Is there an advantage here over Goodreads?
The design could use quite a bit of help, but otherwise this could be something I could use.
How are the recommendations generated?
The design could use quite a bit of help, but otherwise this could be something I could use.
How are the recommendations generated?
The Hawaii Project is constantly scanning what the blogosphere is writing about in terms of books, and then matching that to your tastes and interests (topics, authors, website sources), so the recommendations always stay fresh and timely - vs Goodreads, which tends to be pretty static (if you like X you'll like Y). I may not care about all the books that say, the New York Times Book Review writes about, but if I'm into historical fiction and they review a book of that sort, I'll get a recommendation for it.
THP also has an index of articles from the web about particular books, and the ability to quickly browse what sites are writing about - kind of like a books-oriented news reader
It also generates a weekly mail with books that match your interests and authors that are being written about, so you don't have to go looking for them or miss a book from your favorite author.
And yes, my design skills need help :)
I'm also always interested in hearing about books that authors I like are reading or maybe books that they've been influenced by.
Regarding the design, there is definitely a lot of gradients and drop shadows happening which makes the page feel "heavy" and not relaxing like I think Hawaii brings to mind. I'm not sure if it's that but something is making the large grid layouts to load slowly on both my desktop and laptop.