Hello BookBrowsers! As you probably noticed, we’ve updated the BookBrowse site and branding. While we will be ironing out the kinks over the next several weeks (and please do contact us if you see something that looks odd) it was important to us that we share with you why we’ve made these changes.
First, improving BookBrowse’s accessibility. While accessibility is a never ending journey, we have made meaningful progress in improving the readability of page text and the navigability of the site.
We’re also encouraging as many readers as possible to visit and browse the site. We updated our site look and feel to increase trust with readers, the majority of whom (based on our stats of returning vs. new visitors) are visiting for the first time. This is particularly important for library patrons – BookBrowse offers a library subscription with embeddable apps, and we received fair feedback from our subscribing libraries that our prior style clashed with the look and feel of their websites. In order to fulfill our mission of being “your guide to exceptional books, providing you with all you need to know about the books that matter,” we needed to update our style to reflect what readers expect an authoritative guide to look like.
The good news for our long time members is that almost all of the site functionality has stayed the same. The few significant updates are:
1. A hidden search bar. We want site visitors to browse the site vs relying on search – the old search bar took up a disproportionate amount of space on the site. To access the search bar, simply click the magnifying glass icon in the menu bar, and then you can use it as you normally would.
2. An enhanced mobile experience. The prior mobile experience had a few issues that we’ve fixed. We’re also increasing the visibility of our First Impressions and Book Club programs, which we realized weren’t getting the recognition they deserved on mobile – they’re now at the top of the screen for book pages.
3. Updated top blocks for our brief and review pages. We removed some details in order to make the block easier to read. The most significant change is removing the genre link in the top book block from reviewed books, but that is still accessible via the overview bar above the top book block:
4. The author page is removed from the top menu. We didn’t see high usage of this page. Author Interviews are now located at the bottom of our Articles submenu, while author pronunciations have moved under our Literary Fun submenu.
And finally, we decided that it was worth updating the much beloved BookBrowse logo in order for the site to feel fully cohesive. We sent a logo survey to our members and were overwhelmed with their thoughtfulness and insight – more than 20% of members responded! We know that this quote sums up the feelings of many of our long time members, some of whom have been with us for more than a decade: “I will be sad to see this really great logo depart. It cheers me whenever I see it, knowing I’m about to dive into a rare, happy, smart place!”
That being said, the majority of our members chose a version of our new logo as the winner, and we incorporated all of our members feedback to arrive at our final version. As one member wrote, “I love that the ‘sunny logo’ provides continuity from the old logo while emphasizing a new dawning or understanding provided through reading. It’s also easy to read–simple & clean!”
We are incredibly thankful to all of our members and subscribing libraries for supporting BookBrowse and choosing to spend your time with us. We hope that these updates show our commitment to being your guide to exceptional books.
With thanks,
Davina and Nick,
Founder and Publisher
