When we quietly released our new ComicMix comic book reader last Friday, one of our readers quickly wrote me and said, "Congratulations on the new Comics Reader at ComicMix. You've made the best reader around even better. Well done."
Thanks!
We made the layout something way more useable thanks to input from our creators, our readers and some of the best designers I know -- including some big suggestions from Mike Propst last year. I posted over on ComicMix today about the millions of new ways to navigate from page to page and many of the other improved reader features. And that's just our online reader.
I know what you're all thinking: "But how can you make a comic book reader application that doesn't make me fill out a registration form or download and install software or force me to learn yet another slow-loading Flash interface?"
That's easy. We respect our audience. We read these comics too.
Before:
After:
Let me know what you think.
GrimJack
EZ Street
Jon Sable, Freelance
Comments (7)
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Rick Marshall 75 days ago
And that's reason #3,742 why I'm thrilled to be a part of the ComicMix crew.
juan 75 days ago
at first glane you say "ok, what's the catch". Then when you really take a look at the interface design you get it and say "fantastic". You really improved to experience here, thanks and keep the good work
Brian Alvey 75 days ago
Thanks!
Anonymous 75 days ago
I don't like how when you zoom way in those left and right arrows block part of the comic pages. And when you drag the pages, the sides still get covered by the arrows. You can see it in your screen shot above, but you can't tell that the arrows always cover part of the pages. Please fix it!
Russ Rogers 64 days ago
I think "one of our readers" was me. And you are welcome. The new interface is a MAJOR improvement and I stand by what said, ComicMix had the best reader around and now it's even better. I had never even thought about the fact that I've never had to install the reader. Never had to worry if the reader was some kind of ad-ware or spy-ware. The whole thing is so effortless, seemingly transparent.
Like Anonymous said, at some resolutions the right part of the page is clipped. This effect is lessened if you minimize the navigation panel. The ComicMix Logo still hides a tiny portion of the page, but I can live with that.
I didn't immediately figure out how that you could minimize the navigation panel. It was after you official introduce the new reader and explained some of it's features that I caught that.
WOW! I just clicked on the "?" and found the KEY COMMANDS! Here's another Easter Egg I didn't know the reader had. I think you can explain that the navigation page can be minimized on the "?"-screen. I know, it's all very obvious, except to pinheads like me.
The fact that the reader gives multiple ways to navigate and manipulate the pages is very cool.
The addition of the floating Info Window is great. I wish this window linked directly back to the comments page for the issue or better yet, included the comments in the floating Info Window. Hey, while I'm making your life a technical nightmare, you might as well make the comments section on the floating panel have the option of being collapsible too. Or if it's easier, have a separate floating Comments Window. If you could make it so you could actually make COMMENTS on the floating comments window, that would be the coolest. I find that I have to have two tabs open for the same comic, the comments tab and a tab for the comic I'm commenting on. Does this make sense?
Brian Alvey 63 days ago
It does make sense. We will definitely give you more links out from that floating info panel. To more pages than you even knew we had. Soon!
Russ Rogers 43 days ago
I noticed that you added an advertisement panel to floating "Info Window" in the comics reader. That's a cool tech tweak. It makes me wonder, for every small advance in the comics reader or on the site that I do notice (and I'm guessing I notice more than most), I wonder how many fixes and advances go unnoticed. Rock on!