Goodreads Re-design
A personal re-design project aimed at reimagining the Goodreads interface, applying user-centered design principles to align the platform with modern digital standards.
Goodreads is a social book cataloging website and app owned by Amazon. Users can track their reading progress and history, write books reviews, and connect with other readers.
To evaluate Goodreads’ user experience, I conducted an analysis of iOS and Google Play Store app reviews, focusing on sentiment trends, star ratings, and review volumes. This data-driven approach highlighted consistent user pain points and informed the priorities of my redesign.
Average rating of 2.4 stars on the ios app store and trending downwards (-0.6)
Very poor sentiment, with only 48% positive. Breakdown shows the majority of reviews are negative.
Average rating of 3.3 stars on the google play store and trending downwards (-0.4)
Poor sentiment, with 66% positive sentiment, but still not strong. A large chunk is negative or mixed.
Design & UX rank 2nd in the negative sentiment analysis, making up 28.3% of negative reviews
Alongside UX, topics like Feature Requests and Use Cases also appear frequently, meaning users are actively asking for better workflows, features, and ways to engage.
A thoughtful redesign can both fix frustrations and unlock new opportunities for richer engagement.
Investigation - Pain Points
Key Findings
Weak Social Features
The current feed feels boring and unhelpful; users want to connect around books but instead turn to external conversations because Goodreads doesn’t provide meaningful interaction.
Design - Sketching & Ideation
Design - Wireframing
