Heuristic Evaluation: GoodReads, LibraryThing, Litsy
Heuristic evaluation is a great way to test and discover usability issues of your product and competitors’ as well.
I conducted the heuristic evaluation of GoodReads, LibraryThing, and Litsy apps as a UX design student at Springboard as part of my capstone project with the following three goals:
- become familiar with social media reading apps
- evaluate competitors’ products
- practice Nilsen’s 10 Heuristic Principles
Nilsen’s design guidelines are a good point of reference in testing products. You can test products by using all 10 principles but as a beginner paying attention to all of them might be a little overwhelming. To practice, you can pick a few and complete an analysis based on your selection. Just as I did it for this evaluation.
Criteria and the scale of severity
I used the following three principles of Nilsen:
- User control and flexibility
Criteria Description:
- It’s clear what the user wants to do and how that can be accomplished.
- If the user chooses a feature by mistake, there is a clearly marked way on how the user can pivot, redo and undo things.
2. Visibility of system status
Criteria Description:
- The system keeps users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within a reasonable time.
- It is visible how much time an action, certain steps will take.
3. Error Recovery
Criteria Description:
- Error messages are expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
In order to indicate the severity of each usability issue, I used a 0 to 5 scale and a color scheme from light green to red, as shown in the table below:
If you are a beginner, there are many new terms you have to become familiar with and sometimes it’s difficult to differentiate between them. Therefore before we jump into the analysis, I would like to highlight the difference between heuristic evaluation and expert review. The latter is a heuristic evaluation conducted by a single expert, the former is completed by a group of experts (ideally 3–5).
Note: Before the heuristic evaluation, I conducted market research, to get familiar with the reading social media app industry and selected GoodReads, LibraryThing and Litsy as main competitors, based on their features, the number of downloads on both Google Play and App Store as well as the reviews they received from users.
Heuristic Evaluation: GoodReads
Overall impression: The app has minor to major usability problems.
Criteria 1: User control and freedom
Usability issue 1
User task: find friends
I set up a reading goal for myself on GoodReads as part of the onboarding process. Then I wanted to find 2 friends I knew were using GoodReads so I clicked the ‘friends’ button. Instead of being able to find friends I received the following failure message: “None of your friends have started this challenge yet.” This is logical because as a new user I didn’t have friends that I had added, but I was missing a ‘Find Friends’ button. Since I didn’t succeed in finding friends this way, I was looking for other possible ways, which lead me to the next usability problem.
Severity score: 2
Usability issue 2
User task: find friends
I clicked the search bar but it was only possible to find books, not friends. So I continued my search for friends.
Severity score: 2
Usability issue 3
User task: find friends
Finally, I found a ‘find your friends’ button on my profile. Arriving at this feature I had three possible ways to connect with friends:
1) search friends (see below in error recovery section)
2) find contacts and
3) adding Facebook friends
To find friends via the ‘find friends’ button, I had to share my contacts with the app. I found two friends this way but not those I intended to find. Even though this attempt was partly successful, I remained frustrated because I didn’t get the result I expected.
Severity score: 3
Usability issue 4
User task: find friends via Facebook
Adding friends via Facebook was the easiest and only well-functioning way on GoodReads. Selecting this option GoodReads imports and automatically selects all Facebook friends. There is a button to unselect people and add them one by one, but this button was a bit hard to notice.
Since this is the easiest way of adding friends, the app should visually guide the user towards it.
Normally I wouldn’t consider the visibility of the button a major usability issue but the social aspect of reading is one of GoodReads’ USPs, which makes this usability issue more severe.
Severity score: 3
Usability issue 5
User task: tracking reading progress
After adding and rating a book as well as writing a review, I wanted to check my reading progress but the reading challenge bar didn’t update. I didn’t find a manual update option either.
Severity score: 4
Criteria 2: visibility of system status
Usability issue: 1
User task: Account setup
When I created a user account, the app guided me through the registration process through pop-up windows, which was very helpful. However, it failed to show how many steps it takes to set up the account. At the upper part of the screen, there is a status bar but it doesn't show where the user currently is in the process.
