the page turn homepage, with a photo of a woman lying on a sofa and the headline 'i don't think you're going to like this'
The homepage welcomes the user with essays, extracts and interviews with authors.
down with goodreads! one
I really love to read. I also love the whole world surrounding reading — criticism, interviews and essays about literature and sharing books with my community. I'm often left frustrated as Goodreads, the Goliath of the digital book community, often doesn't fulfil the needs of readers. Its UI is clunky and outdated, its recommendations are limited and most of its community features are so hidden away that they're not as utilised as they should be.
down with goodreads! two
Inspired by my poor user experience, I designed what I would love in a book-focused website: an interesting, diverse array of essays, criticisms and interviews about literature, libraries curated by myself or people who interest me and a user experience built around a love of literature and the arts.
Elements overlap and then move out of the way of content on hover.
a roundel that reads 'buy books independent' a photo of author Brandon Taylor behind an article
Interviews and essays are laid out to be both easily legible and visually interesting.
What's your
favourite book?
two people almost holding hands
Illustrations based on the referenced books create a consistent, elegant style across the site.
the cover for 'On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous' behind an article
A review of Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. If I was the reviewer, I would give it one million stars.
making the digital feel analogue one
As I shaped the layout of the site, I layered and overlapped elements, which can sometimes change order to move in and out of the way of content. This feeling of layering connects the digital experience, in a subtle way, to the experience of leafing through papers and pages.
The overlapping layout of an interview.
Creating libraries one
Users can curate and follow libraries — lists of saved books. These can be used to keep track of what they want to read and what they have read, whilst also giving them the ability to link books together and discover new reads through genre and idea-curated lists. Authors and contributors to the site create their own public libraries which users can follow and save.
a hand reaches up out of a field of flowers
An illustration inspired by On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.
the library page of the website, with lists of libraries to follow
The libraries homepage, broken into My Libraries, Following, new and highlighted libraries and author curated libraries.
The horizontal scroll on the library blocks.
photo credit to:
William J Adams, Maksim Goncharenok, Ketut Subiyanto, RF Studio, Wherbson Rodrigues and Amusan.

Thanks for taking a look at this project!

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