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Redesigning Goodreads: A More Human-Centred Reading Experience

A conceptual redesign of the Goodreads mobile experience, focused on improving discovery, personal expression, and usability while preserving the platform’s core social value.

Note: This is a conceptual redesign created for portfolio purposes and is not affiliated with Goodreads.

As an avid reader and long-time Goodreads user, I’ve spent years engaging with the platform as both a tracking tool and a social space. This project emerged from repeated moments of friction, where the experience no longer supported the way I read, discover, and reflect on books today. Below I present my findings alongside a redesigned concept.

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Key Challenges:

  • Outdated interface patterns reduce visual clarity and engagement
     

  • Rigid data structures limit user contribution
     

  • Discovery and social activity are conflated into a single feed
     

  • User profiles feel transactional rather than personal 

Design Goals:

  • Make reading activity feel personal and expressive
     

  • Separate discovery from social validation
     

  • Support incomplete or evolving data gracefully
     

  • Improve visual hierarchy and add scanning feature
     

  • Encourage reflection, not just tracking

Homepage

Current Experience:

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  • Inconsistent typography and spacing
     

  • Dense screens with low visual hierarchy 
     

  • Heavy text lists instead of visual scanning
     

  • Mixed intent: discovery vs social validation

Proposed Redesign:

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  • Visual-first presentation
    Covers and avatars act as primary scanning cues, with metadata intentionally secondary to reduce cognitive load.

  • Intent-based navigation
    Separates discovery (For You) from social activity (Following), allowing users to engage with content based on intent rather than volume.

  • AI-informed recommendations
    The For You page surfaces recommendations informed by reading history, shelf data, and interaction patterns

Library

Current Experience:

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  • Linear, list-based layout minimizes visual engagement with books
     

  • Little sense of ownership or progression
     

  • Interaction relies on reading interface text instead of visual cues
     

  • The interface tracks reading, but does not celebrate it

Proposed Redesign:

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  • "Library as a space" metaphor
    Reimagines the profile as a visual library, not a list. Shelves create a spatial, familiar mental model that reinforces ownership and memory.

  • Visual-first browsing
    Book covers become the primary scanning element. Horizontal shelves allow users to browse visually rather than read line by line.

Search

Current Experience:

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  • Empty, unguided search state
     

  • Rigid reliance on exact metadata
     

  • Users blocked from logging reading activity for books outside the app database

Proposed Redesign:

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  • Guided, exploratory search experience
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  • Clear "Add a Book" entry point
    Provides support for incomplete or temporary entries of books that are not yet in the Goodreads database

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  • Users empowered as contributors, not just searchers

This project was an opportunity to step back and ask how small structural changes, not more features, might better support the way people actually read, browse, and reflect over time. It’s less about reinventing Goodreads, and more about recentering the experience around calm discovery and personal connection with books.

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