The products

CLZ Comics is an information dense software. Once a user creates an account, they can enter in their comic book issues into the system a few different ways in the mobile app; cover scanner, barcode scanner, search by series title, searching by individual issue, and searching by Wednesday’s “New Comic Book Day” releases. The barcode scanner being the best for entering in comic book issues in bulk.

Survey

I thought it best to see what other collectors were thinking. I reached out to some comic book fans that I knew through my local comic book shop to get some feed back. I asked:

• What comic book cataloging software do you currently use?

• What do you like about the software that you currently use?

• What do you dislike about the software that you currently use?

• What makes it different from other softwares that you have used or seen?

Based on their feed back it was clear that there were a few things that CLZ Comics was missing. Helpful new feature would be:

• Give the user the ability to search by character to get a brief profile and to see what series and issues they have been in

• A reviews section to see what other fans are thinking about their favorite comics, but don’t make it the main focus

• A Pull List feature to keep track of comic books that are coming out that a user would want to get on a monthly basis

The Work

Here are the key screens that needed to be addressed in order to create an over all good refresh. These screens were created for desktop web and phone app.

The Main Screen

This is the center of everything. It is made up of three major sections. 1.) Filtered List, an area that can break down your collection into filtered groups such as by publisher, series title, writer, or artist. 2.) Issue list, a list of issues coming from one of those filtered list groups. Each row includes information like series name, issue number, variant cover description, publisher, release date, format, and date it was entered into the system. 3.) Issue Details, a place for all major and minor information, including; series title, issues number, cover image, release date, barcode, cover price, plot summary, and list of the creators.

On desktop web, these three sections are featured all on one page with adjustable panels. On phone app, they are separate pages.

Features added

• In the Issue Details section/screen, “My Rating” was elevated in the page, including a link to “See Community Series Reviews”.

• In the Issue Details section/screen, an “Add to My Pull List” button was added, giving the user the ability to add to, track, and manage what series they want to get on a monthly basis.

Add Comic Books

In the phone app, there are five ways to add new comic books into the user’s collection, and three in desktop;

Scanning the comic book cover (phone app only)

Scanning the barcode (phone app only)

Add by Series

Add by Issue

By NCBD (New Comic Book Day)

Character Information

A new feature, this modal/screen is made up of three areas. The heading section includes the characters name, real name, publishing company, and universe.

Overview

This view has a brief blurb about the character, the creators, first appearance information, 3 comics they were featured in, and a history of the character.

Comics

A searchable list of the comics they have been featured in.

Timeline

A running list of the issues and bound issues of where the character was featured, organized by date published and grouped by year.

Edit Comics

This modal/screen gives the user the ability to edit the information of comics already in their collection. Information is broken down into tabs; Main, Details, Value, Personal, Cover, Creators, Characters, Plot, and Links.

Reviews

This modal/screen can be navigated to from the Issue Details modal/screens of comic book issues that are already in the user’s collection. The reviews are grouped by series. It shows the average rating from the community next to your current rating of the series. Below that are the comments and reviews of individual issues. Each have the ability the be liked and commented on themselves.

Pull List

This modal/screen gives the user the ability to manage a list of the comics that are currently published that they want to get on a weekly and monthly basis. New comic books come out on Wednesdays, and each series usually comes out about once a month. But this is not an exact science. This modal/screens gives the user a searchable list of which series are currently on their list and indicating which ones are actually coming out that current week.