Now live: CLZ Comics 9.7: Various improvements for Add Comics, Statistics and Main screen

Comics CLZ Comics Mobile
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Today, a big v9.7 update for your CLZ Comics, with a couple of new features and lots of small improvements all over the app, including a resolution for something that has annoyed many users for over 23 years!

Here’s what’s new:

  • Add Comics screen:
    • New “Hide Owned” toggle on Series tab, for hiding all issues that you already own
    • New snappy “Confirm” popups replace the old and slow Preview pages
    • New look for issue cards on Issue tab
  • Statistics screen:
    • Removed the “Comics by Creator” top list, and replaced it with:
    • New Top Artists list, that includes all artist type roles
    • New Top Writers list, that includes all writer type roles
  • Main screen:
    • List and Card View now include the Variant Description for each comic
    • Several layout improvements to the comic details page
    • New folder options “All Artists” and “All Writers”

Add Comics screen

One new feature here and several UI/UX improvements:

New “Hide Owned” toggle on Add by Series tab

Here’s one that came up on the Club CLZ forum. For the Series tab in the Add Comics screen, a user requested a way to hide all issues that you already own, so that you can focus on your missing issues more easily.

We thought that was a great idea, so here it is. Tap the “Box” button at the top to “Hide Owned” comics. Tap it again to show all issues again.

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Automatic “Hide Owned” mode when coming from Missing Comics screen

The popular Missing Comics tool has a “Open in Add Comics” link that lets you open the current Series in the Add Comics screen, so that you can easily add the missing issues to your wish list. So we figured, let’s make it open in Hide Owned mode, to make that even easier.

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New snappy “Confirm” popups replace the old and slow Preview pages

Strangely enough, this was an area where CLZ Comics was a bit behind on the other CLZ apps (for music, movies, books and games). So we caught up now, so that comic collectors can enjoy the same snappiness too.

Adding comics, either by Series, Issue or Barcode, is now a bit snappier and easier, since we removed the old and slow full screen Preview page and replaced it with a quick “Confirm” popup that just slides in where you are. No more tapping back and forth between search results and Preview panel.

The Confirm/Preview pop-up shows all information you need to make your decision, including the full creator list.

The Confirm popup while in the By Series mode:

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The Confirm popup while in the By Issue mode:

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New look for result cards on Issue tab (same in Check Value screen)

When we created the new NCBD tab, we gave it a new layout for the Cards view.

We really liked how that turned out, so we decided to bring that new look to the Issue tab too:

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Statistics screen

One small step for CLZ developers, one giant leap for comic collectors worldwide….

This is an interesting story. First, a bit of background:

Since 2001, our comic database tools have had a Creator list for each comic, that lists all people that worked on the comic, like artists, pencillers, inkers, colorists, writers, scripters and also including editors and editors-in-chief. These creator lists are mostly provided automatically from our CLZ Core, but can also be customized by the user.

For 23 years, this was all okay, with never a complaint from our users…

That is… until two weeks ago… when one user posted in our CLZ Comics group on Facebook that his biggest annoyance with the app was that Editors were included in the Comics by Creator top list in the Statistics screen. And instantly, the comments section exploded with lots of “me too” reactions. Turns out pretty much everybody was immensely irritated by this!

Of course we fully understand their point: If you check your top Creator stats, you want to see your favorite artists and writers there. You don’t want that top list to be “polluted” with editor and editor-in-chief names, who are of course credited in many many comics and hence appearing in the top positions.

But, to be honest, we were all a bit sad that we only heard about this (apparently) huge annoyance 23 years after we made this major mistake. Especially since resolving this major problem literally is what we devs call a “five minute fix”.

So for today’s version 9.7, we decided to actually spend those 5 minutes to bring you a nice solution: We removed that super-annoying “Comics by Creator” top list, and replaced it with two nice top lists:

  • Top Artists: showing all creators that worked in artist-type roles, like artist, cover artist, penciller, inker, colorist, painter, etc…
  • Top Writers: showing all creators that worked in write-type roles: writer, scripter and plotter.

See how editors and editors-in-chief are missing from both top list? Another crisis averted :slightly_smiling_face:

Of course, I am joking around a bit. But seriously… if you are super-annoyed by any part of the app, please please please, just let us know!. Preferably on the Club CLZ forum, but a message through the CLZ Help Center is okay too. Who knows what may happen.

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Main screen

Next up, the main screen. Several tweaks here too:

List and Card View now show the Variant Description

In the Add Comics screen, the Card View has shown the Variant Description for all issues for quite while, as it an important factor in deciding which variant is the one you own.

But for some reason, the Variant Description was never included in the Card View in the main screen. While it is an important bit of info there too. So, we added it to both the List and Card view now. Pretty cool, right?

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Several layout improvements to the comic details page

This is an area where we keep tuning the layout, we keep seeing things that can be improved. So we did several small changes again, mainly to the top part:

  • The Publisher name is now shown above the Series title, in a small font. The Series Group was shown there, but we figured this made more sense. The Series Group is now shown lower down.
  • The Issue number has been moved to the top right, in a look that is consistent with all other screens.
  • The colored box with the Collection Status icon has been moved down a bit.

