Existing Solutions Research

Name: Claudia Chan

GoodReads

Target Audience:

Any age who likes

books

URL:

http://www.goodreads.

com/

Author:

Otis Y. Chandler

Purpose:

Book

recommendations

GoodReadsGoodRea

ds

Elements of the design I like

Logo:

Clear and simple = effective for a good website

If it’s too fancy, it may put people off and be hard to read.

Header:

Simple

A plain colour fading out from the middle & books on the bottom

Pictures will guide the audience

Features:

Sign in page to detect the user’s history so it will know what books you like

I plan to use the ISLE* sign in information if I can. If you don’t want to sign in

with ISLE, I want to create a sign in page with Facebook, twitter or google like

‘Goodreads’.

A discussion page for friends to discuss their favourite books etc.

Furthermore, a link for each genre is available on the bottom of the page

which is convenient.

Trivia and Quizzes to make the website more fun. I wish to incorporate this

into my website too.

*ISLE is the Island School student home page (Island School Learning

Environment).

GoodRea

ds

Lovereading

Target Audience:

People who like reading

URL:

http://www.lovereading.co

.uk/genre/aa/Action-and-

Adventure.html

Author:

Peter Crawshaw, Louise

Weir and Hugh Salmon

Purpose:

To recommend good

books that the authors

have read before.

Love Reading Love

Reading

What I like:

Categories:

• Categories separated into

genres = very efficient

Functions:

• Functions of the website are

listed on the front page which

I think is a very clear way of

telling the audience what this

website is about and what it

offers.

Fun features:

• ‘Facts of the Day’

Monthly features:

• ‘Author of the Month’, ‘Books

of the month’: they are

categorised into months.

• This means that this website

offers two different categories

to search from. I quite like this

idea.

Love

Reading

What I don’t like:

• Colour: There’s a bit

too much red,

personally I prefer

plain colours more

• Amount of text: I think

that for the front page,

this is a bit too much

text; like ‘The Good

Book’, I think a picture

would be nicer

Missing features:

• Fun activities such as

games or trivia.

Love

Reading

The Good Book

Target Audience:

Christians / people interested in

Christianity

URL:

http://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/

Author:

(Website doesn’t say)

Purpose: To help people grow in

their knowledge and

understanding of what the bible

teaches.

Elements of the design you like:

Elements of the design you

dislike:

Any feature you think is missing:

The Good Book The Good

Book

Elements of the design I like

Logo:

• Unique: red on ‘good’ and a

bird shape on top of it.

• Has its own font on the

‘.co.uk’ part

Pictures:

• Pictures of books that they

sell/recommend

Features:

• Log in feature

• Has categories for different

year groups

• It has a ‘I am…’ feature and

gives you a list of jobs to

choose from: this is a good

feature because what you

want to search will be

narrowed down into

something useful for your age

group/job.

The Good

Book

Elements I don’t

like

Colours: Blue is quite

random amongst the light

pink colours, I would

prefer a everything be

roughly the same shade

of colour.

Design: I think it would

be better if there was a

huge banner on the front

page, and not just tiny

pictures of books.

Font: The font is ‘Arial’

and that’s quite

noticeable and a lot of

people use it, I like

something more unique

such as ‘Georgia’.

Missing Features:

Some fun games for the younger years that are interested

in Christianity but still want to have fun in the website.

The Good

Book

Teen Reads

Target Audience:

Teenagers

URL:

http://www.teenreads.co

m/

Author:

Carol Fitzergald

Purpose:

Book Reviews

Teen ReadsTeen Reads

Elements of the

design I like:Logo:

• Personalized and interesting

Engages with audience:

• Has polls and you can send

them your current reading

recommendations to win a copy

of a book.

• I plan to engage my audience by

allowing people to submit a book

review and the best one can be

submitted to the site!

Features:

• Search bar

• Newsletter

• Slideshow of news

• Categories are seperated into

reviews, authors and features.

Teen Reads

Elements of the

design I don’t like:

• It doesn’t state

extremely clearly what

the purpose of this

website is

• Not much pictures

except for the

slideshow

• The font is quite

normal for the main

text.

Missing Features:• Games/ Trivia to make

it more interesting

• Signing in to the

actual website

Teen Reads

Flashlight Worthy

Target Audience:

People of any age who

don’t know what book to

read next

URL:

http://www.flashlightworthy

books.com/

Author:

Peter Steinberg and Eric

Mueller

Purpose: To offer book

recommendations to guide

people which book to read

next.

Flashlight WorthyFlashlight

Worthy

Elements of the

design I like:

Logo:

• Big and clear

• Underneath states the

purpose of the website

Links:

• Has ‘Newest Book

List’

• Tells you how many

categories, lists, great

books they serve

Features:

• Search bar

• Log in option

• Can make your own

list

• Links to amazon

• I plan to link mine to

the Island School

Flashlight

Worthy

Elements of the

design I don’t like:

• Not much images on

the front page: a bit

boring

• Too much white – hurts

the eyes

• The lists are a major

part of the first page: I

think it’s more efficient if

it’s on the sidebar.

• A bit too much

categories

Missing Features:

• Polls

• Trivia/Quizzes

Flashlight

Worthy