Reading Goals
Goal setting and progress tracking to motivate readers.
Overview
Reading goals help users stay motivated and build consistent reading habits, and give a non-social related reason to continue coming back to the app. We'll start focus on simple, achievable goals rather than overwhelming users with metrics and built in more metrics down the line.
Beta Launch
- Set annual reading goal (books per year)
- View goal progress (visual ring/bar)
- Reading streak tracking (consecutive days -- github commit graph styling, perhaps?)
Post-Beta
- Advanced metrics dash (pages read, total genres, author count, etc)
- Reading challenges + Badges
- Leaderboards (friend-only)
- Reading stats dashboard
- Year in review (annual summary)
See also: Achievements & Badges
User Stories
- As a reader, I want to set a yearly reading goal so I have something to work toward
- As a product owner, I want a reason for users who don't use social features to come back to the app
- As a reader, I want to see my progress visually so I stay motivated
- As a reader, I want to maintain a reading streak so I build a habit
- As a reader, I want to see how I'm doing compared to my goal
Goal Types
Annual Book Goal (Beta)
- User sets target: "I want to read X books this year"
- Progress shown as: "12 of 24 books (50%)"
- Visual ring/bar fills as books are finished
- Celebrates milestones (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%)
Reading Streak (Beta)
- Tracks consecutive days with reading activity
- Displays on the user profile as a github commit-style graph
- Activity = logging pages or finishing a book
- Shows current streak and longest streak
- Gentle encouragement, not punishment for breaks
Design Principles
- Encouraging, not punishing - Missing a day shouldn't feel bad
- Flexible - Goals can be adjusted mid-year
- Personal - No public shaming or forced competition
- Celebratory - Acknowledge progress and milestones
- Easy - The more friction there is with tracking your reading progress, the more difficult it will be to retain users of the app