Overview
Harlequin books wanted to update the look and feel for their flagship writing contest, “So You Think You Can Write”, a competition that selects a new published novelist every year based on editor choices and fan voting. In the process they wanted to improve access for their users to their editors and their content, and create a unique events calendar.
Challenges
There were multiple challenges to this projec: The first was to organize the previous content that the contest had generated in a way that made it useful for new users. Second was to improve access to editors in way that allowed for both quick access and gave the users the option to quickly access more information if they wanted. Lastly, to do it in a unique and fun way that kept the users interest.
Solutions
Content
The first thing I did was to create a schema for the legacy content that users were having a difficult time accessing. I created the “Writer’s Workshop” and broke down content into four different categories: Getting Started, Writing, Advance Topics and Submissions. Using these four buckets I categorized all the previous content to make it easier to navigate, then added a menu to the homepage aligning icons with each category to use for shorthand throughout the site.
Editors
To improve user access to the editors I immediately added a “Tweet them now” button that allowed users to send each editor a tweet right from their mini-biography on the editors page. This meant that instead of sifting through info to find the editors twitter handle and then going to Twitter.com just to tweet them, the users could simply click and tweet right from the editors page. Secondarily, I used Isotope.js to create a pinterest-esque interface for the editors along with a toggle switch to compact the editors into a small space that allowed for the users to conveniently click open their tag and read their biographies. This allowed quick and easy access to editor information that functioned well on mobile as well as desktop.
Results
SYTYCW.com is a dynamic and interactive site that allows the client to update their editors, events and content in useful way for their users, that looks great on desktop computers and mobile phones. The responsive solution looks beautiful and loads quickly across the device ecosystem.
