ChayToon

Contributions

ChayToon had to serve two fundamentally different user types — readers and creators — on the same platform. Their needs don't just differ; they sometimes conflict. Designing one experience without undermining the other required starting from zero assumptions and letting research define every boundary.

• Reader discovery broken: Users found new comics through Reddit and Twitter — not through any in-app feature on existing platforms.

• Creator analytics opaque: Creators posted into a void — no meaningful data on readers, engagement, or whether anyone was actually finishing their chapters.

• Two user types, one platform: A feature that helps readers discover content can create noise that burdens creators — and vice versa.

• Engagement invisible: Neither side had visibility into the connection between them — readers didn't know creators, creators didn't know readers.

I ran 10 semi-structured interviews with both webcomic readers and independent creators — two very different user types with conflicting but equally valid needs on the same platform.

Competitive Analysis

Deep analysis of Shonen Jump, Webtoon, and WebComics across reading experience, discovery, creator tools, monetization, and community features — mapping gaps and opportunities.

Personas

Two distinct personas representing the dual nature of the platform — a reader who wants frictionless discovery and a creator who needs visibility and transparent analytics.

Nour, 23

Casual Reader · Binge-reads on Commute

"I want to find something new without scrolling for 20 minutes. Just show me what I'll actually like."

Yusuf, 27

Indie Creator · Self-Publishing Online

"I need to know if anyone's actually reading — right now I post and it disappears into the void."

Information Architecture

Building an IA that serves both readers and creators — shared infrastructure, distinct experiences. A mode-switching model lets each user type access what they need without cluttering each other's paths.

Wireframes

Lo-fi and mid-fi wireframes for both reader and creator flows — testing layout concepts and interaction patterns before committing to high-fidelity design.

• Mode-switching IA designed — reader and creator experiences separated cleanly on shared infrastructure.

• 10 interviews completed across both reader and creator user types — zero assumptions brought into design.

• Competitive gap identified — no existing platform serves both discovery and creator analytics in one cohesive experience.

• Full wireframe-to-interactive-prototype pipeline completed, ready for usability testing.

ChayToon taught me that the hardest design problems aren't about making one thing better — they're about serving two different people without letting either experience collapse under the weight of the other. The mode-switching model only emerged because the interviews made it undeniable that a single unified flow would fail both users.

• Zero assumptions is a discipline: Starting with 10 interviews before touching Figma forced every structural decision to be earned, not guessed.

• Two-sided platforms need two mental models: The mode-switching IA was the most important structural decision — and it only became obvious after the research.

• Discovery is a design problem: The fact that readers used Reddit to find comics — not the apps themselves — is a massive failure of in-product design, and a clear opportunity.

• IA before UI, always: Building the full sitemap before any screen saved hours of rework and made every wireframe decision deliberate from the start.