Photo Gallery Improvements

[Adam]

Note: This announcement has been updated as of 4:00 PM MST on 5/28/07.

After several hours of work and lots of suggestions from the community, the PentaxForums.com User Photo Gallery has seen a complete redesign!

The new, updated design features:

• A more user-friendly homepage requiring less scrolling
• A new thumbnail listing format that displays photos much more efficiently than before
• A new image-display page that's over 200 pixels shorter in height
• An updated, more user-friendly filmstrip
• Changes in phrasing that make links easier to userstand
• A welcome message for guests

To further optimize the gallery, collapse either the filmstrip or the navbar when browsing photos! If you are using a screen resolution below 1280x800 pixels, you may consider using the "Simple Skin" for optimal photo browsing. The gallery looks best in Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, but it is also deigned to work with major browsers including Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Safari.

Below you will find screenshots of the new gallery features as well as comparsons to the old design.

The New Photo Info Table

Click on the image to view it in a larger size

The old design can be seen here: http://www.pentaxforums.com/content/news/OldInfoTable.gif

The New Random Thumbnail Box (Homepage)

Click on the image to view it in a larger size

The old design can be seen here: http://www.pentaxforums.com/content/news/OldRandomThumbnails.gif

The New Thumbnail Listing Page

Click on the image to view it in a larger size

The old design can be seen here: http://www.pentaxforums.com/content/news/OldBlockFormat.gif

The New Image Display Page & Filmstrip

Click on the image to view it in a larger size

The old design can be seen here: http://www.pentaxforums.com/content/news/OldImageDisplay.gif

The New Welcome Message for Guests

Click on the image to view it in a larger size

Future updates to the gallery many include a full-scale integrated EXIF reader as well as a more sophisticated user album system. As always, comments, suggestions, and new ideas are welcome! Thanks for looking, and please enjoy the gallery!

[Photo Tramp]

I like it. Thanks Adam. It does make it easier.

[roentarre]

That looks good, Adam.

[photo_mom]

Hi Mo!

What happened to the poll? I voted!

I like the changes. Keep up the great work!

[Adam]

Originally Posted by photo_mom

Hi Mo!

What happened to the poll? I voted!

I like the changes. Keep up the great work!

Hi Tracy,

I changed the thread from a suggestions thread to a news thread, so we didn't need the poll anymore. I noted the results, though

[Matjazz]

Most of the galleries of web community sites are designed as if image is secondary content and this gallery is no exception.
First of all when you enter the gallery you see teeny weeny thumbnails for categories. When you click a picture you get the "pentax forums" logo, the green banner, the menu buttons, the directory structure, the gallery navigation, the film strip and finally the picture. The result of all this is that users with 1280x1024 screens or smaller have to scroll down each time to see entire picture.
My philosophy is that in gallery pictures have highest priority and what user should first see is a picture, a title and an author. Everything else could be in a popup window, at the bottom of the page or somewhere else.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Matjazz

Most of the galleries of web community sites are designed as if image is secondary content and this gallery is no exception.
First of all when you enter the gallery you see teeny weeny thumbnails for categories. When you click a picture you get the "pentax forums" logo, the green banner, the menu buttons, the directory structure, the gallery navigation, the film strip and finally the picture. The result of all this is that users with 1280x1024 screens or smaller have to scroll down each time to see entire picture.

That's unfortunately the price for having a gallery fully integrated with the forum, but I still see many things that are fixable.

Originally Posted by Matjazz

My philosophy is that in gallery pictures have highest priority and what user should first see is a picture, a title and an author. Everything else could be in a popup window, at the bottom of the page or somewhere else.

Currently, here's what I would be able to do, after a few hours of work:

I could remove the Newest Uploads, Most Viewings, Highest Ratings, Most Comments, Slideshow, and Newest Comments links for the navbar (only on the image display page). I would also move the "Home" and "Upload" link down to the filmstrip and the image controls down below each photo (so only the original photo posted can see them). Should I also move the "Search" link into the filmstrip, of should be just discard it?

I'd really appreciate your input so that I can get started as soon as possible

[Adam]

Well, I went ahead and changed the things I outlined above, so each photo display page should now be about 100 pixels shorter. Collapse the filmstrip to make it even smaller!

That's as much as I can do without losing functionality, though, but I personally find the new design to not only save more space, but also to look better! Enjoy!

[borno]

Hey Adam, I like the updated design. It is much nicer, I was wondering if you considered a dark background for the photos like in lightroom? Just a thought....Thanks for all the work you put into the website

[Adam]

I'm glad you like the changes so far!

Since most of the gallery sections use the same CSS definitions as the rest of the forum, chaging the background color wouldn't be very convenient. Try using the classic or simple skin if you need to maximize contrast.

[Matjazz]

I had to go to sleep, so I couldn't answer. I like the changes so far and I like the "collapsable" filmstrip. Unfortunately one can't navigate to previous/next image when filmstrip is collapsed.

[Donald]

Your upgrade descriptions to uploading etc. sound excellent. I'm not sure I understand "Detailed info for the random thumbnails has been removed altogether to save a bit of space,...", so here's my complaint / suggestion anyway.

I've been in the photo gallery once when I was new and now once more after seeing this post: it's awful for surfing random photos/galleries. Textual area is about 1/3 - 1/2 again larger than each thumbnail image. Parroting Matjazz, it's like making a decision to view a photo based only on its date, file size and blurb.

Pbase random surfing is best layout: minimal screen junk, 4x3 array of legible thumbnails, title and photographers name only. Eminently usable!

[Adam]

Originally Posted by Matjazz

I had to go to sleep, so I couldn't answer. I like the changes so far and I like the "collapsable" filmstrip. Unfortunately one can't navigate to previous/next image when filmstrip is collapsed.

The filmstrip has always been collapsible- I hope you weren't missing out on that feature all this time

I've moved as many links as I could to the top of the filmstrip, and IMO adding more would just make everything look worse. I you want to navigate photos, just leave the filmstrip expanded.

Originally Posted by Donald

Your upgrade descriptions to uploading etc. sound excellent. I'm not sure I understand "Detailed info for the random thumbnails has been removed altogether to save a bit of space,...",

At the top of the gallery index, we used to have a long list of information below each thumbnail, such as the number of views, the date it was posted, the average rating, and the number of comments. That has been removed to save space.

Originally Posted by Donald

I've been in the photo gallery once when I was new and now once more after seeing this post: it's awful for surfing random photos/galleries. Textual area is about 1/3 - 1/2 again larger than each thumbnail image. Parroting Matjazz, it's like making a decision to view a photo based only on its date, file size and blurb.

Pbase random surfing is best layout: minimal screen junk, 4x3 array of legible thumbnails, title and photographers name only. Eminently usable!

I was also thinking along those lines earlier, but I decided against removing that info since there's no other quick way to view it. But since it looks like all of you find it irrelevant, I'll reconsider removing it.

Thanks for the comments!

[Adam]

I've now completely redesigned the thumbnail display pages, like http://www.pentaxforums.com/gallery/newest-uploads.html, to show up 4 times as many thumbnails per page!

Does that make the photos at least a little easier to navigate? Any more suggestions/comments/complaints?

[Adam]

Ok, I've updated the announcement yet again to reflect all the changes that I've added over the past few hours.