January 27, 2025

The One-Woman Dev Team Diaries #190

An upcoming TV broadcast, lots of behind-the-scenes prep work for forward-facing features, and an impending co-founder reunion!

On Air

In the last issue, I mentioned that something very exciting was happening, that it gave me a very “real” deadline of February 5th (as opposed to all of my “fake” self-imposed ones), and that if everything has gone to plan I can reveal more this issue…

Well, so far, things have gone very well, and so here’s what I can share:

I’m currently in the US (I live in the UK in case you don’t know and I’m flying back home in a few hours)! This morning I went to a studio and recorded a segment for a major US television network. 👀

I can share these photos:

× Close dialog Photo of me sitting in a TV studio on a wooden chair, facing a second empty wooden chart. There are lights and cameras on me. There's a man to the side looking at filming equipment.

× Close dialog Photo of a screen showing two camera angles, one of me straight one, and a second of me from the side.

× Close dialog Me on a couch, holding my phone, looking up and smiling.

The segment will be aired at 9am on February 5th in the US in all markets. They don’t want me to share which broadcast network it is until the day before, but y’all in the US, there are only a few major broadcast networks over there, so just cycle through them all at 9am on February 5th, okay? 😆

So yeah, let me go make sure all the features I mentioned are working perfectly by then! Did I purposefully mention the filter menu on the Explore page to force my hand? Sounds like something I’d do. 🥲

(Yes, Abbie, I did. 🤣)

Since last time…

I really thought I’d be able to get a user-facing enhancement out every single day in January, even if just a teeny tiny one, but that has proven not to be the case. 😢

I have delivered improvements to the app almost every day (I’ve worked every single day, but sometimes the work is just not in a state to deploy come the end of the day) but a lot of it has been background work to prepare for something bigger and user-facing later.

What are the main things that have been released since last time?

• Preparing for each push notification to have a custom title and custom location the user is brought to when they click on it.

  

  × Close dialog The image displays two push notifications from StoryGraph on an Android mobile interface. The first notification states, "Coming in v1.20: Push notifications enhancements, including them opening in the correct place and working for Android versions 12 and below! 🎉". The second notification, sent one minute earlier, reads, "Your 2024 Reading Wrap-Up has been generated. 📚".

  Also, some behind-the-scenes work, which involved a multi-day migration, has been done such that users will be able to customise what they receive notifications for. For example: Yes, let me know whenever someone has replied to my comments in a buddy read. No, please don’t inform me when I haven’t won a giveaway. 😅
  

• Users can now customise how Current Reads show up on their mobile homepage:
  

  

  × Close dialog This image showcases the Compact “Current Reads” section of the StoryGraph app. Each book cover is shown along with a progress bar.

  

  × Close dialog Screenshot of the Preferences page showing the

  

  × Close dialog This image showcases the Detailed “Current Reads” section of the StoryGraph app. Each book cover is shown along with its title, author, and progress bar.

• And…
  

  

  × Close dialog A @thestorygraph threads post with the text: "A nice lil’ UX improvement today for those with a streak: After a progress update, a page refresh is no longer needed. 🔥 (Turn on the Streak feature on the Preferences page. Customise it by clicking on the homepage flame icon.)" There is an accompanying still of a video, showing the streak icon in a state of loading.

Co-Founders Reunite!

Rob and Saron (Rob’s wife, my bestie) are coming to London this week as Rob’s speaking at NDC London. We’re gonna co-work, work out, and have so much fun! I can’t wait! 🤩

What I'm reading

You can see the entirety of my current reads from the screenshots above! But I’m going to shout out The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley.

I’ve picked it up for The Stacks Book Club. I was very excited by the mix of genres and themes and am enjoying it so far, but I’ve seen Traci and a few other friends give it a very low rating. A couple have rated it very highly though. We'll see where I end up!

× Close dialog The image displays a book profile for

Have a great week,

Nadia