Full-bleed imagery. Consolidated navigation. UX excellence. Heavy database architecture. Third-party integrations. Book publishing automation. Smart title release calendar. Custom CMS. Branded PDF reader tailored to manga. JY for Kids standalone website. eCommerce buildout. Over 11,000 pages, one of the most extensive sites in the industry. WCAG 2.1 audits.
Web Design, UX/UI Design, Responsive Design, Front and Back-End Development, Motion Graphics, Web Animation, Project Management, Third-party Integrations, CakePHP Custom CMS, GDPR Compliance, WCAG 2.1 Level A Conformance, Web Accessibility, SEO Boost.
Yen Press, the leading comics publisher in North America, presents an extensive catalog of over 3,000 titles, including acclaimed Japanese manga, Korean comics, and original graphic novel series. The company is committed to sharing a wide range of stories with audiences of fans worldwide.
With the inefficiencies of their previous WordPress site and the cumbersome manual input process for each book release, Yen Press realized the need to revamp their platform. With hundreds of books published annually, the need for more streamlined navigation and organization hindered user experience. Yen Press wanted a website that is easy to navigate and manage, designed for a broad audience between the ages of 13 and 30, including comics lovers and passionate collectors.
The new website categorizes books not only by digital formats (audio, digital, paperback) but also by genre (novel, manga, comic) and brands (IZE Press, JNC, YenON, JY, etc.), with metadata tagging for scalability and flexibility in search results and category pages. With hundreds of releases annually, our search feature ensures that users can effortlessly navigate through a list of titles with a filtering system developed to accommodate complexity, including categorization by genres, sub-genres, and age ratings. Entire book collections are easily accessible from a single page, akin to browsing products on an online store, vastly improving the site’s organization.
The initial challenge in reorganizing Yen Press's extensive database revolved around structuring its vast amount of information effectively. A subsequent complication arose with automation. To overcome this obstacle, we introduced ONIX, an XML metadata file format tailored for book publishers to overcome this obstacle. We incorporated massive amounts of metadata through ONIX Feeds, including authors, prices, genres, descriptions, release dates, age groups, and more.
We developed a script that scans for daily updates from Yen Press and imports any new information automatically. The site dynamically constructs book content, adds new titles under existing collections, or generates new book pages. This automated process enables Yen Press’ team to publish quickly and effortlessly.
Moreover, our program schedules upcoming books into an intelligent calendar of new releases, further streamlining the publishing process and helping users discover and filter new titles. This user-friendly calendar showcases book releases, empowering Yen Press to promote new stories and engage its audience effectively.
Midway through our collaboration with Yen Press, we realized that the sheer volume of information, data, metadata, and images involved in the project exceeded what a WordPress CMS could effectively manage. In response, we made the proactive decision mid-project to transition to a custom CMS, demonstrating our team’s flexibility and adaptability.
The website is built on the latest CakePHP and ElasticSearch, making it incredibly responsive and fast despite the colossal amount of visuals and information. The site is mobile-first and accessible from any device.
We also incorporated a vibrant Yen Press news section design complemented by tags and dynamic content organization. Our development team embarked on one more coding project to transition historical articles and tags to the new site.
Additionally, we integrated social media and YouTube feeds to boost user engagement, along with functionalities allowing users to buy books directly from the website, thus improving convenience.
11,000 pages
eDesign also worked on redesigning JY for Kids, adhering to Yen Press's brand guidelines but catering to younger audiences with a child-friendly approach. The new website includes more prominent visuals, brand colors, and logical headline hierarchies to create a more engaging, readable design. Here, too, we made a clear taxonomy of content to help parents discover new series and titles for their kids based on genre and subgenre.
As a first step towards a larger eCommerce buildout, we transitioned Yen Press’ site from using FoxyCart for checkout to integrating Shopify to handle all eCommerce needs, thus creating a convenient online shopping experience. Customers can now buy books directly from Yen Press' website, leading to a significant increase in sales (449% in just the first month!). This was achieved through automated processes that eliminated manual tasks, allowing Yen Press to focus on its core business. In combination with our paid media efforts, we will be able to start reporting on sales that are directly attributable to advertising.
Our team stepped up and created a custom PDF solution tailored to reading manga. It is fully branded and offers significant cost savings compared to specialized, out-of-the-box solutions. Bespoke functionality includes horizontal and vertical navigation options, single- and double-page spreads, zoom tools, and a promotional message at the end of the reading experience.
We are also looking into expanding the book previewer into a full-fledged direct-to-consumer book reader, including selling virtual products for import into a user’s preferred eReader or developing a YP-branded eReader app. We are also planning a standalone website for Ize Press, similar to JY for Kids.
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