Making page browsing more obvious?

kefkafloyd

This seems to be a recurring issue for me. Is there some way that SM could make page browsing more obvious than it is currently? I had several people today completely miss the fact that my Rhode Island airshow gallery had several pages worth of photos. The page browser isn't very obvious for someone who doesn't use Smugmug all the time like I do. This isn't the first time it's happened, either, but so many people missed it that it bugged me.

Has there been any possibility of redesigning this widget or overhauling the page browsing mechanism? Perhaps some themes are better at this than others (I currently use Carbonite) and maybe one could do custom enhancements, but I guess I'm trying to get a feel for whether or not this is a problem for anybody else. Thanks for any insight.

Andy

Have you tried a newer theme? Carbonite is very subtle with the text. Try Carbon Fiber, or any of the newer ones and see...

kefkafloyd

Hey Andy,

I did try Carbon Fiber actually, but the same issue is really still there. I like Carbonite because of its subtlety; it really lets my images stand out. But you can have more obvious UI items while still retaining the less "in your face" nature of themes like Carbonite. The white text of carbon fiber just blends in too well with the page description and other textual elements.

My suggestion would be to copy the page browsing widget underneath the thumbnails as well as to "on top," given that people read from the top to the bottom and give it a little more separation. Replacing the small text-only "Next" and "Previous" with some form of button (not an image, but CSS, let's say) that can be skinned easily by a theme could be helpful too. Basically, a way to make them more obvious when naturally browsing the gallery without destroying the clarity of the designs.

Or how about a scrubber tool similar to a scrollbar or the watermark strength adjuster?

dwterry

This can probably be done with CSS. Anyone want to volunteer some coding?