ISSUU'S TASTY BITS & BYTES
NOVEMBER 2016
VOLUME 1 ISSUE 1
The new issuu
THE #NEWISSUU ISSUE
Beautifully Brainy
Meet the #newissuu reading experience.
When Life Gives You Oranges...
Words by Joel Barnard Illustrations by Maya Gßrtler Lorentzen With the world changing around us, the issuu team saw an opportunity to reimagine the reading experience from the inside out while keeping true to the original issuu vision. Time wasn’t on our side, but our aim to deliver a stellar reading experience everywhere and our commitment to quality was.
Obvious Always Wins
Easy on the Eyes
Improved navigational elements,
Uploaded files are split into layers
like page arrows moved off the publication, which has increased the number of pages people are reading.
of high-res JPEGs and text layers to enable crisp, clean text that’s easy to read at all zoom levels. Even the 5pt. disclaimer type that your insurance company doesn’t want you to read.
realized this seemingly simple product was a big beast filled with many features added over the years. Getting a complete overview felt almost like an archeological dig. In total, we were faced with 70 or so different features to implement. Even if we could throw together a
So we asked ourselves what is absolutely essential to the issuu reading experience. feature per week (which would be impossible), it would take over a year to get to the first release. Not exactly within our timeframe. So we asked ourselves what is absolutely essential to the issuu reading experience. To
Page Flip Heaven
answer that question, we trawled through all the comments from our publishers and we studied
If you haven’t noticed by now, a
the behavior of our readers. We
completely new page flip animation,
focused our efforts on a simple
which is better than anything else
and intuitive interface for
out there. Slowly lift a corner to see
reading, crystal-clear text and
what we mean.
a beautiful home-brewed page flip animation. And without question, all features needed to work everywhere — on small and
More Juicy Bits Ahead At issuu, we continuously roll out improvements to our products. Even though this new reading experience is a huge change, it’s no different in the sense that we always break larger projects into multiple releases and ship them one at a time. With this project we’ve already rolled out the majority of the biggest changes to the issuu reading experience. Hopefully you’ve already noticed the performance improvements and the experience’s new look and feel. But wait, there’s more! In the coming months we’ll continue to optimize for speed and release other features that will make the reading experience even better on all devices, browsers and screen sizes. This new and improved issuu is the foundation for our future. We’re thrilled you’re along for the ride, and we can’t wait to share what else we have in store.
Meet Peter Assentorp Peter Assentorp has been
Developer at an advertising
Title: Designer
the designer of issuu’s new
agency called Gottlieb & Co.
Office: Copenhagen
reading experience from the
After three years there, I stumbled
Since: July 2014
very beginning. His experience in designing for mobile and his rapid prototyping skills have been crucial to the success of the project.
upon an issuu job opening while searching for something else online. It turns out they were close to removing the job posting because they already had several strong candidates in the queue. I feel very lucky to have landed
What was your path to issuu?
the job.
a digital communications agency
What is your favorite thing about working at issuu?
before pursuing my degree in
I really like the culture, the people
marketing management. Shortly
and the freedom you have here.
after graduation I landed a job as
There is always room to grab a
a Digital Designer and Frontend
coffee or play ping pong to get the
I started my professional career as a junior designer/developer at
Favorite issuu publishers: Sport Magazine
so many smart brains every day.
What has been your biggest challenge this past year?
I feel human here. If I had
Without a doubt designing the
to choose my favorite thing
new issuu from the bottom up.
about working here I’d probably
It definitely wasn’t an easy task
say being able to touch so many
to redesign the core product that
people's lives around the world
has served us well for almost
feels pretty good. It’s sometimes
a decade — and is the reason
crazy to think that what I’m
why we still exists today. It was
designing is going to be seen
especially tough to think many
and used by millions of people
steps ahead while designing to
every month.
ensure that all the pieces would
blood flowing again and it also feels great to be surrounded by
Favorite issuu publishers: frrresh Magazine
fit together in the future since we
What is your favorite issuu core value and how do you live it? favorite. It’s so important for a
What part of the new reading experience are you most proud of?
company of our size. Ownership
I’m mostly proud of how we’ve
to me means taking responsibility
unified our reading experience.
and never assuming it’s someone
In the past we’ve had different
else’s problem. If I see something
interfaces for different browsers
that doesn’t work or doesn’t look
— meaning the interface would
right, I’ll try fixing it myself first.
change depending on whether
If I can’t, then I’ll find a person
or not your browser has Flash.
who has the skills to help me
Even though it's being used
get it done.
by more people all the time, it's
I’d say ownership is probably my
SOFFA Magazine
couldn’t build everything at once.
How do you think readers and publishers are going to react to the new reading experience?
It’s always fun to look back at the designs and prototypes I had in the beginning and see how it has evolved over time into something much simpler and better.
It’s a pretty big change we’ve
—Peter Assentorp, UX Designer
been a technical challenge to maintain. It’s been our goal for more than a year to have one codebase and one interface. I’m really amazed at how the entire company has rallied together to finally reach that milestone.
made to the whole reading experience. Not only have the publisher embeds changed but also the reading experience on issuu.com. Everything has a brand new look and feel, which I think both publishers and readers will love once they start playing around with it. We’ve really spent a lot of time ensuring that they're getting the best possible reading experience.
Be beautifully brainy with us. We’re looking for new issuuees to be part of our next big idea. Join us and help change the future of publishing today.
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