Goodreads Updates — Bleh
Thoughts about the underwhelming revamp by Goodreads
I scanned my phone yesterday morning and found a new logo in the app grid. It was the new logo of Goodreads! This made me feel hopeful that a fairly static product had got a major revamp.
Goodreads is a product that I’ve been using since teenage, even before I learnt the ABCs of design or product management. However, the constant feeling that the app and website were slow and ancient irked me. But guess what, it has a de facto monopoly in the “social media for books” market.
Of course some apps did popup and I gave it a try. But the network effects and my activity history on the product have kept me hooked in spite of the underwhelming product experience.
In addition to all of this, finishing the annual Goodreads book challenge has now become a part of my personality. In spite of being an ancient and not-so-exciting product, Goodreads has held my attention for more than 15 years now.
The Announcement
After seeing the new logo, I scanned the app and found very few changes. The look and feel of the entire product still remains the same. I wondered if I had missed something and went to their official website and LinkedIn to find this announcement.
New logo, Reading Challenges, and more! As part of our commitment to updating Goodreads, we're excited to share several recent updates:
📱 Our new logo is designed to better represent Goodreads and is optimized for accessibility so it looks clear and sharp no matter where our readers encounter it—from your phone to a billboard.
🏆 As part of our popular Reading Challenge, we've introduced new rotating limited-time achievements throughout the year. We’re delighted to see so many readers already discovering books through this feature!
📚 Your Want to Read list is now included in Your Books on Amazon—one of our most requested features.
🎧 Our book catalog now includes more than a million audiobooks, making it easier to track all your reading.
My disappointment found further evidence after reading this post.
Pathetic Design
The logo they’ve chosen is absolutely out of sync with product experience inside the app. It feels alien and ugly, but that’s just my opinion. I can’t put a finger on it or substantiate it, but it just feels out of sync with the product.
Even the new feature they have announced is out of sync with user behaviour. I don’t pick books to complete the kind of reading challenges that were suggested by Goodreads. The only one that matters is the annual challenge.
I speak for myself when I say that I don’t pick a mystery book to complete a “summer challenge” when I have other compelling unread books on my list. Many would agree with this take. At least they could have personalised these challenges based on past reading behaviour and current books in progress.
The “Summer Challenge” feature is not really aiding the progress or happiness of a reader. I don’t want to win that challenge (or even take a look at it).
In addition to this , I found that the design, presentation and communication of the new “popular Reading Challenge” was pathetic if not terrible on the web product.
Firstly, these challenges communicate nothing substantial to the readers. One has to click the icon and then find the details of the challenge.
Even on the app the challenge is so poorly presented.
Even the icons are lazily designed with just a “?” on a bookmark icon (for the mystery challenge). They are all of the same colour (more or less).
It doesn’t evoke any excitement or interest in me. If it did evoke your interest, do let me know.
Goodreads Reigns
In spite of the poor design and product experience, I feel Goodreads will still prevail due to these reasons.
Goodreads just has a really huge data moat at this point, especially among readers who have used this product. Storygraph, the second biggest competitor has 1.2 million users while Goodreads has 140 million users (as of 2022). Recent data might tell a different story, but I don’t believe anything has changed drastically.
Since new users for any product that wishes to be “social media for books” would come from the current network, there are very few opportunities for an alternative.
I also believe that the frequency of logins and updates on such a product is much lesser than that for Instagram or X. Hence the incentive to search and migrate to an alternative would be quite low.
One can only hope that the Goodreads hires a good product design team and revamps the entire experience. The reading community of the world definitely needs a better product.