We hope you like the changes as much as we do!

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New folder options “All Artists” and “All Writers”

After the “Editor Gate” episode on Facebook and our 5-min-fix described above, we figured: let’s take this one step further and also include these new stats as folder options for the main screen:

  • New folder option “All Artists”: showing all creators that worked in artist-type roles, like artist, cover artist, penciller, inker, colorist, painter, etc…
  • New folder option “All Writers”: showing all creators that worked in write-type roles: writer, scripter and plotter

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2 Likes
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Really enjoy the new confirm pop up but would appreciate having the plot description of the comic included as well

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Thank you. Can you explain why you need the plot to be able to decide which comic you’re about to add via the Add Comics screen?

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Not sure if it’s a bug or the statistics Top Artists view has a slightly different grouping All Artists, but my results aren’t the same between them.

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Nvm. Figured it out. I was looking at All Comics in the main view. Switching to In Collection got them to match (as one would expect).

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Would Letterer make more sense in the Artists grouping than Writer?

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Mmm, yes, that is where it should be.
Not sure how it ended up under Writers. Will get that fixed.

2 Likes
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I like the improvements in general. A couple of thoughts/recommendations:

  1. On the series card screen as well as on the issue screen, I think the issue number placement doesn’t work as well as it did previously. On the card screen, I think the issue number works better in the box directly below the cover image (as it was before). Where it is now (top right corner), it kind of gets lost. Similarly, in the issue screen, I preferred it directly to the right of the cover image rather than to the right of the title. However, the location can work, but I think having it be the same color as your collection status (as it has been) would work better aesthetically.
  1. Love the new feature to hide already owned issues, but the only thing I’d like to see modified on this when searching through a series in Core is to remove all issues that have at least one owned copy. You can already removed variants, but if you don’t own the “A” version of that issue, then it still shows up as something not already owned (with a color box around it that shows you may own some version).
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It’s more for research purposes and buying comics, not so much adding comics that I already own

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Same for me, and plus the descriptions were there previously but now they’re not. Which goes for the cover prices as well. Would be nice to have them back.

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So we’re talking about the Add Comics screen here.

What do you use the cover prices for in the Add Comics screen? To decide if that is the comic you have in front of you and want to add? Or is the purpose of seeing the plot description and cover price more for research as well, and not at all to decide if that is the comic you’re about to add?

Something being there in the past, and not being there now is not a good reason to keep something there (that would halt app development completely, or make a monster of an app with million things everywhere).

I do understand that if a screen was used by users for other purposes than intended, which now breaks that usage, would be cause for wanting this.

Would an “Explore Core” feature be something you’d be interested in where you can do research of comics in Core and just see all data, without adding them? (so we can keep the Add Comics screen for adding comics?)

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All in all, I do like the new feel! And seeing the variant description in Card view is probably second on my list of top features you added that I never knew I needed until you added it (for the record, Card view itself is the top one).

Two questions I have on the add screen…

  1. On the Add by Issue screen, the checkboxes are hidden (iOS). Is that intentional? In my screenshot below, it says that I have selected 3 but I can’t see which 3. I can see the checkboxes on the Add by Series screen.

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  1. Is there a way to see back covers in that Add screen? We have a few issues that differ by the back cover. That’s far less pressing because of how few there are, but there are some…

Thanks!

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I miss having the back covers available in the add comics screen and always wished for the covrprice value to be displayed there as well. I do use the add comics screen to browse and research and see what’s available. If it must be a separate, “Explore Core,” feature, hey whatever works, but I’d hope I could then add comics to my wish list from there anyways instead of having to back out and search them up again and click checkboxes to start adding on a separate screen.

I know there’s been some effort to have adding comics in one place and checking values in another, and now this notion of exploring/browsing in yet another, but in practice/reality I am most of the time just trying to do some combination of all of these things. I’m not just spending time checking prices for 30 minutes and then adding comics for 30 minutes and then just browsing without adding and checking values for 30 minutes and back again. A multifunctional interface that does all the things would be ideal and it’s so close because all it needs is all the information right there on the add comics screen, but it keeps getting more and more pieced out. In the interests of streamlining and decluttering? That only results in cluttering my workflow as now I have to search the same books in different places to aggregate the information, or just add stuff to my wish list so I can finally see it all in one place like I need to and then remove the entries I don’t need to persist.

It feels like CLZ wants my brain to work the way it wants my brain to work, but it should be the other way around. CLZ should work to accommodate all the brains that use it, including mine.

Not being able to view values by series is frustrating when it could be right there. Even if I have to click each book I want to see values of so as not to flood the API, I understand, but it’s either by issue or adding an entire series to my database so I can see them all?

Is it even possible to view a back cover without adding a book to one’s database anymore? Is it even possible to view the plot without adding a book to one’s database anymore? Maybe we should just add the entire Core database to out “Not in Collection” status and piece it out from there? :stuck_out_tongue: May as well just remove the check value screen if we gotta’ add comics to our database to access the rest of the information anyhow.

