Overview
For all comic creators around the world who want to get their comics into the hands of readers, INKR Backstage is a cloud-based publishing service that allows comic creators to submit and publish their comics digitally.
Unlike other publishing services, INKR Backstage features a 100% self-service portal for an end-to-end content publishing workflow from submission, publication, and monetization.
This is a continuation of our previous project in 2018, INKR Creator Studio.
I led a team of three designers to work on its research, conceptualization, and design.
My Contribution
User Research
Concepts & Ideation
Information Architecture
Enterprise UX/UI
Team
3 designers
2 product managers
12 engineers
Year
2019
Recap
In 2019, INKR Creator Studio was officially branded as INKR Backstage, continuing our promise of a suite of publishing tools for every comic creator in the world.
We resumed this project after the unexpected termination of Manga Rock app and all of its auxiliary products, most notably Manga Rock CMS 2.0.
Production started in September 2019. I worked closely with a new Product Manager and 10 engineers to deliver 4 separate sub-products: Container, Submission, Title-in-Production, and Title-in-Localization.
After several rounds of research, ideation, and discussion, we executed the design in Figma, with Material Design as the design system.
Promotional Video
Several months into the implementation, I created a promotion video to announce Backstage to the world.
Outcome
INKR Backstage was originally designed as a universal CMS that can work with our INKR Comics reader app or any other reader app.
However, in 2020, due to the pressing need for a place to store legitimate content to be published inside the new INKR Comics mobile app, the product was rushed and launched to the internal content team to use for the content licensing process. The product proved to be too difficult to use for internal purposes, as it was originally designed for an ordinary audience, with a lot of hand-holding and rigid step-by-step processes.
The project was put on hold and eventually canceled, to be superseded by INKR CMS 1.0.