App - Feedback
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Great job on having a vertical scroll option on the in-app reader! It makes for a really pleasant read.
The current font options are basic but sufficient. Truth be told it is a bit of a hassle to change font size because of the long loading time between changes, but since that's a one time thing it's not a big deal.
Love seeing the progress percentage displayed from the menu. Wish the percentage would translate to an "auto-scroll to last section read" upon opening a novel part.
The way novels are released by parts is nice! Keeps readers visiting the app/service on a normal basis. To be honest, I was kind of bummed when I checked the release schedule and noticed that from Saturday it would be a few days wait until the next release of -anything-. On that note, moving forward it would be nice if every day of the week had a release of at least some sort. To give you an example, I have since joining the service a few weeks ago picked up Infinite Den, Grimgar, Realist Hero, & Blue Blasph. I plan to pick up a few more as long as they interest me. Well, it would be really pleasant to have a novel part to look forward to every afternoon. Y'know? Kind of like making J-Novel Club a normal part of my every day. As things stand down, it's not really a big problem because I just joined and there's a lot of new content for me to explore. However I know in the future, I'll look forward to seeing some kind of release daily since otherwise that means on certain days I simply won't have anything to read/any reason to come use your service/look for my daily entertainment elsewhere. Well, no biggie for me right now! Just something to think of.
Let's see... What else... Oh, personally I prefer a night mode because it is less straining on the eyes to read for long periods at a time/at night 🌙.
I like that novels are released in parts. However, I don't see a need to present it that way to the user. I think it would be fine to see a notification seeing "Grimgar Volume 8 Part 4 is out!" and then clicking that to go straight into that part of the volume or opening the app, selecting Grimgar, and it immediately going to that part of the volume. Like, I don't see a need to be constantly scrolling through parts of a volume in the menu. I guess this is because of web publishing format that makes it easier to publish as parts? But then, as an app, there's not really a need to have the same format as the web version. What I'm saying is, ultimately you will optimize the app for use natively in phones and optimize the web version for web browsers. Right now, the phone app feels more like an import of the website with a slightly modified UI rather than a stand-alone app.
And for incomplete volumes you can use the argument "Well... We're still pushing out updates... We don't want to have to be constantly merging the parts into one volume as they come out... Even if that's easier to navigate for the users..."
But that argument is difficult to make for complete volumes that are still available on membership in parts.
What I'm actually worried about is that the big loading time the app has at the beginning of each part is proportional to the size of the part, and if such it might be a real bottleneck when presenting entire volumes at once. In which case, not much can be done in the way of changing the presentation of parts until that part of the system is optimized.
Let's see.. What else...
Oh! These forums are really nice. Would love to have access to them from the app.
I can think of a few other minor improvements but I'll leave it here for now... It's gotten pretty lengthy as it stands.
I really enjoy reading light novels and appreciate the service J Novel Club provides.
It's a one of a kind service right now and I anxiously look forward to seeing how the service grows.
Please do not make the mistake of thinking my comments here are meant to defame the J Novel Club service. I am investing of my own time in writing these comments in hopes that J Novel Club becomes an even greater service.
Cheers