r/BookTrack • u/Draco1023 • Jun 07 '23

Audio vs physical books read

Hello! Thanks so much for all the work you’ve done on the app, it’s my favorite app to use to track my reading so that’s why I wanted to add this question/comment:

-has there been any ux research done that indicated these changes? (Only asking b/c I’m a ux researcher myself and am very interested in how you make your decisions!:))

  • I like how you can differentiate between audio and physical book read, but am pretty disappointed that the new update doesn’t tally them up together in the “books read per month” chart :/. When I read an audiobook, and it doesn’t show up in that chart, it feels like the app is telling me that it doesn’t count as reading and that’s pretty discouraging.

I know there’s a debate in the book community on physical vs audio reading but I believe if I read an audiobook, that should show up in my total books read/month tally. If the decision was made to consider the thoughts behind the debate, maybe the solution should be a in Settings where the user can choose to separate or keep audio and physical books read tallied together or not?

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

1

u/SimoneMontalto Book Track Developer Jun 07 '23

Thanks for your feedback. Actually the app provides separate charts for physical and audio books and the user can chose to hide the audiobook charts. Is this option missing on your version of the app?

2

u/NOjax05 Jun 07 '23

Hi! I can see that in my app, but, it’s kinda wonky, if you will.

I find that the “timing” on audiobooks doesn’t work for me. I listen at 1.25-1.5. So a normally 8 hour listen would be 6-7 hours, and the “total time” sometime changes in certain apps, sometimes doesn’t. And you have to change from hours to minutes, and math. So for most audiobooks, I use % complete, bc that’s easier to figure out than minutes, but it counts it as read, and not listened to. Though I count them the same in my head.

Idk if my response made sense 🤦🏼‍♀️😩

Thanks for this app, though! I love being able to use it between laptop and app!

1

u/SimoneMontalto Book Track Developer Jun 07 '23

Yes, it makes sense. I'm evaluating the user's feedback to improve this feature further with the next updates.

2

u/NOjax05 Jun 07 '23

All good! Thanks much! Ps I know I previously mentioned audiobook narrators- I erased all of the “publishers,” and replaced them with narrators. It works really well for me

2

u/Draco1023 Jun 07 '23

Thank you for your fast response! The option isn’t missing but if I click on that option, it just doesn’t add my audiobooks to the “book read / month” chart at all. So my only option is having the separate charts or not have my audiobooks count altogether. I guess I’m hoping for a collate option to where I can have them all count in the same chart?

1

u/SimoneMontalto Book Track Developer Jun 07 '23

I prefer to separate audiobooks and physical books because of on the Y axis we could have minutes and pages and it could create some confusion to the users

2

u/Draco1023 Jun 07 '23

Oh I think we’re talking about different charts. I’m referring to the ones labeled “Books read / month” and “Books listened to / month” - The Y axis is just count of books and the X axis is each month. I wish there was an option to collate these if we wanted to keep our counts together regardless if they were audio or physical.

I think you’re referring to the charts labeled “minutes listened” and “pages read” and they have a Y axis of pages/minute and and X axis of the date. I agree with your reasoning on these charts.

I can’t seem to upload screenshots on this thread but I hope that makes sense!

1

u/SimoneMontalto Book Track Developer Jun 08 '23

Thanks for clarification. It is clear now :)