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New Navigation Bar on Goodreads
UPDATE: the new navigation bar is now live for everyone on Goodreads! Thanks so much to those of you who filled out the survey—to those of you who haven't had a chance to do so yet, please be sure to fill out the survey to give us your feedback on the new experience!
Starting today, we're introducing a new navigation bar on the desktop site. With a more streamlined look, the new navigation makes it easier for you to get to all the features of Goodreads you love, search for books, and stay up to date with your messages and notifications.
This new experience will be rolled out over the next few weeks, so don't worry if you don't see it yet—it's coming!
The new navigation is designed to be clean and easy to read. It features a larger search box and adapts to the width of your screen, whether you're viewing Goodreads on a tablet or a desktop computer. If you're browsing Goodreads on a desktop computer, you'll also notice that it remains visible when you scroll down the page, keeping important links accessible at all times.
Under Browse, you'll find links to our popular Giveaways section (who can resist free books!), as well as New Releases, and author interviews and book recommendations in News & Interviews. The navigation also comes with a new spotlight on books from your favorite genres that are trending among the Goodreads community, helping you discover more great books to add to your to-read list.
Community is our new gateway to all things social on Goodreads. Find your Groups and discover new ones, see which authors are answering questions in Ask the Author, and test your knowledge with Trivia and Quizzes.
Once you have a chance to use the new navigation, let us know what you think of it via our survey.
Starting today, we're introducing a new navigation bar on the desktop site. With a more streamlined look, the new navigation makes it easier for you to get to all the features of Goodreads you love, search for books, and stay up to date with your messages and notifications.
This new experience will be rolled out over the next few weeks, so don't worry if you don't see it yet—it's coming!
The new navigation is designed to be clean and easy to read. It features a larger search box and adapts to the width of your screen, whether you're viewing Goodreads on a tablet or a desktop computer. If you're browsing Goodreads on a desktop computer, you'll also notice that it remains visible when you scroll down the page, keeping important links accessible at all times.
Under Browse, you'll find links to our popular Giveaways section (who can resist free books!), as well as New Releases, and author interviews and book recommendations in News & Interviews. The navigation also comes with a new spotlight on books from your favorite genres that are trending among the Goodreads community, helping you discover more great books to add to your to-read list.
Community is our new gateway to all things social on Goodreads. Find your Groups and discover new ones, see which authors are answering questions in Ask the Author, and test your knowledge with Trivia and Quizzes.
Once you have a chance to use the new navigation, let us know what you think of it via our survey.
Comments Showing 201-250 of 654 (654 new)
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Lobstergirl
(new)
Mar 10, 2016 06:46PM
I can say with certainty the Home button was the button I clicked on by far more than any other. Is it considered good web design to get rid of the buttons more people click on than any other?
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I dislike the new notifications button. I keep getting mixed up and clicking on it, so it is taking me to a new page when I don't want it to all the time.
Kyle wrote: "Holli wrote: "Stop improving things!."Seriously???? I hope GoodReads and everyone one else sure ignores this. If we never improved things, we'd still be in caves and bashing our women over their ..."
Taken out of context, yes, I'm saying we should all still be living in caves and terrified of the sun. In reality, what I'm talking about is taking something and changing it spontaneously so what worked before doesn't anymore. Instead of going to a website you've gone for over a year and know pretty well, you suddenly have to re-learn it as well as find some way to deal with a page that is like looking into a 100 watt bulb in how bright it glows with squinty little letters you can't stand to look at long enough to find out what it says. This is the type of "imporvements" I'm talking about. Ever use a software that worked perfectly every single day you've used it until it's suddenly updated and you have to almost literally start over again to learn again how to use it? Or have to buy additional software (usually expensive) for what worked once and now needs a crutch to lean on to do the same thing it did before the update? I'm all for them improving the site by allowing us to count re-reads several times over and getting rid of bugs and the like. Changing the website with drastic alterations to the font, layout, and whatever else they play with to make Goodreads painful to look at and distracting on top of it is not my idea of an improvement. It's heading back toward the cave, rather than away from it in how much more wonderful it makes a thing.
I hope this makes better sense and I apologize if any of it comes across as rude. I don't like changes like this when it comes to stuff I use daily and this is where my grumble decided to be vented.
Gigi wrote: "To be honest, I don't really care if the menu is across the top or in drop downs. What I care about is the other numerous bugs with shelving my books: how annoying it is to delete a book, how movin..."Completely agree with your comment about the shelving issues. I've got books all over the place which weren't where I put them and it happens over and over again. I finally gave up and deleted thousands. Now I have some cleaning up and checking to do so I can fix what's left and start rebuilding my shelves again. I hope your issues get worked out, Gigi.
To this post and to the Goddreads team, Goodreads is my home and I'm not going anywhere. Would still love to see the star ratings moved further away from the "want to read" button, but seriously, life offline is in a critical state so I'm not going to complain about the small things. Just a couple hopes. If not, I'll still be here. Goodreads has given me a place to go during times when I need it desperately. Not *ss kissing. It's the straight forward truth. Thank you Goodreads Team!
