Overall, I like the beta design with some caveats.
Likes:
- I like how the navigation bar is one clean consistent line across the top and doesn't take too much space. It makes for easy browsing.
- The overall look is cleaner and helps make the content more noticable.
- The "In Library" and "Purchase" tabs is something quite a few of us ask for rather than just "Books". It's something quite a few of us asked for.
- The repution buttons are bigger so there's a smaller likelihood of downvoting someone I mean to upvote (or vice versa).
Caveats:
- The forums has too much "white space" between the "topics" and "last posts". Alternating color contrasts between each forum topic can alleviate this.
- The front page looks nice but can get pretty barren below the fold with just the new releases there. Placing some "news" or "announcements" in encapsulation somewhere can help fill the void, catch some attention for content you might want to push and organize the page a little more. It doesn't have to be detailed and can link to official forum posts for complete information.
Take for example, the "Today we are proud to officially release.. Tiny Boobs Giant Tits History! MEGA MILK IS BACK!" banner. It's so small I almost missed it. You can expand that just a little by adding an "announcement" bar to the left or right with maybe an image to catch the eye. People who recognize Mega Milk are more likely to get excited and click the link if they can see what's being announced. And who knows? This might help drive more purchases by attracting more attention that way, metrics will tell.
- I think I've already found a bug while testesting the upvote/downvote system. I upvoted Jacob's top post and then downvoted to see if I can reverse the decision. I tried adding back my upvote only to have it downvote again.
- In the end it went from +4 (starting) -> +5 (my upvote) -> +4 (my "takeback" test downvote) -> +3 (my trying to "add back" an upvote) It looks like pressing the upvote twice will also "take back" the vote, but the system didn't recognize that I have already already done that when I pressed downvote.
Suggestions:
- In so far as surfacing previous conent, you can place a "recommended" box in the whitespace beside newer releaes that pushes older content that shares the same on tags/authors you've already read.
- Showing us that we can search multiple tabs can be simple. What if I search "harem" in the bar, below the first suggestion (harem) there can also be the suggsted list such as (harem vanilla dark skin etc..). This will subtly suggest "hey, multiple tags!" and users will naturally search their desired tags together.
- As you've said, you want FAKKU to look like more than just a scanlation site. Look at any other publisher's site and what do you see? Not just new releases but some form of interactive content such as announcements/recommendations/polls. The more you interact with users, the more professional it feels. Don't just throw content at users on the front page, engage with us on content.
For the most part, I like it. There are obvious signs that you've taken some criticism to heart and implemented some solutions. Some are great, others may need a bit more attention. Anyway, this is just my five minute review with the beta, I might make some follow up posts as time goes on but I appreciate the effort to make the site faster and user-friendly.