The One-Woman Dev Team Diaries #205
A redesign of the redesign, pieces to camera on Instagram, and slow and steady UI improvements.
Redesign of the Redesign
Saron (bestie, co-founder Rob’s wife) texted me the other day:
Then I dug out the upcoming page to show her:
Saron, who has previously helped me with StoryGraph’s design, asked if she could have a stab at reworking the screen. She had thoughts given she’d been using the page a lot more.
I was wary. Yeji had completed a series of cohesive designs for the whole app, with a lot of thought and input from me based on our years of customer research. I didn’t want to start a project that was a redesign of the redesign. I was finally in implementation mode.
I was prepared to tell Saron to hold off on our next catch-up call, which she wholeheartedly respected, but I found out that she’d already had a lil’ attempt at a mockup and I couldn’t resist taking a look:
I was indeed a fan of the dashboard/card approach! The salient info was accessible at a glance and I immediately had visions of cute screenshots and shareable graphics…
So, when I eventually get to the stats page redesign, expect to see something closer to Saron’s vision!
Pieces To Camera
It’s always my intention to do regular pieces to camera over on The StoryGraph’s Instagram stories. But I go through phases…
Last week I decided to pick it up again, filming a short video explaining my plans for the day and saying that I’ll have to see how far I get as I was on my way to the gym and had a hair appointment afterwards…
I was told my hair appointment would take two hours max…so I budgeted for four. It took six. 😩
That ate into my coding time and I went back online that night to explain my lack of progress to everyone.
This was one of the responses:
There I was worried that people would be let down and instead I was getting praise.
Over the next couple of days, I continued to give daily updates and the lovely replies kept coming in:
These videos are such low effort for me, but they clearly have a huge impact on our followers, so I really gotta keep doing them.
If you follow us on Instagram, and you don’t see my face in stories after a few days, drop me a DM to spur me back into action. 👀 😆
YouTubing
My new YouTube channel has been slowly building up:
This week we’ll be releasing videos on the topics of productivity, StoryGraph in the media, and weightlifting! 🏋🏾♀️
In a couple weeks we’ll also be filming a fun Ask Me Anything interview.
Jacinda (bestie, my YouTube/TikTok manager) and I are not going to Canada to film this interview. We haven’t hit the big time yet. Rather, it’s the name of a studio in our gym. 😆
As to what my “rotation of tricks” are? Well, you’ll have to subscribe and watch the video to find out. 😌
Since Last Time…
While my productivity has still not quite reached the heights of my Paris workation, I did manage to pick up my output in the last couple weeks, my main deliverables being:
More work on V1 of Favorites, including the ability to add from any book’s page:
The redesign on individual review pages:
Pagination of the Created Reading Challenges section:
Someone had created 160 challenges and their dashboard refused to load. 😅 Upgrade of Android Target Version
I didn’t realise that incrementing a Target Version could cause layout changes. It never had done previously. So…I didn’t test on my physical device… Only the Android Studio simulator. Never again. 🤦🏾♀️
Amsterdam
I’m going to be in Amsterdam for a few days in early September and so am looking for recommendations for lovely cafés to read and work in.
I don’t have a lot of free time while there, but if you have a favourite bookstore or one must-do touristy recommendation, then please do send it my way!
What I'm reading
Two books for two different book clubs.
First, I’m listening to Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer for The Stacks Book Club and it’s a good book but I’m struggling to stay engaged (and I feel bad about that). 🙈
I’m also reading Conclave by Robert Harris for the Movie Book Club I have with my sister. I’m excited to watch the film with her Wednesday night over takeout and popcorn! 🍿
Please don’t share your opinions with me about the book or film until after Wednesday. Thank you! 🙏🏾
Have a great week,
Nadia