10 comments

  • Duke CavinskiDuke Cavinski, over 5 years ago

    I like that the "crude wireframes" was just a digital mockup photoshopped onto a sketch pad.

    16 points
  • Absolute Studio, over 5 years ago

    I'm a fan of Goodreads and actually I think the design is just only for show off.

    12 points
  • Art VandelayArt Vandelay, over 5 years ago

    To get it right, they made:

    • Cards
    • Hella dropshadows
    • Rounded corners (twitter)

    Good to know y'all spent a ton of time just doing "trendy design". Yay!

    7 points
  • James Young, over 5 years ago

    As a company, High Contrast say they spent:

    72 design hours 3 creative directions hours 8 account management hours 4 copywriting hours

    on this redesign concept, this seems to transcend "just for fun redesign" project and moves into the realms of marketing pitch or promo material investment.

    I'm not massively bothered about the redesign, it looks nice enough but I don't use the product so can't say if it's an improvement but I'd love to know a little more about how this sort of investment by a company pays off in terms of promotion or lead generation (or whatever).

    Is anyone from High Contrast able to provide a little more insight into that? I'd love to read about the results of this sort of this sort of work.

    7 points
    • Tudor Barbu, over 5 years ago

      Hi!

      This project is just a visual redesign proposal for Goodreads, based on our personal experience with the app. In order to make a major UX improvement , we would need some real data and insights from the client, followed by hours of analysis and research.

      It is a preview of what we can do for a product and it's our pleasure to practice on products that we use on a daily basis. Regarding the investment, we see this as a perfect opportunity for our designers to learn while practicing and keep up with the trends. Also, it's a different way to bring people on our website to see some real work.

      Thank you!

      2 points
  • Chelsea Bathurst, over 5 years ago

    I made an account just to comment on this. While the redesign is visually cool, the problem with goodreads is so MUCH MORE than what it looks like. Yes it's out dated, but it's bloated with cruft features and arbitrarily different areas. This redesign looks fine, but so woefully reduces the actual customer development/research that's needed to even begin the project described. I'm not trying to be a contrarian or reduce the value of this project for whoever works on it. I just really worry about how we pitch ourselves when we sum up our work as 72 hours of design, when this realistically needs deep research to readdress customer needs/experiences.

    5 points
  • Maggie W., over 5 years ago

    Eh I love Goodreads but it surely screams for some fresh design.

    4 points
  • Mike MulveyMike Mulvey, over 5 years ago

    I started using Goodreads regularly last year. Oh how I would love a solid redesign. Way overdue. What High Contrast has done looks solid.

    The great part about redesigning Goodreads is that it can only be improved. ;-)

    3 points
  • Tait BrownTait Brown, over 5 years ago

    That's all well and good, but I'm thinking behind the scenes will need a massive redesign too. Their API hints at some pretty odd architectural choices, so I imagine that's just reflecting the underlying code base. It was a bit of a nightmare at times working on pppulp and trying to work with an XML API that felt like it had been built by different teams at times.

    1 point