I just hope this layout won't make it harder for people to find new creatos and comics with smaller audiences...
Luckily, I had a chance for my comic to gain a good amount of subscribers before the update. But new creators are going to have a hard time.
Fml.
The subscribe button is playing hide & seek...
And now just reaching the next chapter feels like it has two more steps. :')
It's really hard to navigate now. There's no option to look at the comic episode list when viewing a comic and the series banner disappearing makes no sense at all. So much blank white space, I assumed my laptop was broken at first.
User interface changes should not result in increased user clicks for typical content navigation . Auto hiding of frames, requiring an additional click when accessing a favorite, rather than going directly to the resumption from the last reading, and the removal of the next unread item in the user library at the bottom of the page together constitute a 400% increase in user clicks to effect the same navigation in the previous design. Furthermore, the removal of the number of unread comics in the library icon dis-incentivizes checking the library.
One of the major advantages that Tapas had over other platforms was excellent navigation efficiency. The current changes may alienate users and drive them to other platforms, rather than incentivize browsing and revenue-generating activities as planned.
It is suggested that the above issues be addressed.
I didn't see that until you mentioned it, so thanks. But it's really tiny and is just a symbol rather than the left hand list (with all the previews) that was there only yesterday. That was so much easier to understand, especially for novices.
Not a fan of how much more annoying this makes reading comics on a desktop browser. I have to scroll aaaaaaallll the way down, like not to the bottom of the comic, but down past the comments...past the ads...right down to the footer and then hope that the fiddly little tiny bar with the "next" button pops up? That's HORRIBLE UX DESIGN.
I find the navigation too similar to webtoons that it kinda feels like "really, guys?".
I/m not happy that you have to click between episodes, the auto-uploading feed within the comic was great, as well as the side panel with the episodes. And I just made a headder like a month ago!
On the plus side - we got a separate LGBTQA+ category (though we still can't pick more than 1 genre! wtf). On the downside - well, we lost the great layout within the comics.
Also now the artist patreon and site banners are only on the main title page in the desktop version, instead of with every episode - come on, we don't get that much traffic as it is for such a kick to the jewels.
Problems that I found with this design
On episode pages:
* no title at the top for comics, so essentially any text in the title is useless for comics now.
* links in the description are not clickable. that was really unnecessary, guys.
* subscribe button is hard to find
* support button is just gone from series pages and profiles afaik i was wrong, just had to look at somebody else's profile, not my own. but just like subscribe button, it's hidden under a menu on episode pages.
* top and bottom navigation bars have non-intuitive behaviour. you have to learn that they go away\come in by click, so their sliding behaviour is very misleading and scrolling only hides them. can't be called back by mouseover too.
* new pages don't load automatically after current page, and navigation is hidden in the bottom bar (which doesn't show up if you haven't learned how to bring it back)
* custom ad banner isn't there, so no way to promote patreon\kofi\etc
* custom banner at the top is missing as well
overall website issues:
* it looks too webtoons-ey, i mean, come on. series pages, comment section, front page. (although, unlike WT we still actually have working notifications, ha. {pls don't break})
* darker menu bar at the top worked well and kept the focus in the right places. now that it's white, grey areas underneath look confusing and pushy. definitely there's a need to change colours for other layout elements if the top bar is going to stay white. (personally, i'd prefer the black one).
* broken search bar. but i'm sure you guys will fix it.
* there no longer seems to be a site link for series that had it set up.
good things
* I like the new font options on novels.
* It's nice to see latest support messages in the series description tab, but this is with a grain of salt, because support button isn't there.
* dedicated dashboard button. which for some reason some people can't find *shrug*
* i like the separate profile page for a series. it's nice to have a place where all episodes and description are more visible than in a tiny window on the side. that being said, description and tipping shouldn't be hidden on a secondary tab.
I don't think that the UI is THAT bad. It's very similar to Webtoons. It was better before though, when you could see which episodes you've already read etc. BUT I believe that new comics and smaller creators are gonna have a hard time... The "fresh" section isn't on the homepage, and they promote only comics with some kind of traction in there now. That's sad
All of the webcomic sites are morphing into one and I don't like that. Come on, people. Can't you be creative with your site design for once?
