Building Shepherd - New rec system + bookshelves UX is out!
Discovering a new book should be a magical experience where the search is part of the fun. That is what we are creating.
Summary: August 8th to August 19th 2022
What has been going on?
The last two weeks were busy!
The new recommendation system is live!
Just visit any of the below lists; at the bottom, you will find a new recommendation system that recommends five related book lists, three bookshelves, and three books.
https://shepherd.com/best-books/inspirational-african-american-history
https://shepherd.com/best-books/special-operations-soldiers-fighting-evil-enemies
https://shepherd.com/best-books/fantasy-that-makes-you-think-way-outside-the-box
The goal here is to help readers to find other cool lists that they might like.
Then new bookshelf design is live!
Just visit any of the below bookshelves to try it out. We switched to a one-column setup that readers preferred. And, we've added an area to show more about the person who recommended the book.
The goal here is to make it easier to read and browse books around a topic. And this sets us up nicely for the upcoming genre/age filters we are working on this Winter.
What's next? Individual book pages...
Strahinja and I are almost done with the designs for the individual book page, "books like" page, and some other pieces.
I got some great feedback from readers and authors as part of this. We are working to improve what they found confusing or frustrating. What were those takeaways?
On the individual book page:
At the top of the page, give the book description and what the book is about (just something bare minimum).
The width of the recommendations was too long for the desktop. So we adjusted how that works to keep it easier to read while still highlighting the list it comes from.
(ignore the weird blue ad, that is just something I am playing with to try on 2 books)
On the "books like" page:
We are playing with how to include an option to preview the book and get the book's description. A lot of readers wanted to know more about what the book was about when the recommendation intrigued them.
(ignore the weird blue ad, that is just something I am playing with to try on 2 books)
And, then on the page for what book lists this book shows upon, we had a lot of fixes as this was a very new page. A lot of people have requested this one.
These pages will be the next thing we create. I believe that will take us from Sep 15th through October 31st (although I am not sure yet). I am working on getting the spec ready for the developer, and I will share ETA as I know more.
You can preview these here:
(ignore the weird blue ad on these, its something I am playing with and won't be in this)
What else? Genre/age work starts...
I have started working on how genre and age pages will work. It is super complex, and I am trying to simplify it greatly. I will start mocking up filters soon to test the UX on users.
This is the last base feature I want to get in place to pull off the "beta" tag and go a little more mainstream on promotion.
What is going on outside of Shepherd?
Enjoying summer :)
What have I been reading?
Raven's Wyrd by Alaric Longward. Book 1 was a bit slow, but I loved the second half. And book 2 is treating me right. Fast-paced, and I love the main character. What a messy human :).
The Buried: An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution (by Peter Hessler). Still reading this one and it is fantastic. I wonder if his wife has a book coming out (she wrote Factory Girls).
Apart from that, my son is home today with the start of Chicken Pox... poor little guy :(