COMIC HUB
In general, comic book retailers have limited access to systems and inventory management tools. Due to the narrow market, many point-of-sale (POS) systems do not cater to comic book stores and fail to fully integrate with customer subscription management systems. Stu Colson, owner of New Zealand’s Heroes for Sale comic book store, suffered through these difficulties and decided to create his own system, ComicHub, which provides both a retailer POS system, with dozens of sales analysis features, and a mobile app used to manage customer subscriptions. Colson has been using ComicHub internally at his own store, and he has begun to reach out to other stores as early adopters and testers for ComicHub.
Fantom Comics, located in the Washington D.C. neighborhood Dupont Circle, hopes to be an early adopter of ComicHub. The owners of the store — Esther Kim, Matt Klokel and Dave Bishop — have been negotiating rates, service and enhancements with Colson before fully launching ComicHub for Fantom Comics. They aimed to launch the new system by early May 2016. However, because ComicHub is still under development, Fantom has some concerns about user accessibility and ease of use for transitioning from their current subscription management system, the industry giant Comixology.
A visual representation of users' common struggles using Comixology, the major player in the comic subscription management market space.
My group members and I conducted an evaluation of the ComicHub iPhone application using a test account. An iPhone with the app pre-installed was connected to a laptop using Lookback software to record each participant’s face, comments and navigation choices. We rotated test administrator and observer responsibilities and were all present in the testing room. In addition, Fantom Comic’s owner Esther Kim was a silent observer of the tests. The testing session captured participant demographics, questions and feedback in addition to the recorded video. The session concluded after a discussion with all participants led by the authors and Kim to gather additional feedback and general recommendations for the app.
Overall, the participants who tested the ComicHub app said they enjoyed the experience and found it potentially very useful for managing their comic book subscriptions. Given the current market space with its lack of suitable options for electronically managing comic book subscriptions, the test subjects unanimously found it to be superior to Comixology, the only other currently available option electronically managing comic book subscriptions.
With several improvements, ComicHub has the potential to significantly enhance the physical comic book industry’s subscription system. In addition to the immediate recommendations, the participants listed a number of enhancements they would like to see in future versions of the app. This included:
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social media capabilities
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a search bar
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increased app speed to reduce lag
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a help section or index
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ability to export their full subscription or pull lists into CSV or excel format
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a recommended reading page based on their own lists as well as their friends’ suggestions or public lists
Even without these enhancements, the participants were overwhelmingly enthusiastic about using the app in the future.
Overall, the participants who tested the ComicHub app said they enjoyed the experience and found it potentially very useful for managing their comic book subscriptions. Given the current market space with its lack of suitable options for electronically managing comic book subscriptions, the test subjects unanimously found it to be superior to Comixology, the only other currently available option electronically managing comic book subscriptions.
While nearly every test participant successfully all of the tasks, some improvements could be made to the app. The research team compiled a list of recommendations based on the actions of test users and these users’ ideas, including but not limited to:
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clarifying terminology
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adding a store locator/fixing map functionality
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having search filters reset by default
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providing notifications for the user
Full Usability Test Report
In a rather niche market space with extremely limited existing options for consumers, ComicHub provides a solid platform that, with some refinement, is in a position to revolutionize the way consumers order and manage their comic book subscriptions.
You can view the detailed report in its entirety by clicking on the report icon to the right.