App v2.0.5 Feedback
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I’m a new member, so I’ve never used the previous apps, but I had a bug report/feedback for the iOS versions of the app. Both devices are running iOS 12.
Bug: iPhone XS On my iPhone XS, the last line of whatever page I’m on is cut off and it doesn’t display when you go to the next page, so it’s impossible to read that sentence. I also don’t see any percentage indicator of how much has been read. I can send screengrabs if you let me know where to send them if you want to see what I’m talking about.
Feedback:
In general, the app is good, but it really needs more margin control. On my iPad Pro 9.7” (2016 model), I end up having to make the font a bit larger than I like to have a comfortable reading line length in portrait mode. It’s also just distracting in general to have to read something so close to the edge of the screen.As for features that I haven’t seen mentioned yet, it would be great to have a two-page landscape mode for iPad. That’s how I tend to read light novels in the Kindle app with two pages showing at once (with proper margins) and then I either turn it to portrait to view the images or zoom in on them to view them in more detail. This also means I can read while using the keyboard front cover as a stand instead of having to hold the iPad or use my other stand that can be used in portrait mode. I also find the line length with my preferred font size is best in this mode on my iPad, so it’s just a more comfortable way to read.
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I seem to have a problem on my iPhone App v2.0.5 and I have one suggestion.
When on the last page if I swipe, it prevents me from going to a blank page, but if I just tap on the right side of the page it advances to the next blank page. If I tap more than once it appears to take just just one time to get back to the last page. I have verified this on 3 different parts. The most recent undead Adventurer, Arifureta, and Spirit Chronicles.
Suggestion: With this new app, it appears to sometimes list being at 100% on the last two pages. Is there any way we can override the percent complete calculation to either just list 99% if there is more to read or could we truncate instead of round when calculating the percent complete (which would do the same thing).
This appears to be caused by the percent complete appears to be based on how much text is remaining instead of what page number you are on.
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@unsynchedcheese said in App v2.0.5 Feedback:
It wasn't so much that the old version of the app always loaded images for me, as much as if the image failed to load in the old version, it simply silently failed, and let me continue on without seeing the image.
In the current new app (outside of Simple Mode), if the image fails to load, the app gets stuck with the three loading dots and stops me from progressing.
Simple Mode does fix it, so that's a good thing. Another fix was to exit the chapter, then resume the chapter and wait for the Repaginating Splines loading to be done again (which can take a while, especially if the resumption was near the end of the chapter). This seemed to force-load the image properly.
I am using a Samsung phone (Note 8), so that might be a factor.
I have the same or a similar problem on my OnePlus 3T. In the old app images were fine but in the new app it tries to load pages with images forever with the three dots (unless I am in simple mode which resolves it).
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I've been waiting on this fabled update before pulling the trigger on a subscription, and I have to say that this is just not enough. Feedback in order of importance:
- Critical for a reading app: Control over line spacing, paragraph spacing and overall margins is a must. As it is, I don't feel comfortable reading on it, and it's the main problem keeping me from subscribing.
- I don't know if it's working as intended, but I find the latest releases page confusing -- the default sort order appears to be by release date ascending, which is baffling, and in the descending sort order there are like four volumes worth of Rokujouma first, burying everything else. Surely there's a smarter way of doing things? In any case, even after scrolling past Rokujouma it doesn't look like the items correspond to the latest in the website at all.
- A "dark mode" setting outside of the reader that affects the whole app would be very appreciated. As it is, it looks like switching between parts would hurt the eyes.
- No landscape mode at all?
Everything else I can live with, but I'll write it down:
- The reading options menu just plain sucks, I'm sorry to say. Black on marine blue and nothing to telegraph that buttons are buttons is just painful.
- The design isn't ready for iPad. Gimme some media queries!
- The whole app is too website-like, actually.
Also, for a service that publishes stuff for multiple series every week, I'd say a way to subscribe to particular series and receive push notifications when they update (or when an ebook for that series goes on sale) should be core functionality.
Come on, Sam, I want to subscribe!
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I tried the text to speech (Select to Speak) in app with the simple view, and yeah, in simple view it's still not scrolling past 1% for me (it just stops reading after it says "1%", which is about one screen's length).
Is there something I need to do to get it to read more? I've got it in vertical simple mode.
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@terrence I’ve gotten text to speak to work just fine when I scroll throughout the whole part all the way to the bottom to make sure everything is paginated. That being said, it always starts reading at the beginning of the part no matter where you are which is annoying, and my success may be different since I use iPhone.
(P.S. Does anyone know how to make these symbols, 《 and 》, to be silent? Every time I read Demon Lord, he pronounces them as “left double angle bracket” and “right double angle bracket” every single time.) -
Anyone getting slow down/choppy again while scrolling in the newest version?
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@nosgoroth Agree with most of that, though the sorting defaults to part release date descending. It's just that the release date the part is tagged with is often (usually?) incorrect.
Also, it's been said elsewhere, but to repeat it here, the app is completely broken on the latest iPhones. On the iPhone XS Max, the paginated views are unusable (text goes right off the screen), and when I tried to use infinite scroll instead there was a line of text that wasn't wrapped (went off the screen to the right).
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@nosgoroth said in App v2.0.5 Feedback:
- Critical for a reading app: Control over line spacing, paragraph spacing and overall margins is a must. As it is, I don't feel comfortable reading on it, and it's the main problem keeping me from subscribing.
This one is kinda tricky because adding a lot of customization can make the app very clunky (try EBookDroid, it takes minutes to find how to change the font size there). Also I didn't expect paragraph spacing to be that important to someone (I would think justified text would come before that, although I'm not a fan of that myself).
