganize cluttered elements and emphasize core user goals.

Reflection

  • Positive Experience: Enjoyed designing participant screeners and improving selection to better represent the target audience.

  • Task Design: Crafting usability test tasks strengthened critical thinking about app functionality and user flow.

  • Firsthand Observations: Watching users interact with the app revealed insights impossible to gain from analytics alone.

  • Improvement Areas: Learned to better organize testing, reset the app efficiently, and time tasks accurately.

  • Focus Moving Forward: Plan to improve attention to detail, simplify procedures, and prioritize quality over quantity to gather more meaningful insights.