((I'd like to preface that I strongly believe WSJA can become a powerful and successful product that engages the online manga audience. If the community and producers strive to work *together,* we can all create a great online tool.
I also would like to say I hope I will be allowed to be blunt and outright in regard to scanlations vs official productions without fear of reproach.))
As major scanlation teams are targeted by official producers, the online community grows restless and angry. I would argue that this isn't because they are upset about their *free* manga being taken, but their *quality* manga being taken. Without going into debates regarding translation quality and cultural whitewashing, I'd like to address the viewer itself, which I believe is the issue which should be addressed first.
A) Resolution absolutely must be increased.
Readers are paying for this product, they should have high resolution. If the limit is imposed to encourage the purchase of actual volumes, I would like to point out that the WSJA volumes are already on a time limit that prevents readers from hoarding these digital copies rather than buying volumes.
Online readers who are used to scanlations were used to high quality, high definition in their images -- particularly from groups like MangaStream. In order to win over their support, SJ and VIZ Media need to provide the same, if not BETTER, resolution and clarity in their pages.
B) Zoom functions need to be revamped.
Sliding controls for zoom functions are nice, but standard "10, 50, 100%" options should be easily accessible to readers. Perhaps VIZ/SJ would be surprised to see how many of their readers would be willing to scroll down a page if it meant 100% zoom on a crystal clear image.
C) Single page view should be more easily readable.
Currently the "Page Mode" tool in WSJA is ridiculous. A vast majority of the online audience, particularly those coming from scanlation viewers, prefer to read on a page-by-page basis. As such, the product needs to raise its standards in this area if it hopes to entice these readers. The Single Page Mode should not simply place a single page in the same resolution as it does now. Instead, I suggest the width of a single page be comparable to that of the Double Page View and the flash module should adapt to a portrait style view rather than landscape to accommodate users who would prefer such a style.
D) Page arrows -- they are obnoxious and, unless I am much mistaken, unnecessary.
Especially in the Double Page View, the "next" and "previous page" arrows are large and distracting, covering up nearly a sixth of each page. I would argue that readers are not idiots. We know how to click to go to the next page while reading. Even if we didn't, WSJA has arrow buttons on it's mouse-over menu in the top right. The page arrows are utterly unnecessary.
E) Interactive Table of Contents
Instead of scrolling through manually to find a specific chapter, the table of contents should allow readers to click on a particular series to automatically jump to it. As a digital product, there is no reason WSJA shouldn't have this function. Honestly, I'm surprised it wasn't released with such capabilities in the first place.
A drop-down menu table of contents would also be something to consider. This would make navigation of the magazine infinitely more user friendly. The less frustrated your readers are as they read, the more they'll like your product as a whole, yes?
POSITIVE FEEDBACK:
There are a couple of things that I highly enjoy, however, that I would like to express.
A) Speed between pages
There is hardly any lag between pages, which is great for reading. This may be a product of the low resolution, which is fine. (I would suggest a balance, if possible, though).
B) Fullscreen Option
Definitely something not offered by scanlation groups -- a definite plus when considering the competition with them. (Of course, fullscreen would be made much more useful with higher resolution...)
C) Bookmarks
They help in the navigation and maintain a sense of personal choice in readers while browsing. (But it cannot be expected to substitute completely for a more useful Table of Contents.)
I look forward to WSJA's continued success.
The viewer is not thought through.
Its like the viewer was designed by programming geeks who have massive screens and are therefore a BEST CASE for the viewer: ANY online reader would work fine if you are reading it on a big enough screen. Then they add the minimum controls to make it JUST BARELY POSSIBLE to read the manga on a smaller screen, and call it a day.
I'd say that the SJ alpha viewer programmers should be forced to use it to read manga for a day on a 10" netbook and on a cheap chinese $100 7" android tablet. Except they probably live in the US, many or all US citizens, and cruel and unusual punishment is supposedly unconstitutional in the US.
I experimented with the SJAlpha manga viewer when it was launched, and it was useless for ME on MY devices ~ which are SHOCKINGLY chosen so that they work PERFECTLY WELL for anime, and so are a widescreen 10" netbook and a widescreen 7" Nook Color. But "widescreen" means "does not make best use of screen real estate for manga" ~ and then Viz makes it worse with a grossly badly designed reader for smaller screen devices.
