The Comics Journal
Team: 1 Person
Tools: InDesign, Numbers, Optimal Workshop, UX Tweak
Time Frame: 2 Months
About The Comics Journal
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The Comics Journal (TCJ) is a website that writes about and supports independent comics and artists. They rely on outside contributors for most of their content. However, the site doesn’t take full advantage of their content.
This causes confusion and frustration with both readers and contributors, and could lead to less content creation on the platform as well as a decrease and stagnation in readership.
Content squeezed into a small column
Article links crammed together without any description
Contact and FAQ on side instead of in navigation
Print Journals isn't a page on TCJ's website
Design Process
Development
Testing
Refinement
Conversation Mining
I scoured TCJ’s website, online forums, and social media to learn about user fears, goals and vocab highlights. I collected these comments into a spreadsheet and labeled them as positive, neutral, or negative to make sure that there were a variety of opinions/viewpoints.
User Characteristics
Familiar with comics industtry
Tech savvy, use internet to get recommendations and connect with other comics readrs
Knowledgeable and enjoy discussing/arguing various points on comics
Irreeverent, informat and academic voice
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
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Variety of content
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New content added regularly
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Regular user interaction with content
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Archive included
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Well-established, established 40 years ago
Opportunities
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Competitors are slow to implement a cleaner format
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More people reading comics online
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People interact and connect over comics online
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Growing interest in content that deals with contemporary issues such as race, gender, and social inequality
Weaknesses
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Layout confusing and cluttered
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Categorization is vague and disorganized (navigation, columns and archive)
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Unneccesary information a part of both asides/banners
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Difficult to find out more about company and its purpose
Threats
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Potential profit loss for TCJ's publisher, Fantagraphics, as people are buying fewer comic books during the pandemic
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People don't know how to search for topics
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Competitors have discussion boards where users can connect with other comic readers
Personas
Persona 1: The Academic
Name: Sarah
Graduate Student
Single
23 Years Old
Female
Goals: Looking for comics that focus on female characters and gender identity as a part of her thesis.
Sarah is tech savvy and spends a good portion of time on her computer and phone. She has read a bit of manga online and frequently reads webcomics, but is less knowledgeable about traditional comics and graphic novels.
Persona 3: The Comic Journalist
Name: Jeff
Cartoonist and Journalist
Married
45 Years Old
Male
Goals: Jeff is looking for a place to publish articles on contemporary newspaper cartoons. He needs to know the submission guidelines and who to contact.
Environment: Fairly tech savvy. Jeff has spent his professional career creating and talking about cartoons. He is familiar with publishing standards. He is well-known and active in the comics community and frequently talks with fellow creators online and over phone during the pandemic. He usually reads and works on his desktop.
Persona 2: The Comic Buff
Name: Andy
General Manager
Married
30 Years Old
Male
Goals: Read more articles about comics and get information from a trusted source. He is also looking for a community where he can talk with like-minded people.
Environment: Andrew is fairly tech savvy. Having read and collected comics since he was a kid, Andrew feels fairly knowledgeable in certain comic genres. Andrew reads about comics on his laptop as it is easier to read, although he does occasionally read on his phone.over phone during the pandemic. He usually reads and works on his desktop.
Scenario
Since the pandemic hit, Andy has begun reading comics and about them online regularly.
Andy is looking to read reviews of a new comic book by his favorite author that is just out. He comes across a headline for a review of the comic on TCJ.com, which he clicks on. After finishing the article, he looks to read other reviews.
After reading several reviews of other recently released books, Andy then closes the website.
Taskflow
I developed a diagram of what a potential user’s journey might be through tcj.com:
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User's primary goal is to read posts
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No specific task to complete
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Meander through the site, looking at and clicking on articles that pique their interest.
Early Testing
Having a clearer idea of the who the audience is, I decided to do testing of the original website to learn about and confirm major issues with the content and navigation.
Testing consisted of 3 activities:
5 Second Test
Participants had 5 seconds to view the homepage and were then asked the following questions:
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What do you think this page was about?
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What is your first impression?
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Are there any words or sentences you can remember? Any images?
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What grabbed your attention?
Participants' Thoughts
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The layout was cluttered
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No special emphasis on any one piece of content on the homepage
Navigation Task
Participants had to look at each word in the menu and explain what they thought it meant without clicking on them.
This identified which navigation terms participants struggled to understand.
