another good idea that I'd like to be able to use through smug mug

outdooreventphotos.com

saw this one today, It is offered through a different photo site but this looks like a way better use of redesign labor to me. imagine being able to sell your photos directly from facebook? complete with galleries and tags and everything. Now THAT is what I would like not just a like or a share button.

SamirD

Hmmm...I don't like the idea of trusting my purchase process to something less robust like facebook. I like the fact that if there's a problem with the purchase process, SM will take care of that. If it's in fb land, and they decide to break something that SM can't fix, we're at their mercy. Forget that.

Now, that being said, I know there is probably a way to build a complete fb front-end for the SM purchase process, but that sounds more like a standalone fb app than something SM would be willing to do.

outdooreventphotos.com

well i have gotten tabfusion which is a start. still have to go to smugmug and then buy from the little buy button wish this was more user friendly.

SamirD

Oh, I totally agree, but it doesn't seem like something that can tie into SM's backend and has to be written for the fb platform, which means it can break any day of the week. I could see a third-party developing it, but not SM itself...

outdooreventphotos.com

guess I'd just like to see the whole buying process streamlined a little. the new pricing structure is a start but even it is clunky with way too many clicks. why should when I'm changing a price click to edit prices and then click to edit prints and then click to expand the list of prints and then click, click, click........ each print type to get a chance to edit them.

SamirD

Yeah, that's one thing I've observed in UI over the years is that it's become waaay too click happy. I mean, there's a reason why a keyboard has a 100+ keys and a mouse less than that--you can do more with a keyboard. UIs seemed to have moved away from keyboard centric input to more mouse-centric input. And while it's great for ease of use, it's actually slower because of the multiple 'move-click' operations. It's like people forgot about efficiency of operations and started worrying about people not being able to learn. I recently discovered SM's keyboard shortcuts for working on a gallery and have saved a couple of hours in 'mousing around'. At least someone at SM has still kept efficiency in mind.

This keyboard to mouse transition hit the hotel industry bad. All the property management systems changed from keyboard-centric systems to mouse-centric ones and check-in times are 5x what they used to be 10yrs ago. I'm amazed at how slow and less-detailed today's check-in process is.

There's a saying in the car enthusiast world--"form following function". In the enthusiast world, this leads to all the things that make cars look and perform great. Unfortunately, it's not the same in the world of software development. If SM was built on "form following function" logic, a lot of things would look totally different, but would probably be 10x faster to work with.

The problem I've found in software development is that users want it all--to be functional and 'pretty'. I face this issue on my own web site. With its dated 2004 look, it still has all the functionality it needs, but it does look dated. (I actually run the same software as dgrin, and a slightly newer version of it as well.) So now I need to hire designers to make it look 'pretty' while making sure they don't break any functionality. I don't have the money for that, so it's going to stay functional and look however it does. I have to admit that I've been frustrated at times when it seems SM is using the opposite logic--function following form. But there's reasons for it.