And I come back some time later to check in, and its just as bad as it was before. Maybe some improvements have been made for people with bigger screen devices, but I'm not buying a Mac Air just to read a $1/week manga serial!
Small Screen Reader Fundamentals:
When you set the zoom, you normally want to KEEP that zoom. That is the zoom REQUIRED to READ THE TEXT BUBBLES. And think about it: people who NORMALLY can read the manga full page will only be using the zoom once in a while. If they STAY at that zoom level when they hit next page, they will only have to zoom back ONCE IN A WHILE. Add a "page fit" button, and they are back to full page in ONE BUTTON.
Meanwhile, those who need to zoom to read at all have to zoom EACH AND EVERY NEXT PAGE. You make it so people can next page with their cursor, or next page with their mouse in one click, just by leaving their mouse sitting over at the left hand side of the screen off the manga page itself ... but then for small screen viewer, add 2, 3, or 4 zoom clicks for EVERY SINGLE NEXT PAGE.
Absurd.
Setting the viewer up so it works on smaller screen devices is dead easy if you just think it through.
(1) Add "fit height" and "fit width" buttons. "Fit height" is the current reader mode. "Fit width" is the small screen mode. Now small screen readers people can jump straight to the best zoom starting point. Also, hitting the button switches into a mode that works a hell of a lot better for smaller devices.
(2) In "fit width" mode, lock the zoom, don't reset it every page turn.
(3) In "fit width" mode, navigate CORNER TO CORNER.
And THAT'S IT. Those three changes, and the Viz Manga viewer would WORK on a 10" netbook or a 7" media tablet or even work fairly well on a 5" smartphone.
Details:
* "Fit Width" is not to the edge of the page, its from panel edge to panel edge. The occasional margin note can be viewed by sliding ~ the occasional full page layout can be viewed in an overview by hitting fit height, and then hit fit width again to go back.
* Even if you have to zoom in further from "fit width", its a much better starting point. And the locking of the zoom on page turn means you rarely have to do it twice in the same session.
* Corner by corner page turns are the key to making it all work.
Corner by corner keys on the extreme PANEL corners, top right, bottom right, top left, bottom left, in that order. "Next Page" goes to the NEXT corner that is NOT already visible, or if BottomLeft is visible to TopRight of the actual next page.
"Last Page" goes to the PREVIOUS corner that is NOT already visible, or if TopRight is visible to BottomLeft of the actual previous page.
A transition to a corner puts that PANEL corner is clipped so if that corner would be out of sight, its placed in the matching corner of the display.
On a medium size landscape screen, you'll be zoomed so that the page can be seen left to right, with the zoom set so that middle panels are normally OK. Next Page just pans the page down then up then down and then the actual next page.
On a smaller landscape device, it may be zoomed so the left and right edges of the two-page spread won't be visible at the same time, so the screen pans in a "reverse N", starting with the top right, then bottom right, then top left, then bottom left, then top right of the next page.
On a medium sized portrait/landscape device, like a 7" media tablet, you can set it so that the panels of one page just fit edge to edge in Portrait display, and that is reasonably good. It doesn't acutally make much difference whether its set to single page or double page mode, the experience with the four corner system is basically the same.
On a smaller screen portrait/landscape smartphone, with normal cinematic layouts, you'll probably zoom out to use landscape mode and slide to read the middle panels ~ but you'll be able to tap for the top and bottom of the page more often then you have to slide. And for 4koma, in Portrait you can zoom so that 2 panels are visible and except for chapter breaks, you could read 4koma comfortably on a quite small screen.
The normal dance with trying to use the presently badly thought through online reader on a smaller screen is next page, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, slide to top right, slide to bottom right, slide to top left, slide top bottom right. And its insane that you don't automate it: this is a COMPUTER for crying out loud! Its SUPPOSED to automate tedious, repetitive tasks like that!
Congrats
I just wanted to agree with anifanatical. His feedback basically summed up most of my concerns in an organized manner. I am really excited for Viz now that they have sjalpha, and I hope you start implementing many of these features in the near future.
Right now quality and speed are two ways sjalpha is lacking compared to scanlators. They can provide HQ scanlations a week sooner than sjalpha. It is in sjalpha's best interest to start offering an equal, or better product, otherwise readers may decide to look elsewhere.
I like that you are creating a stronger online community here and I strongly support it. Congratulations for doing sjalpha and I hope that everything works out for you and for us.