Building just enough

The task read: "A user can like a News Feed item".

I was scared.

This is a big feature.

How will 'liking' work? Thumbs up, hearts, emoji reactions? What will the design be?

How will users know that their stuff has been 'liked'? What if users don't want notifications? So, I also need to develop privacy and notification settings...

And how will I show who else has 'liked' the same thing?

😩😩😩

And then I had a brainwave!
 

If you're on the Community News Feed and someone just started reading one of your favourite books, or you saw a review that helped you decide what your next read was going to be, you can hit the heart button to 'like' the update:
 

 

But, that's pretty much all you can do right now (apart from see how many other people on the site also appreciated the same update). And you won't be alerted if anyone 'liked' your own news feed items.

Now, I wait. 

I wait for the inevitable feedback: "I'd really like to be able to...". "How do I...?". "I was expecting...".

I will look for the repeated points, the patterns. Those will help me figure out what the best way for me to build on this feature is.

One of the amazing Editors described my development methodology perfectly the other day :
 

 

Last week

Now we can help you pick up your next book without you having to worry about spending any more money.

Not only can you 'mark as owned' any books already in your possession, you can then filter down your To-Read Pile focusing solely on those books!
 

This was something a few people had been asking about for a while so it was a real pleasure to be able to surprise users with it last week. 😌😇

This week

There are two big features coming up that I want to start seriously thinking about:

Such features have incredibly high potential to become a Pandora's box.

As you can imagine, this terrifies me.
 

If you're a StoryGraph user and you have ideas for the first iteration for these features, or you have sites in mind that handle in-app commenting, chat, or notifications really well, please hit 'Reply' and let me know what they are.

What I'm reading right now 
 

Read the opening pages last night before bed and am already sucked in and have laughed out loud! I'm so excited to read more.

Have a great week,

Nadia

P.S. If you know a friend who's an avid mood reader or would enjoy following along with this journey, please do forward this email to them! Thank you. :-)
 

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