F.P. wrote: "... Bestselling writers don't need visibility help; unknown writers do. Many bestselling writers aren’t on here every day; plenty of unknown writers are. ...." This caught my attention and made me think. You are right in this regard. There are so many good books we don't even know exist! Those need the help the most.
Fail. I'll keep exploring it and give it more chances, but my immediate reaction is that this is not very user-friendly.First and foremost gripe: what the heck is up with BRIGHT RED as a color choice? Really? Bright red, why? Its relaxing and soothing qualities?
Of all things to fiddle with. The navigation bar, one of the most reliable and comfortable site elements. Is there actually a method to all this madness? Were there human beings who tested this?
I like the new look. It is cleaner and easier to use. Other website have either not made any changes to their sites or very unclear with small text. Keep up the good work!!!! Hopefully soon you could improve other areas on this site. It is certainly a lot better than sites though.
How do you get to the "Most Popular" by date lists? I know the link is given as https://www.goodreads.com/book/popula..., but is there some way to find it from your GR page? I enjoy browsing popular books by year.Thanks.
I like it. More streamlined.
I like the new nav bar! I really like the fact that it stays at the top all the time.
Lindsay wrote: "I'm an IT developer myself and it's an easy (and wrong) assumption we often make that the users are going to look around and explore and learn this stuff by doing so."This is no way is a wrong assumption in my book, that is how people should learn things. Life doesn't come with instructions, people should look around and learn by exploring and doing. It is pretty common practice now for websites to have you click a logo in the nav. bar to go to the home page, so I think you assuming others would know this is perfectly acceptable, especially because it has been a practice of main commonly visited websites for at least 2 years now.
On a different note everyone needs to realize that change will not stop happening when it comes to websites. Websites have come a long way and Goodreads is no where near as 'clunky' as everyone seems to think it is, then again most of these people probably have never seen a very basic webpage because they are so ugly and never used.
Well, yes. But not everyone is 22. Or even 46. And explore-and-learn doesn't work as well when you've either not grown up with computers like you and I have, or when you've got the shoulder-demon speaking into your ear telling you that you're not good with computers and you might break something.There's an astonishing number of people even in my age group that keep a shoulder-demon like that well fed with anxiety about change.
Lindsay wrote: "Well, yes. But not everyone is 22. Or even 46. And explore-and-learn doesn't work as well when you've either not grown up with computers like you and I have, or when you've got the shoulder-demon s..."I'm not even talking about just computers, I'm talking about in life in general you have to look around and explore and learn things. It's like learning to ride a bike, yea you see other people doing it and they may try to help you but you have to figure it out yourself, no one can teach you exactly how to balance your weight to keep from falling over, you have to test it out on your own and learn it for yourself.
Very good. I like it. Puts everything in the same place and it is now easier to navigate the site.
"Starting today, we're introducing a new navigation bar on the desktop site. With a more streamlined look, the new navigation makes it easier for you to get to all the features of Goodreads you love, search for books, and stay up to date with your messages and notifications."Wrong on all counts. Another terrible decision. Obviously, your designers never actually use the site. GR cannot be condemned too strongly for blatantly ignoring it's users. Despicable. Absolutely despicable.
The Home button and the search box are the two places on the bar I go most often, and having these far apart now is annoying.
What happened to the little red number telling you how many unread notifications you have!!! Help - please bring that back. It's important.
The sticky bar is an improvement; I'm fairly indifferent to the newly grouped icons, it's more of a bonus to mobile users.Suggestion; show shelves/stat buttons under "my books"
I just noticed that the ability to mouseover your avatar and see how many books you have shelved is gone. I HATE this. Why??? Why would you get rid of that.
Small thing. New navigation bar currently has no link on it to the goodreads blog section.
actually what do people mean the site is too white???Isn't that a problem with brightness being too high on whatever you are reading it on.
☀Rachael☀ wrote: "How the hell do I sign out?!!"On the website it's the circle on the far right then bottom option.
I DON'T LIKE IT AT ALL!I didn't like the changes you made so far so please stop doing that again. I like the current navigation bar and don't find it necessary to use a new one. When I joined Goodreads few years ago I liked everything about it, especially the background's ivory color, just like an old book's pages, and now I see it's not the same anymore. I see that changes don't come up with a 'switch-back' option, but I really hope this one will.
Dear Goodreads,I know changes are sometimes necessary. I've accepted that. I've accepted the new fonts and colours. I will accept the new navigation buttons too. But did you have to kill the pretty book spines visible at the very top of the site?! It gave this site character. Now it looks half-dead!
Please stop making everything worse with every single update instead of making things better (I'm still waiting for my status updates to be editable)!
Oh, and while you're at it: if I tell you I want to see ALL posts/reviews/comments/likes/whatever from ALL of my friends, then I mean ALL OF THEM! No filtering!
Thanks.
Sincerely,
a sobbing user
Trish wrote: "Dear Goodreads,I know changes are sometimes necessary. I've accepted that. I've accepted the new fonts and colours. I will accept the new navigation buttons too. But did you have to kill the prett..."
Trish I so agree with you about the book spines on top of the site. That is really what gives Goodreads a cozy nook's look. It was the first thing to attract me to this page.
