Revamping app to enhance the digital comics experience

Role

UI/UX Design

Industry

Entertainment

Team

LINE Manga Biz
3 UX Designers

Timeline

Dec 2016 - Sep 2017

Overview

As a chart-topping manga service in Japan, LINE Manga is designed to help users to enjoy a number of manga with easy and intuitive Ul. With a consistent brand color and simple layout, this service provide fun and smooth experience to users while reading catalog of manga.

LINE Manga has been the most popular manga app in Japan (millions of downloads) since its initial launch in 2013.

Project Goal

Enhance entire user experience by renewing the app design

LINE Manga has had a reputation as a pioneer in digital platforms for manga services in Japan since its initial launch in 2013. After the service had solidified its status as a top manga service, the LINE Manga business planned to renew the whole UI/UX design and most importantly integrate it with the LINE messaging app for users to get deeply involved in it. With an improved design, LINE Manga wanted to enhance its brand value.

Problem Space

Content discovery was slow, outdated, and overly dependent on search

The legacy interface relied on a monotonous list-based layout and an inefficient search experience, making content exploration tedious and overwhelming. The outdated visual design lacked hierarchy and alignment with updated branding, while the absence of structured browsing and filtering forced users to depend on exact keyword search—limiting discovery and reducing engagement.

Enhance UX and retention

by revamping app design and brand identity

Design Solution 1

Revamped global navigation to create a more intuitive browsing structure

Redesigned the global navigation to better align with user mental models, improving access to key sections such as discovery, rankings, and personal libraries. This reduced reliance on search and created a more seamless, structured browsing experience.

Design Solution 2

Elevated event-driven content to drive engagement and conversion

Introduced a prominent, dynamic banner at the top of the feed to surface time-sensitive promotions (e.g., free access campaigns). Optimized both visual hierarchy and interaction patterns to make key content immediately discoverable, resulting in increased engagement and conversion.

Design Solution 3

Introduced genre-based navigation to improve content discovery

Designed a genre/category system embedded within the browsing experience, allowing users to explore content without relying on search. This enabled faster access to relevant titles and reduced friction for users unfamiliar with specific keywords.

Final Design

Seamless Experience

A seamless browsing experience that improves discovery, engagement, and conversion

The improved access to contents, coupled with the addition of genre categories and event-driven banner, facilitates a more enjoyable manga experience for users, leading to increased engagement and higher retention rates. Furthermore, the modernized and clean UI enhances LINE Manga's brand value.

Achievement

Scaled Japan’s leading manga platform to 23M+ downloads

Maintained LINE Manga’s position as the top mobile comic app in Japan, driving sustained growth through improved content discovery and engagement experiences.