Overtime Manga

Delving into a fast growing market can always be challenging. Making sure you understand the market before developing a product is crucial. Before releasing our manga, we first wanted to understand the current market and our target audience.

I helped lead a series of meetings with anime/manga creators to learn the current landscape and where was best to release our manga. We quickly came to the decision that webtoons was the best platform for us to release on initially as vertical manga formats were more popular than traditional manga.

Once we started to write the manga we also reached out to our followers on social media t not only gain valuable user feedback early, but also making community members feel like they were a part of the journey. We first asked questions asking community members what social media do they spend the most time on and where they would want to see us create a group chat. We also asked what their favourite thing about Anime was which would later help us create our manga.

After gaining insight from community members we now had a better understanding of what our final product would look like and where it was going to be released. Whilst the story was being written by an external team of experienced writers, it was my goal to create the brand and website to support the story.

When people found us on social media we wanted a way to provide more information on what we're building. We used the website to showcase the upcoming manga and build anticipation around the release of the story itself.

Whilst there isn't much text on the website, the use of imagery and interactions are used to engage the user. Using movement can help capture the users attention, especially when the main focus is on the visuals used. I used a series of animations and interactions with different buttons and character images to increase a users intrigue into the website.

We deliberately left information regarding the story itself off of the website. Much like movie trailers, some information is best left unsaid as it increases the viewers need to see more. Anime and Manga fans tend to be first attracted by visuals, and stay long term for the story.

Unlike traditional Anime stories and brands, we wanted to have a focus on building community. Rather than email sign up forms, we thought the best outcome for the website was to have people engaging with us on social media. Hence why the only links you see are to social media channels. The purpose of the social media was to engage users and also later inform them of when our story would be released.