eDesign Interactive Created a Website Experience for an Iconic Children’s Book Series
eDesign Interactive was creating a website experience for Wimpy Kid which is an iconic children’s book series.
About the Client
Diary of a Wimpy Kid is an international bestselling cartoon fiction series by Jeff Kinney. With more than 250M books in print around the world, in 81 editions and 66 languages, Wimpy Kid is credited with turning millions of kids into readers.
The Opportunity
The brand team at Wimpy Kid came to them to redesign their existing website. They needed a fresh look to celebrate two upcoming milestone events: the premiere of their Disney+ animated movie, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and the release of Big Shot, their 16th book in the Wimpy Kid series.
Their mission was to create a website that is not only informational and scalable for future needs and announcements, but also fun. eDesign Interactive needed to design an experience that fans can explore and would revisit often.
What eDesign Interactive Did
eDesign Interactive started the project with in-depth interviews. It was interesting for them to get to know Jeff Kinney, the author of the series, and hear about his work. The conversations with Jeff gave them great direction for his vision of the site.
Then the brand team at Wimpy Kid, led by Shaelyn and Vanessa, led them on a virtual tour of their on-site bookstore and office space. Seeing Wimpy Kid’s studio gave them an indication of the brand’s vision and imagination, but also the high quality of work they needed to bring to the design. eDesign Interactive rolled up its sleeves and began sketching.
Their Senior Lead Designer, Ina, immersed herself in the world of Wimpy Kid, reading the books, outlining visuals, and getting inspired by the characters. After the initial round of layout composition, their Creative Director, George, added heartwarming details that really made the design stand out. We spent many hours perfecting each animation in complete collaboration with the brand team and Jeff at Wimpy Kid.
How It Went
eDesign Interactive only had 4 weeks to put the design together. It was a tight deadline to meet Wimpy Kid’s new book launch and movie premiere date. With the design still in progress, they had to carefully orchestrate the front-end and back-end development of the site in tandem. This is a bit tricky to do while the visuals are incomplete on deeper tertiary pages of the site.
The Wimpy Kid team was very fast and organized, providing feedback in 48 hours or less. No small feat for a lean team that was also mid-tour and preparing for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as well.
A great client/agency collaboration is one where there is trust and partnership from the very beginning. They were ready to answer their questions and provide them with anything eDesign Interactive needed to keep the project moving full steam ahead. This fantastic cooperation paid off. The web design of Wimpy Kid is “cheesy” (in a good way!) and filled with fun visuals that support the brand through and through.
The short deadline did not allow them to launch the entire site, and so eDesign Interactive phased the development in a smart way. In phase one, they focused on fun visuals and the ability to drive people to purchase the books with the boost in awareness the site would get from the Disney+ launch. In phase two, the website is going to become even more interactive, welcoming kids to come back to the page for games and other downloadable.
This project brought a lot of joy to their office. eDesign Interactive believes that when a project is done with passion, it really shows up in every pixel.
Their team is very happy and grateful for the chance to work alongside Wimpy Kid and to help with the brand’s website design. They love supporting fantastic projects that carry so much positive energy and purpose.
eDesign Interactive is also happy to report that Big Shot, the 16th book in the Wimpy Kid series, became an Amazon bestseller overnight.
eDesign Interactive’s Role
UX/UI Design, Web Design, Responsive Design, Front-End Development, Back-End Development, Motion Graphics, Project Management, Web Animation, Content Creation, Custom CMS, GDPR Compliance, and SEO.
About eDesign Interactive
eDesign Interactive‘s team strives to create emotional and meaningful stories, which in turn become fantastic digital experiences. eDesign Interactive merges innovative ideas with beautiful designs to reach the hearts and minds of your core audiences.
