Manga Reader App Review
The Manga Reader created and operated by Ice Age Apps, targets a very specific demographic. People who enjoy reading anime would highly enjoy this app, because it provides an endless amount of different genres of manga series. This application is user friendly and provides readers with easy access to their favorite mangas right at the their fingertips.
This application functions smoothly and effectively, providing users with instant contact information, in which they will assist with any possible questions users may need answered. Also this app offers advertising to join their team to do translation work. Each issue needs translated from Japanese into English and they offer possible jobs for users who are even more into manga than just average readers. Manga Reader rarely has a time period where their app runs slow, or crashes randomly. They offer a search bar at the top of the home screen incase users know exactly what they are looking for. Other than that the navigation is very diverse users can search through categories, top choices for male and female, or even just search through the entire list of mangas organized alphabetically.
The interface provides any user to have complete customizable options, which is the Favorites button. This part of the app is where users have stored their favorite mangas, which can be deleted if the user would change his or her mind later on. Within Favorites, any series, within the users top selections, will alert the user with a notification on the mobile device that a new chapter has been release and for which manga it is for. The interface is well created specifically for users to have a great environment to read from.
The design of the Manga Reader App is very simple and clean. The use of black, white, and grey allows for a very easy feel. They chose to use a highlight color of a light blue, which shows where the user is within the app. This allows the user to never be confused where they is which is a smart decision when thinking about usability and design together. The layout is simple with a blue banner across the top with the title of the page you are viewing. This also helps with the user navigation. The choice of type applies to the design also, due to the simple sans serif.
Aesthetically the app does not focus around design but more along the lines of function. Ice Age Apps focused more on the text to get the message across, in order for users to not get distracted with images. It seems they were aiming to get users to go straight to what they were looking for. This functionally aesthetic app provides easy to read type and well thought out navigation.
One important feature that would benefit this app would be within the download page. Each series should have a group which contains each new chapter that the user would chose to download, because as of now each new chapter downloaded is in order and different series intermix in a long list of type. This new feature would allow for users to have an easier time going into their downloads and finding the specific issue they would like to read.