“[ReaderBound] thoughtfully considered our unique vision and goals, and we are thrilled with the result.” — Angela Leppig, Director, Gallaudet University Press
Gallaudet University Press (GUP) came to ReaderBound with a familiar scenario: an outdated website with a clunky user experience, manual updating process, and limited functionality. They needed a completely new site that could fully support their worthy mission: publishing content that advances awareness and recognition of deaf people, deaf communities, and signed languages.
This unique ability to share knowledge by and about deaf people and signing communities with the world had to be reflected on every page of the site. From a growing library of American Sign Language (ASL) videos to a vibrant conference schedule to detailed custom subjects, we began to assemble abundant ways to highlight the mission and vision of the press.
Of course, there were a few interesting technical challenges in the mix as well to keep us on our toes.
Shifting gears from manual to automatic
The existing GUP site was painstakingly maintained by hand by staff, including that all title information for the entire catalogue had to be manually entered and updated. That same title information that was once such a chore to update became an automated process with ReaderBound’s advanced system for importing and processing ONIX data. Digital catalogues were embedded into the site for one-click distribution. Custom subject schemes created automatic book selections that could be easily promoted and shared. And the press could now readily highlight special subject areas across the site: Black ASL, Learning ASL, Global Deaf Communities, and more. All of this is managed with little or no intervention from the GUP team.
Bringing in multiple data feeds
GUP were keen to allow sales of ebooks from the new site as well as print books. However, their ebooks were housed in a separate digital warehouse, resulting in the need for another data feed to be imported and processed by their new ReaderBound site. Our development team customized the site to allow for multiple data streams. Ebooks were quickly made available for sale.
All kinds of options for all kinds of readers
GUP’s publishing program has a variety of options for readers, including Open Access editions and ebook rental periods. The press wanted to centralize purchase, rental, and free options on book title pages rather than sending users to different places on the site.
This inclusive approach led us to the idea of flexible shop buttons. All editions on the site now have a yellow “buy” button with a designated icon. The shopping cart allows users to choose print or ebook purchase or rental; and the Open Access link leads to an external site. The buttons look and feel cohesive and are echoed by green buttons beneath that showcase rich title content such as Tables of Contents, excerpts, or other rich content.
Multimedia in multiple places
Gallaudet University is a bilingual institution (the two languages being English and American Sign Language). GUP’s extensive collection of multimedia reflects this mandate, with videos in ASL accompanying many titles to provide chapter summaries and other supporting content. We reflected on how to showcase this key multimedia content and settled on a few ways.
One is a large homepage feature where the press can rotate in/out new and relevant YouTube videos and provide accompanying captions and links. These videos are embedded and do not require users to leave the homepage to watch.
Another is on book title pages themselves. On most ReaderBound websites, videos on book title pages are shared via a “watch now” button that opens a modal box where the user can view the video. We like this solution because it allows for the addition of multimedia content without distracting from the title information and purchasing buttons. However, because videos are so important to GUP’s publishing program, we opted to fully expose video embeds on book title pages and add them right above the book description. They are immediately visible and playable and add an important bilingual look and feel to the title pages.
Videos are also displayed on series landing pages and other pages throughout the site.
Realizing the vision
Developing distinct solutions that fulfilled GUP’s vision for their new site allowed us the opportunity to be creative and flexible. Angela Leppig, Director of the press, shared the following feedback:
“Working with ReaderBound was a pleasure because it was a truly collaborative venture. They brought strong expertise and took a lot of the weight off our shoulders. At the same time, they thoughtfully considered our unique vision and goals, and we are thrilled with the result.”