I’m rarely using the barcode scanner because by the time the book is in front of me it’s already in my database and I just need to change the collection status, and there’s a lot of books that don’t even have barcodes anyhow. I like the idea of the check value screen for barcode scanning, but as someone with limited mobility I mostly only see the barcodes after they’re shipped to my door. In a sense it feels like CLZ wants me to conform to it, but the purpose of a database is to be adaptable.

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Yes, this is intentional. The issue tab is meant to find a specific single issue, and the checkboxes are indeed gone.

However, apparently there is a tiny bug in there that may still catch a selection. We found it and will fix that.

The add by series screen indeed allows you to find a series, then checkbox all the issues you’re going to add for that series.

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I am afraid that is not going to happen. We simply do not have all values available in our Core. Values need to be retrieved live and on demand using the CovrPrice API.
Currently that only is possible for the actual comics you have in your database.

I understand that. And you are welcome to use it for that.
However, this IS the “ADD COMICS” screen. The sole purpose of this screen is to ADD COMICS to your app. Which is why the entire screen has been designed to make THAT task as easy and quick as possible. That includes showing only the info that is necessary to find the correct series, issue and variant that you have in your hand or the one you want to add to your wish list.

We are hesitant to change the design of the screen to make it work better for users who are using the screen for tasks other than adding comics. As it will probably detract from the UI for adding comics, either because of performance or just because too much info is shown that is not necessary.

Yes, we are aware of that. If the Explore Core screen is gonna happen, it will probably have a simple “add to wishlist” method.

Yes, in the interest of making the best UI/UX possible for the task of ADDING COMICS.

I don’t think that’s fair. We are always working with our audience, listening to their feedback and then tweaking and tuning the app to make it work better for them.
In fact, most of the changes in this version were based on user feedback, either direct or indirect.

Currently no.

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This is an, “I feel…” statement. It’s how I feel when using CLZ, and I’m anthropomorphizing CLZ. CLZ is software. You are not CLZ. My feelings are valid whether you like them or not. It’s how I feel when I’m interacting with CLZ in ways that could basically be described as “workarounds” to achieve functionality that could easily be there, but isn’t. It feels like the software expects me to interact with comic books and the world of comics in some typical manner and I don’t fit into its routine. Whether any of that is literally accurate or not doesn’t actually matter (software can’t want anyways), it’s how I feel.

The very existence of the “Check Values” screen contradicts what you’re saying. I can retrieve CovrPrice values for comics I do not have in my database there all day long. But I can’t see the collection status of my comics there (do I already own this one?), I can’t browse by series, I can’t see the back covers, or the plot, and I can’t add comics from that screen, and if I could it’d be great.

It doesn’t have to be there, of course, I’m just dreaming of some combination of “add comics,” “check values,” and, “explore core.”

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Well, in a way, I am. I am the founder and owner of the company. I am in control over our strategy, what features get built. Also all UI/UX design is done by CLZ AJ and I together.

I am sorry to hear that you feel that way.
I can only say that the first version of the software was created in 2001 and since then it has been tweaked and tuned and features have been added, all based on the feedback of comic collectors like you.

Of course, but all on demand, one by one. That is what I meant.

I am telling you it is a technical and legal limitation of the way we retrieve values from CovrPrice. We have an agreement with CovrPrice that dictates how and where we can show values.

If we can make that happen, that would be cool.
But I suspect that would become one UI/UX disaster, too much functionality and data cramped into one screen. But they, maybe it is possible to design a screen that will work for all those tasks.

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It is literally just the previous “Add Comics” screen with the addition of the little check value box “Raw/Slabbed - Grade” added into the information panel of the selected book, if I’m remembering everything correctly. That is basically the theoretical screen you could do everything from, and it already had all the information less the values. I don’t need to see the values displayed on every title all at once like is done in my own database.

In other words, If the old “Add Comics” screen had the ability to check a value of a book without backing out from the entire screen and all the other tasks at hand - perfection! It allows for all the multitasking one could dream of. And by harking back to the old “add comics” screen I’m mainly lamenting the loss off the back cover, plot, and other details about the book. It could be redesigned if that makes sense, but I’d be happy with the old design nonetheless.

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Yeah, but that would mean going back to the full page Preview.
Which is not what we want.

We deliberately went to a small and snappy Confirm popup, to make the process of previewing and adding better and faster.

Of course, we can make the popup bigger and add more fields, but that would not be the way to go I think. The whole point is that it is a small popup that comes up from the bottom and overlays part of the screen behind it, and therefore is easily closed again, popped up again, etc…

If you are often using the Add Comics screen to look up comic info (not for adding), then you must at least appreciate that new snappiness of previewing entries?

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We’ve taken today here in the office to refine/retune the Confirm popup to have more of the fields that you guys wanted to return. We are happy with our re-design that we did today, and fields like plot, characters, back cover, release date and cover price will make their return.

We also took the time to re-design the cards in the main screen where the cover date will make its return whilst keeping the variant description.

It’s shaping up to look real nice and we would like to thank you all for chiming in. Keep your eyes peeled for the next update which we hope to get to you by next week (or at least submit to the App Store/Play Store next week).

2 Likes