Severity score: 1
Usability issue 2
User task: account setup
During the onboarding process, I was asked to rate some books I have read. Based on this, the app is able to give book recommendations. Prior to this step, I had to define a reading goal for the year. When I rated previously read books right after that, it was not obvious if these books would count towards my yearly reading goal. This made me hesitant to rate any books, which I didn’t read this year.
Severity score: 2
Criteria 3: Error recovery
Usability issue 1
User task: find friends through the app’s search function
I was hesitant to sync my Facebook account with the GoodReads app. Therefore, first I tried to find friends using friends’ usernames and email addresses. This function was tested with friends’ email addresses who certainly use the GoodReads app but unfortunately the search wasn’t successful.
Severity score: 2
Usability issue 2
User task: delete a mistakenly added bookshelf
There is no visible way to delete a custom added bookshelf. Below the reading lists, I found where I can add a new list but I was unable to delete the list I created.
Severity score: 3
What works well?
- The challenge aspect of the app. GoodReads encourages users to set a yearly reading goal and it helps them reach it.
- Barcode scanner and an extensive book database.
- The social aspect of reading. Seeing friends’ reading lists is helpful in finding new, interesting books and being able to view their reading progress, motivates and encourages you to read more as well.
- Friends as credible sources of book reviews. It makes it easier to pick books to read.
- Review system: there is a very high number of ratings available, this makes it easier for the user to pick books they will probably like.
- ‘This review contains spoilers’ feature.
Heuristic Evaluation: LibraryThing
Overall impression: The app has minor usability problems.
Criteria 1: User control and flexibility
Usability issue 1
User task: connect the app to a physical library
There is no search option to find libraries. To find libraries I had to scroll through the list of all libraries at the location I was searching. It can take a while, especially in the case of a larger country, for example, the United States.
Adding a search button at this feature would improve the user experience.
Severity score: 2
Usability issue 2
User task: find a book in the user’s catalog.
As there is no search bar to find new books on the homepage, I had to start clicking around to find this feature. Clicking the ‘Your Catalog’ button, I found a search bar on the top of the screen, where I typed in the name of the author of the book I was looking for. The search was unsuccessful because with this search function the user is able to search her/his own catalog only. To add new books I had to click the plus sign in the lower right corner of the screen. This button was not very prominent, and therefore was hard to find.
A placeholder such as “Search your books” to guide users could improve usability.
Severity score: 1
Usability issue 3
User task: search and save a book in wishlist
Clicking the plus sign it is easy to find and add a book to the user’s catalog but the language the app uses, for the lists, is rather confusing. For example, the difference between ‘Wishlist’ and ‘To read’ wasn’t clear to me.
Severity score: 2
Usability issue 4
User task: join community and discussions
The community discussions don’t take place in the app but on a mobile website. When I was redirected to this site, I was not automatically logged in to my account, therefore I had to log in to be able to participate in the discussion. Due to the information overload and the small screen size, it was difficult to navigate the site.
Severity score: 2
Usability issue 5
User task: find friends
The app is advertised in a way, which suggests that users can connect with real-life friends via the app. Instead, LibraryThing offers an already existing community. Adding the possibility to the app to find real-life friends could bring additional value to the users.
Severity score: 0
Criteria 2: Visibility of system status
Usability issue 1
User task: upload a book by scanning its barcode
With the barcode scanning feature, it is very easy to add a book. On the top of the screen ‘Books will be added to the following collection’ is not prominent enough. Completing this task, I missed this status update so I went back to ‘my catalogue’ to make sure the book has been saved.
Severity score: 1
Usability issue 2
User task: save book cover
After I scanned a new book, the system gave a status update, according to which the book was saved in the ‘To read’ list in the user’s catalog.
Sometimes the cover of the book reading apps find doesn’t match the version users have at home. I assumed that in this case some users might want to take a photo of their version and save it in the app because it is easier to find a book later in one’s reading list by the cover than by the title. Therefore, I wanted to test the picture upload function of the app. However, after I took a photo of the cover, I didn’t receive a status update if the photo was saved or not.
This lead to another usability issue (see in error recovery / usability issue 1)
Adding a ‘Save’ button or a status update notification could avoid misunderstandings, confusion and errors.
