ArqAngel....and interface design....

ragtag · Post by **ragtag** » Tue Oct 30, 2001 1:13 am

I just bumped into this <A HREF = "http://www.arqangel.com">www.arqangel.com</A> comics from a link I got on a 3d mailing list. And in my oppinion, this is not what web comics should be. The interface for this comix is terrible, and you're loosing the many advantages of comix by designing it like this. You have a layout of four panels without any dialog or story. Then you need to click each panel to zoom in on it, and then put your mouse over either the "speak" or the "story" button to get speech bubbles and story boxes to pop up. Then you need to click on the image again to get back to the four panel view. It's just too much clicking, and you never get an overview of the story by seeing a page spread...or the panels next to each other with the speech bubbles there. Plus, you're always going back and forth by zooming in and out, instead of going constantly forward.

I have nothing against the story or artwork (except I didn't bother to read it for too long, due to the interface).

What do you think?

Ragnar

Tailsteak · Post by **Tailsteak** » Tue Oct 30, 2001 11:01 am

I'm gonna have to agree. I can see how this sort of thing would be necessary for a more complex, epic story, but not like this. It just seems like they're showing off.

I'd hesitate, even, to call it a comic.

Max Leibman · Post by **Max Leibman** » Tue Oct 30, 2001 11:46 am

There are the beginnings of some interesting ideas here -- I like the notion of controlling when and how story text and dialogue appears. However, you're correct, this is just a big mess. Any comic with a "How to Read This Comic" link on the first page is not a comic that the masses will flock to, as nobody likes going to an instruction page to learn how to use a site.

(Which isn't to say that we could not use some comics-literacy instructions online, but that's really a whole other issue...)

_________________
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Max Leibman
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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Max Leibman on 2001-10-30 10:47 ]</font>

Post by **Greg Stephens** » Tue Oct 30, 2001 3:23 pm

For me, connecting with a dial-up, because it's in Flash, waiting for the download meant that I got tired of waiting and haven't looked at it yet.

lylebclarke · Post by **lylebclarke** » Tue Oct 30, 2001 5:06 pm

The story and artwork aren't up my alley, but the concept they are playing with is great. I liked it.

In particular I enjoyed the way the ambient background noise changing in relation to the panel being viewed. Also, the ability to zoom into a panel and get much more detail than possible in the overview style is a good idea.

However, I do agree that there are loose ends. For example, instead of forcing the reader to take the overview each time, zooming in and out, it would be better to be able to see the overview, and then zoom in , and stay zoomed in until you chose to zoom out to get an overview again.

To me it felt a lot like trying to find a particular scene in a DVD where the movie is split up into chapters and you need to zoom out to the index to find your way around. This is a good navigational tool for hunting down what you want, but it would be a pretty losuy way to watch the movie as a whole.

Also, another thing worth trying is to read the comic without the story, and see what you get out of it, and then read it only with the speech bubbles and see what you get out of it. I don't think this comic in particular has been made so that it doesn't matter which one you choose, but in places I was able to follow the story equally well with only one of the two texts as I was when using both. Also, only using one text avoids the problem of feeling like you are replaying every scene all the time. It felt much less messy.

I would definitely call this a comic, and it is worth having a look. The first episode is around 1.7MB. I have ISDN dial-up (64kbps) and it managed to download completely before the text introduction finished.

Lyle

Post by **Scott McCloud** » Tue Oct 30, 2001 11:54 pm

While I'm sure it would be hard to take on a slow connection, I found the interface at least creative and not that hard to decode.

It's probably a dead-end in the long run, but I think we should give experiments like this a little extra slack. Phases of experimentation like the one we're in now require a degree of suspended judgement, since even the failures give us valuable information -- and as failures go, this was at least of the "noble" variety.

And of course it's comics!

damonk13 · Post by **damonk13** » Thu Nov 01, 2001 3:03 pm

hm....

i just checked it out with my newly-acquired DSL connection, and didn't feel that the interface was "too" horrible...

it seems like a nice idea, even though i will agree that such an interface is a) a little too much wasted "clicking" time, and b) very unpractical for anyone with a connection slower than DSL.

Plus, while the art seemed fine, the writing was really in need of some work... there shouldn't be a need for "story boxes" in every single panel of a story... images and dialogue should be able to speak for itself to a point... and, well, that first chapter was pretty cheesy, to be honest (but that's just my own personal opinion).

one "pro" i felt this interface had, though was that the ability to have the speech bubbles appear and disappear allowed fro the reader to be able to "see" an entire panel of art in all its glory, without it being ruined/cluttered by bubbles... also, i actually *liked* the idea of the bubbles appearing and disappearing, sine speech really DOESN'T hang in the air permanently... mousing over to get the bubbles was like listening in to the convo going on in a scene...

All in all, tho, i'm sure that there could be ways to streamline their current interface to make it a little simpler, as well as perhaps a little less load-cumbersome for the average dial-up reader... (have individual panels load up instead, a la traditional click-thru comics, while still keeping the mouseover effects?)

(of course, i noticed that the first episode was made in 2000, with the second episode being promised in "january 2001", so i don't imagine that this project is still active, really)

glych · Post by **glych** » Fri Nov 02, 2001 2:10 am

but what if you tried to read it out of order?

what you need is to have the mouse over speech bubbles be gray or more transparent when they aren't suppose to be read yet...

So you don't get confused....

I really did enjoy that...

maybe a good method would be along the lines of having only a few panels zoom ins...

example:

"what the hell is that!?!?" (as he's looking through a window...you click on the window and it zooms in on the cat he was looking at..."

a good zoom in....but that would suck during a romance scene..or would it....

LOL

kidding...

but still...it's the start...

-glych