In the Summer of 2007, I started doing freelance front-end web development for the design firm Ditherdog in Greenpoint BK—led by designer Ed Chung—and in collaboration with the back-end developer Felix Shung, the three of us built the e-commerce site for multicultural book publisher Lee & Low.

From a product design perspective, it was a pretty straightforward implementation of e-commerce standards at the time, with only a couple design quirks to distinguish it from the field.

To reflect the multi-cultural nature of the books Lee & Low published, the site was designed with a set of distinct color themes. Depending on the main featured title, the homepage would be presented in one of four main colorways, with each colorway also being employed to connotate distinct sections of the site.

Another major design conceit of the site was the presence of what was called “Your Bookshelf” anchored to the bottom of the screen at all times. It functioned as something of a staging ground when quickly browsing through the site, allowing the user to queue up a ti... Read more