Lorena wrote: "Trish I so agree with you about the book spines on top of the site. That is really what gives Goodreads a cozy nook's look. It was the first thing to attract me to this page. "Yes! Exactly! It's what made me decide to stay here too, all those years ago. And now that cozy gimmick is gone. :(
Lorena wrote: "I DON'T LIKE IT AT ALL!I didn't like the changes you made so far so please stop doing that again. I like the current navigation bar and don't find it necessary to use a new one. When I joined Goo..."
we had an old book-ish background colour ? :-(
Got it. I really didn't think there was anything wrong with the old bar, but I can live with this one. But please do something about the brightness of the background! I don't remember reading anyone saying they liked it, just people complaining about it, so why don't you change it already? I mean, seriously, it's got to be one of the easiest things to change on a website...
Dimitri wrote: "Lorena wrote: "I DON'T LIKE IT AT ALL!I didn't like the changes you made so far so please stop doing that again. I like the current navigation bar and don't find it necessary to use a new one. Wh..."
Yes, and it was so appealing. I could read reviews and quotes for hours and never get tired. Now this glaring background is killing my eyes.
Don't know if anyone else has said this, but how do I get back to the page where I enter the book I'm reading from another page??
Lorena wrote: "Dimitri wrote: "Lorena wrote: "I DON'T LIKE IT AT ALL!I didn't like the changes you made so far so please stop doing that again. I like the current navigation bar and don't find it necessary to u..."
The white is normal for websites though, what might help people complaining about it is a colour filter addon for firefox https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/fire... this will enable you to turn any white website into a different colour and open up a whole plethora of new forums and websites for you all.
Mavis wrote: "Don't know if anyone else has said this, but how do I get back to the page where I enter the book I'm reading from another page??"Click on the goodreads logo.
Honestly I prefer the previous one. I can't find easily the home button.Actually, I think the previous layout was just perfect!
What I like about the update is that the top bar stays when I scroll. The position of the search bar and drop-down-menu is OK too. But I really miss the cozier layout and I think functions like an edit-button for the status updates would be more important.
Lindsay wrote: "Mavis wrote: "Don't know if anyone else has said this, but how do I get back to the page where I enter the book I'm reading from another page??"Click on the goodreads logo."
Thanks - hardly obvious to techno idiots like me!
Yet another Stylish script I'll have to install to get rid of this.I'll give it a try BUT... I doubt I'll like it.
Learnin Curve wrote: "☀Rachael☀ wrote: "How the hell do I sign out?!!"On the website it's the circle on the far right then bottom option."
Thanks I found it finally drop box just wasn't showing!
I love it. It's great to finally see Goodreads getting a refresh, without losing any of the great features that we love and come to the site for.
Edit: One update I'd love to see if a drop down menu for friend requests, instead of navigating to another page to accept them.
Edit: One update I'd love to see if a drop down menu for friend requests, instead of navigating to another page to accept them.
I noticed the difference immediately. I'm not sure whether I like it or not yet. Everything seems a bit softer now (im on my phone), it seems nice. I prefer softer looks. I'll have to think about the overall change on desktop
What happened to the list of your friends. Would like to have my friends list back. Where can I find it at.
Learnin Curve wrote: "actually what do people mean the site is too white???Isn't that a problem with brightness being too high on whatever you are reading it on."
No, because it only happens on Goodreads and it didn't happen before.
Lobstergirl wrote: "Duplication is not always bad. It helps a lot of people who may not know where one button is, but know the location of a different button that does the same thing."Additionally, plenty of sites have both a "Home" button and a logo that takes users to Home, so why take away the "Home" link? See how many people are already confused, just going by the comments here? Bring it back.
Learnin Curve wrote: "actually what do people mean the site is too white???Isn't that a problem with brightness being too high on whatever you are reading it on."
I'm able to adjust brightness on my computer, so thankfully, this isn't an issue for me. I'm using a Chromebook, and there's a button to increase or decrease brightness on any site. At full brightness, though, GR is obscenely, painfully bright, so I totally get what everyone's saying about the default brightness.
I like it. Sometimes new stuff takes a bit of time to get used to, but with this one so far I'm navigating easily and I like the look.
A website can't turn the brightness or gamma up or change the refresh rate on your monitor though. It just can't, and this is what is giving people headaches. You have white or you have off white/sepia and you are going to have the exact same problems on goodreads as you would on google, youtube, notepad, or word. People may not notice this because they spend more time on goodreads than other sites or using word processing programs.The solution is to use a browser addon to turn all pure white on websites off white/sepia and to talk to your optician about it because it could be fixable.
Learnin Curve wrote: "A website can't turn the brightness or gamma up or change the refresh rate on your monitor though. It just can't, and this is what is giving people headaches. You have white or you have off white/s..."
This is correct. The website looks no different when compared to the white background in my documents. Learn to change your brightness settings, it's pretty basic.
This is correct. The website looks no different when compared to the white background in my documents. Learn to change your brightness settings, it's pretty basic.
Change for change sake - nothing more. It seems web sites have a deep inner need to make life more difficult and complicated. Just like supermarkets who move items around every month so you spend more time looking for what you want.