Participants' Thoughts
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“Blog” would be a discussion board
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Some users thought Columns was to discussion upcoming comics
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Articles on a recurrent theme
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Reviews about up-coming or newly-released comics
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Archives was a repository for old articles and editions, no mention of subscriptions
Information Searching Task
Participants had to find out what the purpose of the website was using any tools on the website.
This was to see if important information was discoverable and comprehensible.
Findings
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Only half of participants found and used the FAQ when trying to learn what the site was about
Sitemap
When creating the redesign, the main focus was on redeveloping the organization of The Comic Journal’s content.
Design Specs
Wireframes
I used paper wireframes as they are simple and straightforward. I focused on the homepage, article page, about page, and the archives, as it covered a variety of different information and content.
Mockups
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Describe your image
Tree Testing
This is an online unmoderated test which participants had to choose where they thought information might be in the site’s organization by clicking on different terms to reveal subcategories.
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Because of costs, 2 different website services were used: Optimal Workshop and UX Tweak.
Results
Task 1
You want to know what the future of the comic festival, Short Run, is. Where would you look?
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Correct Answer: Comics News
Test Results
100% Correct
Task 4
You want to write for The Comics Journal and are looking for information about writing and submission guidelines for their site. Where would you look?
Correct Answer: About
Test Results
50% Correct
Task 2
Your favorite comic artist, Richard Short, is going to release a new book in a couple months and you want to see if you can find any exclusive snapshots from his new book.
Correct Answer: Previews/Excerpts
Test Results
75% Correct
Task 5
You want to get a subscription to TCJ’s print journal. Where would you find this link?
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Correct Answer: About
Test Results
50% Correct
Task 3
You read pieces on TCJ’s website regularly but haven’t been on the site lately and want to catch up on new posts. Where would you look?
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Correct Answer: Features
Test Results
25% Correct
Analsysis
All participants correctly chose “Comics News” while 3/4 participants chose “Excerpts/Previews” in Task 2
Analysis
The biggest struggle had been the task finding “Features”
Analysis
Participants were equally split on whethe placing submissions and subscriptions
Recommendation
Keep “Comics News” and “Previews & Excperts”
Recommendation
Rename “Features”
Recommendation
Include information about submissions and subscriptions in both “About” and “Contact”
Unexpected Challenges
Content Organization
The largest challenge was the website’s a lack of organization and overlapping content. There was no clear criteria for the site’s organization, so I spent time going through a large portion of their posts to better understand the site architecture and navigation. Examples include:
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No section for interviews, despite a large number of them. The site had tags but didn’t fully utilize them.
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“Columns” was vague and didn’t explain what each topic was. In most cases, I was able to find the recurring topic after reading through the first published article for each column.
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No immediate difference between a review and an essay that critiqued a single book.
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The criteria for “Features” and “Archive” was unclear. It wasn’t until coming across the subscriptions that I realized that the Archives had a feature that allowed you to look at digital scans of previous print journals no longer available. Having that info on the Archive page would have immediately cleared up this issue.
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A lot of time was spent going through content, with some discoveries coming late into the project.
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This prevented me from conducting a card sort early on, which would have helped with developing the site navigation.
Font Sizing
I didn’t take into account font sizing when I created the first drafts. I had enlarged fonts in order to fit them into the layout I had created in my wireframes without considering what it would look like on the computer screen, taking up space. I went back and adjusted the font sizes in the second draft of mockups to create a more cohesive and content-rich website. For future projects, I would make sure to establish a style guide and test it out in wireframes earlier on.
Final Mockups
Major Changes To Final Prototypes
Home Page
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Links to subscriptions and the newsletter in the aside
About Page
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Subscriptions and Submissions to both About and Contact
Article Page
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Popular/related links list in the aside
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Link to print journal subscription as the reader might be interested in reading a physical journal
Reviews List Page
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Aside with list of relevant links of most popular articles
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Link to print journal subscription as the reader might be interested in reading a physical journal
Contact Page
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Links to subscriptions and the newsletter in the aside
Next Steps
I recommend that TCJ do a content audit to see which pages and links are interacted with the most.
I would redevelop the newsletter and have it contain curated content instead of updates on the website. TCJ has articles called “This Week’s Links” that includes links to other websites, tweets from comic artists and updates on events that would work well in a newsletter format. A content audit would help decide which links to include in the email.
I also recommend that the company creates an organized database with updated filters and tags so that their content is easy to find and filter.