Severity score: 2
Criteria 3: Error Recovery
Usability issue 1
User task: change and save the photo of a new book cover
When I took a photo to change the cover image of a book it was automatically saved. This lead me to an error, which I wasn’t able to correct the way I would have wished. By accident, I took a photo of my laptop. (See third book in the list.) When I wanted to correct this mistake, I didn't find a button to edit or save the photo. I exited the photo feature assuming that it won’t automatically save the photo I mistakenly took. Clicking on the book, I didn’t manage to restore the original cover and the ‘delete’ button deleted the entire book.
A message saying ‘Save’, ‘New photo’, ‘Edit photo’, etc. could help error recovery.
Severity score: 2
Usability issue 2
User task: tagging a book
In the catalog there is a folder named “Tags” but it’s not visible to the user where to create a new tag or how to tag certain books with custom made tags.
Severity score: 3
Usability issue 3
User task: change password
When I tried to log into my account on the mobile website to join the community discussion, I got an error message. After a few failed login attempts, I tried to change my password but the new password didn’t work either.
The password recovery button was also not visible enough and wasn’t consistent with the similar language of other services (see ‘forgot / organizations / terms’).
Severity score: 3
What works well?
- Connection to physical libraries
- Access to early viewer books for free
Heuristic evaluation: Litsy
Overall impression: The app has minor usability problems.
Criteria 1: User control and freedom
User issue 1
User task: check reviews
The interface of the Litsy app is very similar to Instagram. Since I use Instagram, I was able to navigate in the app quite easily. But I had the impression that in certain cases the Instagram-like interface hinders usability. For example, there is no option to check all types of reviews of a book easily. Other apps use the five-star rating system and make it easy for users to check the full range of reviews, in order to be able to decide if they want to read a certain book or not. I looked up Michelle Obama’s book, and I saw that it received a very good overall rating but to read individual reviews, I had to scroll through a long list of reviews, presented in an Instagram feed format. It took very long and didn’t necessarily give me a nuanced picture of various opinions.
Adding a feature where people can check detailed reviews, both positive and negative, could improve the quality of book choices users make.
Severity score: 3
User issue 2
User task: write reviews
It was very easy to stack a book (mark a book according to the following three categories: to read, reading or have read). As soon as I marked a book ‘have read’ a rating window popped up. But to write an actual review, I had to go to another page. If writing a review was right there, I might have written something but I didn’t make the extra effort.
Including a ‘Write a review’ option in the pop-up window could increase the number of reviews users write.
Severity score: 1
User issue 3
User task: update book status
I found the user profile page a bit difficult to navigate. My activity log, ‘books to read’ and ‘books read’ are positioned in one line but the books I am currently reading are below the user name, therefore, it is hard to find.
Placing the ‘currently reading’ books together with the other three icons could improve navigation.
Severity score: 2
Criteria 2: Visibility of system status
User issue 1
User task: earn Litfluence points
The app rewards users with the so-called Litfluence points based on their impact on other people’s reading choices. The more books users read and post about, the higher the chance they have at earning points. Although I think it is a good idea to motivate people to read more and to interact with the community, it was not clear if the user can do something with these points other than taking pride in their increasing numbers. I felt there was a lack of information on what exactly the points mean and if there are any influencer levels one can read for example. If earning Litfluence points is something that motivates someone to read more, it is helpful to have a goal to work towards.
Severity score: 0
Criteria 3: Error recovery
User issue 1
User task: find books
If the user wants to track all the books he/she is reading, it can be frustrating if a certain book cannot be found in the system.
Adding a scan function could solve this problem.
Severity score: 4
What works well?
- Familiar UI: The platform is very similar to Instagram which makes the app very easy to use from the beginning.
- It is very easy to find and connect with friends.
- Litfluence points: Incentive system based on social influence.
- Easy rating system: the app identified an own rating system with easy to understand icons
- Spoiler alert function
Everything in this evaluation is my own personal opinion and is based on what I expect from a ‘reading’ social media app. If you have any comments or questions, or you feel I have missed something, please do not hesitate to comment below or reach out to me, as I am always open to feedback.