I encountered loads of bugs and limitations while programming with Xamarin.Forms but seeing how JNC app develops I wonder if the framework they use is on another level of bad. Dunno about spacing but justified text is only half-working in there.- I don't know if it's working as intended, but I find the latest releases page is confusing -- the default sort order appears to be by release date ascending
That's how it is for non-members. Members have it listed newest-first (regularly, in a slightly broken order).
- The reading options menu just plain sucks, I'm sorry to say. Black on marine blue and nothing to telegraph that buttons are buttons is just painful.
Now imagine having all those customization options in there.
@legitpancake said in App v2.0.5 Feedback:
(P.S. Does anyone know how to make these symbols, 《 and 》, to be silent? Every time I read Demon Lord, he pronounces them as “left double angle bracket” and “right double angle bracket” every single time.)
Should've joined me in persuading the team to use guillemets.
@village-idiot said in App v2.0.5 Feedback:
Anyone getting slow down/choppy again while scrolling in the newest version?
Re: this and some earlier report about the battery drain. (On android) It's pretty easy to enable CPU usage indication in developer options. Or better: "adb shell top", if you have adb installed. That may (or may not) make the reason clearer.
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IIRC, the JNC site is React, and the JNC app is React Native. It basically lets you write iOS apps in JavaScript, only using native UI components instead of web components.
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@_08 Line spacing/paragraph spacing is actually really important to readability, though some people are more bothered by it than others. Also, white space around the edges is also important and having a readable line length. This is pretty basic typography and has been brought into web and app design and adapted to screen reading.
It’s also a big accessibility issue. At least you can adjust font sizes in the app, but more control over basic typography and better default typography would really help the app look more polished and make it easier to read with.
Right-hand justification is a nice to have, but only if it can be implemented well, as it’s easier to read with left-justification only than badly implemented right-hand justification.
As for crowded preference panes, one way to fix that would be to have a separate settings section that could set these kinds of things universally. That way, it wouldn’t matter so much if it were more controls than should appear within each book. Plus it’s possible to design better control panels overall, but that’s a whole other issue.
In my day job, I’m a UX designer, though not a typographer or visual designer, so I’m more sensitive of these issues and what to call them than the average person, but non-designers do notice these things, even if they don’t know exactly what they’re noticing.
Overall, other than the iPhone XS/XS Mac bug that makes it impossible to use those devices, the UX of the app isn’t terrible. I’m not expecting Kindle app levels of design and configuration from an app to read prepubs, but there’s definite room for improvement that would make it a smoother reading experience.
Edit: Just found a decent overview of line length/line height and font size for responsive web design. The same principles apply to designing for multiple size devices like different size phones and tablets: Size Matters: Balancing Line Length And Font Size In Responsive Web Design
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@guspaz said in App v2.0.5 Feedback:
IIRC, the JNC site is React, and the JNC app is React Native. It basically lets you write iOS apps in JavaScript, only using native UI components instead of web components.
Oh, due to the state of the design I had expected the app to be some flavor of Cordova, like Ionic.
@_08 said in App v2.0.5 Feedback:
@nosgoroth said in App v2.0.5 Feedback:
- Critical for a reading app: Control over line spacing, paragraph spacing and overall margins is a must. As it is, I don't feel comfortable reading on it, and it's the main problem keeping me from subscribing.
This one is kinda tricky because adding a lot of customization can make the app very clunky (try EBookDroid, it takes minutes to find how to change the font size there). Also I didn't expect paragraph spacing to be that important to someone (I would think justified text would come before that, although I'm not a fan of that myself).
I encountered loads of bugs and limitations while programming with Xamarin.Forms but seeing how JNC app develops I wonder if the framework they use is on another level of bad. Dunno about spacing but justified text is only half-working in there.Welp, actually, due to everything else missing I hadn't noticed that there is no option for justified text. That kind of needs to be in, too.
Looking at the docs for the styling of the Text component of React Native,
textAlign: justify;seems to be available, but only in iOS. The option for line spacing (lineHeight) is available globally, andletterSpacingseems to be available in iOS and Android 5+- I don't know if it's working as intended, but I find the latest releases page is confusing -- the default sort order appears to be by release date ascending
That's how it is for non-members. Members have it listed newest-first (regularly, in a slightly broken order).
Ooh, I see. Definitely a good idea to show something different to non-members, although maybe a list of the latest free parts would be more effective.
The other order is definitely broken though.
- The reading options menu just plain sucks, I'm sorry to say. Black on marine blue and nothing to telegraph that buttons are buttons is just painful.
Now imagine having all those customization options in there.
Most reading apps I have tried include at least three presets for line spacing and page margins, and manage to look good at the same time. My issues with the current options have nothing to do with the number of options, but in how they're presented. A UX designer, like @lilitu93, is better suited to tackle this problem.
@lilitu93 said in App v2.0.5 Feedback:
@_08 Line spacing/paragraph spacing is actually really important to readability, though some people are more bothered by it than others. Also, white space around the edges is also important and having a readable line length. This is pretty basic typography and has been brought into web and app design and adapted to screen reading.
It’s also a big accessibility issue. At least you can adjust font sizes in the app, but more control over basic typography and better default typography would really help the app look more polished and make it easier to read with.
Good point about better defaults, it's nice to leave a good first impression.
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I'm a new subscriber, because I wanted to pick up the premium ebooks for Occultic;Nine. I do plan to use the app while I have it, to see if I want to keep subscribing. :) But the lack of justified text is a big eyesore for me. That might keep me from being a long-term subscription user instead of purchaser.
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haven't read all the other posts but the only real thing ive noticed id like to see is a favorites section or something so i can bundle the series im actively reading together to easier find and follow. other than that loving the new updated app.
