Tapastic's Publishing Menu

[puppetbomb]

I wish the Publishing icon send me straight to the Publishing page rather than giving me a pop-out menu.

I rarely use the "add episode" or "new series" features in the menu at all. I find myself going to the dashboard and uploading my comic from there since it makes it clearer which series I'm updating (I have a history of updating the wrong page for the wrong series).

Another thing is that my pages are scheduled for the next few months in one sitting (a behavior Tapastic does not account for). So most of the time I log in is to either check up on my stats, which is only accessible through the dashboard (I'm also boggled as to why I cannot access a list of subscribers from the subscriber stat page).

But if there was to be a change in the pop-out menu, I would like something like this:

(If there is a need for more clarity, "Publishing" can be renamed to "Dashboard")

There is little doubt or need to double-check which series you're updating. Everything but an overview is easily accessible from any page and not just the Dashboard. For people who have a large number of series, maybe only list the top 3-5 most recently updated series.

tl;dr: I would like the current Publishing pop-up menu to be revised or non-existent.

Does anyone else have opinions about the current Publishing menu? If it works for you, how do you use it?

[UzukiCheverie]

Uhuh, but just because you use different methods doesn't mean everyone does. You queuing up chapters months in advance isn't Tapastic's fault, you accidentally uploading the wrong pages to the wrong comics isn't Tapastic's fault, and neither is you going to a different page to click the "Add Episode" button instead of using the panel button. When I actually updated Uzuki on a regular basis (le sigh), I actually made a point of checking the pull-down menu to make sure I was updating the right series. So just stop flubbing it up (especially cause there are people who only have one series vs. you having more).

That set-up, honestly, looks very crowded and I feel like I would end up pressing the wrong button a lot. I don't know about anyone else, but I always go to my Dashboard for my stats and I find that helpful because, realize it or not, the Dashboard is also home to your Ads page, your Revenue page, and your Support page. To put it bluntly, there's a reason that it's there.

And I always use the "Add Episode" button in the publishing menu because it's accessible on every page on the website and much faster.

The Dashboard is for finding information and organizing it, including your pages. Everything else in that panel is for quick uploading and updating.

Plus, there are people who make new series a -lot- cough reon merryweather cough Little-Miss-Boxie cough so the New Series button being there isn't really hurting anyone IMO. It might not need to be above Dashboard, but that's the only real criticism I can make.

So really, all of these things you mentioned seem to be more of a you problem than a Tapastic problem, and is something that varies from user to user based on how they choose to use the website.

[keii4ii]

Personally, I've always found it a little inconvenient that I have to click on the cloud icon to open the menu. It makes sense for the updates/feeds because those things take a bit of time to load, and I wouldn't want them to start loading just because I accidentally hovered over them. But if we could get rid of that one extra click, it would be nice. ^^

[UzukiCheverie]

Do you mean like, it just opening as soon as you hover over it? that would be such a pain though D: It feels like it would just get in the way when you're trying to get to your profile or wherever else.

But if we could get rid of that one extra click, it would be nice. ^^

Now you're just being lazy . . . xD"""

[keii4ii]

UI design is all about intuitivenes (help for the dumb) and convenience (help for the lazy). :3

[puppetbomb]

It's great that the set-up works for you.

But it doesn't for me, which is why I proposed these changes.

These are changes I would like because I don't have analytics for creators use Tapastic other than my own. I am offering a solution for my problem(s) because those are the only ones I am aware of.

I don't expect Tapastic to mold themselves to my whims because I said so. Resources take money, and if it's not seen as cost-effective to implement certain features, then it's obvious they won't do it. They know better than I how often creators use the "Add Episode" feature enough to merit being in a drop-down menu, or if traffic to the New Series/New Episode pages justify those features to be prominently displayed.

I do appreciate your feedback about the menu mock-up looking cluttered. I do not appreciate suggestions of "don't make mistakes" and "that's your fault" for some the issues that I am attempting to sort out.

[daronakira]

Cool ideas, thanks for sharing! And honestly if there's confusion or room for improvement, it's not anyone's fault but mine

It's definitely true that different people use the site and tools in different ways – for example we found some creators never used the Dashboard (and some didn't even know it existed) and instead just click "add episode" every single time. Meanwhile, others never use "add episode" or "new series," and instead go the Dashboard every single time.

As for the click vs. hover, that was done for a couple usability reasons. You may remember that back in the day the lefthand menu items (comics, creators, etc.) had their own drop down menus too, which either opened on hover or click depending on how far back you go. The little icon menus on the right side also went through a few iterations, requiring either hovering or a click to open as well. Anyway, we simplified the lefthand side by flattening out the menu options and getting rid of ones that weren't being used much, and settled on click-to-open for the righthand icons. The contents may be less obvious and require that one extra click to see... but it makes using the menus (clicking rows, scrolling up and down on the list, etc.) easier to manage.

If it opened on hover but you moved your mouse slightly outside the menu it would disappear, leading to frustration or causing an accidental click on some other part of the page. This is particularly painful if you were scrolling the Reading List / Purchases in Your Comics or the latest notifications under Activity... only to have the whole thing disappear at the wrong time. If instead the menu appears when you click (versus hover), then you can scroll or move your mouse anywhere as quickly and carelessly as you like without worrying about it disappearing on you. The Publish menu (i.e. "upload cloud") is simply the same way for consistency, as it'd be a little weird if all of the icons required clicking except that one!

As we've said before (and you're probably tired of hearing), we've got a lot of things on our to do list... but I can give you a little sneak peek into what we're thinking for the next Dashboard update.

When we started out, the Dashboard was basically just a list of Series and Episodes. Since then we've added Stats, Support, Premium, Revenue, and now Ads... so it's getting a bit complicated. What we'd like to do is add a sort of "hub" or main overview, with summary info and easy ways to jump into each of those sections. You can imagine seeing basic stats, new supporters, and your latest comments or other activity updates in one place, with the option to drill down into the existing sections for more detail. Once we put something like that together, it may make sense to turn the Publish button (cloud icon) into a single click... which would take you directly the dashboard overview to get a snapshot of what's going on, add new episodes, and manage your life on Tapastic as a creator. None of that is set i stone yet... but we definitely recognize the current tools need to be streamlined and simplified now that there's so many... if nothing else so you don't get lost or miss things!

Anyway, hope that helps give you a little background into the "why" behind some of the Tapastic mysteries (tapasteries?)...

[puppetbomb]

As we've said before (and you're probably tired of hearing), we've got a lot of things on our to do list... but I can give you a little sneak peek into what we're thinking for the next Dashboard update.

That would be pretty sweet ^^ Also, is it possible to see what Tapastic used to look like? I'm curious since the current design is the only one I'm familiar with.

[feyuca]

http://web.archive.org/web/20130812223908/http://tapastic.com/ Maybe?

[UzukiCheverie]

Oh man, that takes me back. I forgot about that whole "Community" section. #Primetime too. It's neat to see how far the site has come in just like, a year and a half.

[Iron]

WOah I was not familiar with this version of the site. So much improvement during those two years! Great job team tapastic!

[daronakira]

Or even older days... (check out OG @DavidDaneman representing way back in 2012)

[puppetbomb]

Holy crap O__O

The "Korean landing site" aesthetic really shines through llD

[daronakira]

All the broken images and missing CSS don't help (layout, fonts, etc. jammed up)

[Jelw]

I find it amusing the side bit has 4 FB likes… not including you, haha. Way to support the cause!

[DavidDaneman]

Ah yes... back when my struo was called "Danema."

Gee... that Gavin Aung moved on to bigger and better things fast.