Hi everyone,
As part of a UX/UI design project for my studies, I’m currently analyzing the user experience and interface of BookWyrm. The goal is to identify areas for improvement while respecting the platform’s core values (decentralization, simplicity, accessibility, etc.).
I’m looking to gather feedback from actual or potential users of the platform. If you have a few minutes, your answers to the questions below would be extremely helpful:
- What do you like most about BookWyrm? Which features do you use most frequently?
- Are there any features or interactions that you find frustrating or unintuitive?
- What features do you think are missing or could be improved?
- How do you feel about the interface (design, readability, navigation)?
- Do you use BookWyrm (or similar platforms) mainly to manage your personal library (individual use), or to get recommendations, join discussions, and engage with others (social use)?
- Do you mainly use BookWyrm on a mobile device or on a computer? And why?
- Do you also use other platforms (e.g., Goodreads, StoryGraph, LibraryThing)? If yes, what makes you prefer one over the other?
- If you’ve never used BookWyrm, what’s holding you back? And conversely, what might encourage you to use it regularly?
Thank you so much for your input. I’d be happy to share the results of this analysis here if there’s interest.
Been using BookWyrm for a few months. I add books to my shelves and track reading progress, mostly.
I loved it when I realised that it just lets me add all random books and edit data from the get-go. The service may not have all of the books I have, but I can just add them.
BookWyrm absolutely needs far better abilities to split/merge/consolidate author and book information and do more of the Librarian Stuff. The current system of “you can bring in data and stuff just sits there on its own” is nice if you want to manage a personal library and track individual book progress, but a well-maintained book database is an entirely different beast, and pretty much mandatory for enabling more social stuff.
Also, the ability to import book information from sources is nice, but could use some more integration to a whole lot of other places. I really loved LibraryThing’s integration to bazillion different library services.
One minor quibble I have about BookWyrm is that there’s still the notion of “shelves” and that one book can be on one shelf and different editions of one book don’t count. This is good for casual use - “oh yeah I read this one” - but it’s not enough for true book nerdery. I may have a physical, ebook and audiobook edition of one work in multiple languages and the UI doesn’t show me that yes, I own/have borrowed these exact editions and I have reading activity on this and that and that one.
On that note, yeah, should also have some kind of labeling system for individual editions, along the lines of “I own a copy of this and I’ve stored this in the closet” vs “Borrowed this off the library” vs “I had this one, before the drama queen of an author removed it from Kindle”.
It was a little bit confusing at first, but once I got over the initial weirdness I realised it wasn’t that much harder to use than, say, Goodreads. I don’t really have much complaints at this point. It’s good at what it does.
Book nerdery is a big girl thing so I use computer for this. The mobile UI is adequate but could use a dedicated app.
I used LibraryThing long ago, and Goodreads more recently, both with librarian privileges (i.e. ability to edit data, which BookWyrm gives you from the get-go). I think Goodreads is pretty good at what it does, but it did have some mild jank, and of course, I always got the impression that I was doing unpaid labour for Bezos. So I think I’ll go with BookWyrm in the long run, thanks.