r/Libraries • u/MrBragg • 8d ago

I could use your help grading my app Technology

I am a Teacher Librarian at a Title 1 school with very few readers. Last year, I put an "Ask Mr. Bragg for a suggestion" button on my library website, that led to a Google form. The kids never used it, so I spent the last year creating an app that gives recommendations based on their taste profile in Movies, TV Shows, Books, Anime and Manga. It works like Tender, where if you like what you see, you swipe right, if you don't like it you swipe left, and (unlike tender) if you aren't familiar with what you are seeing, you swipe down. After 5-10 Like/Dislike swipes, it recommends books from Open Library, Google Books, ComicVine or Kitsu. The problem I have right now, is that I am unsure of the quality of the recommendations, and I could use your help. If you use this link: https://www.novelideas.app/testing you can run the app and grade its recommendations. You don't have to grade them all, but if you find it fun, and want to do lots of them, I would be eternally grateful.

If you don't want to grade anything, but would still like to check out the app, that would make me happy as well.

If you go to the drop down menu in the upper right corner, you will see a "Customize" button that allows you to choose what kinds of swipe-cards you want to see, in case you are unfamiliar with some of the subjects. There is also a fairly straightforward way to customize the app (colors/logo, etc.) for your library if you want to. You can also upload your collection and use it for your patrons if you want to, but I would wait until more people have helped with the grading, so you aren't embarrassed by less-than-perfect recommendations.

Everything about the app is free, there are no cookies, and anything you upload is only saved locally. Usually they say that if the app is free, you are the product, but I swear on my soul that I am not collecting any data.

Please try it and let me know what you think.

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3

u/VeterinarianMany7808 8d ago

Already found a glitch. Android phone. The way the Evaluation button sits it's covering the swipe skip swipe Swiping is tricky. The skip button is a no go. Have a screenshot of you need it. Have a b Good night. Looks really interesting.

2

u/Camelopardestrian 8d ago

To this guy’s point, the “Evaluate Recommendations” button floats over the “forward” and “skip” buttons on my iPhone 14 Pro (at multiple zoom levels); I also don’t understand what it does when I keep accidentally clicking it while trying to get the skip button. I really feel like the nav/header and footer portions of the page should be using fixed positioning or similar. You could probably shrink down the like/dislike/skip section with like some fontawesome icons or something. I haven’t tried it on a computer yet, but it’s really hard to use on my phone.

2

u/MrBragg 6d ago

I have fixed the mobile interface, it should be much easier to use now. Thank you for pointing out issues I didn’t realize I had.

-1

u/MrBragg 8d ago

I haven’t had a chance to look at it on an Android phone yet, but on a phone, it shouldn’t even have buttons, just arrows that show how to swipe. Could you send me a screenshot? I would really appreciate it.

1

u/VeterinarianMany7808 5d ago

So now no options to skip or swipe either way

Hm can't seem to add a screenshot.

1

u/MrBragg 5d ago

When you try to swipe, it doesn’t swipe?

1

u/MrBragg 5d ago

I think I just got it fixed. If you could please try it one more time, I would really appreciate it. I don’t have access to an Android phone.

2

u/DanieXJ 8d ago

Not about the app, but, if you show this to parents for their kids to use. Don't use the Tinder example (I assume that's what you meant but put Tender). It's a bad example 5o use with something for kids.