Thats why we went ahead and thought of ways to improve the user experience (UX) of gutenberg.org the largest open source project for making books a public good. In order to let everybody take part in this process we made it available here and everybody who wants to help is welcome!

• Modern design
• Easier book search
• Brand new mobile app!

We simplified the logo using only the G in the font "gutenberg" and made it black giving it a premium, classic look.

We gave gutenberg.org a much improved, modern design. Because nothing should distract from the core-element of the site - the books.

If you open a website to read a book, you want to get reading as quick as possible. Thats why we also added a new kind of search: Simply fill in the sentence

"I want to read ... "

with whatever you like, be it the genre, the author, release date or reading time. And if you know already exactly what you want, just type it in and it'll get you there instantly.
Given its importance, we placed the search as a prominent element, capturing the users attention immediatly. Based on the users input on the search field the site displays book recommendations.

Having one website that does it all is radically improving the ease of use. So we want to combine project gutenberg and libriVox. If a book is available as audiobook as well, it is indiacted by a headphones icon on the cover.

The gutenberg projects depends on contributions, thats why contributing should be made as easy as possible. So we added the possibility to set up a profile, benefitting also the user experience of the site, as the profile can be used to set up personal booklists and reading preferences. When content is missing (Be it a translation, an audio recording or reviews) the possibility to add new content is displayed prominently.

In order to simplify the user experience and tidy up the page, we created a hidden side menu with a List to access all subpages easily. The website slides to the right making way for the menu.

We are based in Germany where project gutenberg is currently faced with a lawsuit over a few books, which led to the blockage of german IP Adresses. The current page german users are "greeted" with is definitely worth improving. So we created a new design for 404, Blocked or error pages on gutenberg.org

So far these ideas are all just concepts and mockups. We havent even started with updating the design of the other subpages on gutenberg.org. So theres a lot left to do.
But if you are a designer/programmer dont hestitate to jump aboard and get involved :)

All content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This means that you can use & modify everything as long as you credit us and publish your resulting work under the same license.

Together we make project gutenberg a more beautiful place!

• Design mobile page / maybe even app
• create designs for all other subpages on gutenberg.org
• code designs in css, html, js
• submit them to the gutenberg team

If anyone knows a way to get in touch with the gutenberg team we'd love to hear that, as were currently trying to contact them ;) Thanks in advance!