Reading Time was created as the first Outliant community project. Community projects are applications or tools developed to support the online communities that we engage with. We wanted to create an application for Shopify blogs that shared the average time to read an article.
We had to develop a Shopify app that is plug and play, easy to use, and easy to configure for every store regardless of the theme being used. Once installed and turned on, it should automatically add the reading time to the beginning of a post’s content. We also wanted the users to have the ability to customize the color and layout from within the app settings.
To determine the average reading time, we divided the average words-per-minute read by a human by the number of words in the article. In order to support multiple themes, we tested all free themes in a development store, and created documentation for adding the code manually to custom themes.
It’s Reading Time is a free Shopify app that lets you easily add an estimated reading time to your blog and posts. It is plug and play ready for most themes and has easy install instructions for custom themes.