Random (and long) observations from an old customer taking a fresh look
Ferguson
Registered Users Posts: 1,345 Major grins
With the furor surrounding the price increase, I felt obligated to pay attention again. I had not significantly changed my web site for ages. I browsed around a lot of others, took a quick look at Zenfolio and others, but decided before I jumped to any conclusions I should take a fresh look.
Here are what I hope are some constructive thoughts for Smugmug management, as well perhaps some questions in case I got it wrong; show me.
This is really only about Smugmug, it is not a comparison (I never delved deeply enough in another).
I decided I wanted a simple, clean design. I wanted to add a slideshow to the home page, which would be the focal point, and have links to galleries on a nav bar. I wanted to take some words that had been on the home page, expand them a bit, and put them elsewhere.
So I refreshed my memory on how to customize, was pleased to show I could add a slide show with a click of a button. So away I went.
Observation #1: There's NO provision for testing anything. You do it live. The best you get is a half-way view of HTML modifications before committing them, but no way to test the SITE. I was completely afraid to touch the easy customizer as it would likely wipe everything out -- or maybe not -- how would one know? Or rearrange the home page -- anyone hitting it sees it while you finish fixing it. Why can't one have a "test" version of your site, so you can experiment before going live. If you are going to have real businesses (mine is NOT) depending on the site minute to minute, what do you expect them to do? Just be half-down for a day or two as they rearrange?
Onward... so up went the slide show, ripped out some other garbage... took a look -- what? No slideshow on my Android. Hey -- slide show is flash.
Observation #2: Oh come on - Flash is dying, it's been dead on iStuff for years, its dead now on ICS, it's marginal even on many windows systems. Why is the supported, click-once slideshow Flash instead of HTML5 and no choice - offer both if you like. That's just silly. Now I know you may say "just use one of the two contributed ones" - yes, I did; got it. But why not Smugmug -- makes you look foolish, frankly.
Which then took me to looking at my web site on mobile devices -- my android uses a desktop user agent code, but I flipped it and looked at the "lightweight" and "quick loading" mobile site. YUCK. So tried the Android App - yuck (but better).
Observation #3: Mobile support as a photo site is pathetic. The mobile web site doesn't honor any of your customizations, it's completely different. The andoid app is a good browser (like a photo browser) but then what -- consider trying to zoom in on a photo, no option for different resolution, no menu options for information, just.... nothing. Almost no features. Is it a convenient way for people to do facebook-like uploads to Smugmug - maybe. But I'm here to have a photography site.
So off to inclusion of the HTML5 slideshow, rearranging, etc. First build a few web pages for text. What? No native ability to do so? Build a gallery, leave it empty, squeeze your HTML into the gallery description - now do some CSS magic trying to get rid of everything you don't want. OK, did that, but... now someone hits the breadcrumbs and ends up back at the category page with the empty gallery... now try to make those go away...
Observation #4: Why are simple things hard? How after YEARS can you not do something as simple as have an "about me" page without these kind of tricks and arcane crap. Yes, there are good, clear instructions how to jump through these hoops, it was not hard. But why? Letting someone have HTML page just doesn't seem that hard. Which leads me to...
Observation #5: Smugmug reminds me of some technical types who take great pride in the complexity of technology. They revel in it, they delight in showing others how with tricks and complex spells said while facing north in a pentagram you can get a system to work. They think that's being an "IT Professional", as opposed to being able to make technology simple. Just LOOK through these customization forums, at the arcane knowledge, at topics that go on for a hundred pages. I don't mean that every posting your heroes make should be a mea culpa, but one gets the sense of "let us make you one of us, the elite that understand the arcane knowledge" as opposed to a sense of urgency in making the arcane needs go away.
Yes, I know about the easy customizer -- and still afraid to touch it for fear of wiping out my site. Maybe that helps a bit for new people, but the customization forum sure is not dying away.
Doesn't it tell you something that so many people HIRE someone to customize their site?
Finally, a possible paradigm shift, you probably already considered it....
I suspect Smugmug suffers from the classic "Installed base" issue. A joke as an aside (hopefully not offensive, not intended to be)...
But let each run from the same database of images. At the same time. So it's a shell, a skin. Cosmetics. Provide a way to choose which gets your custom domain, test the other with the nickname domain or even have us buy a "test" domain. There are few complaints about image storage itself, or reliability, or money handling, or customer service. It's all look and feel.
Because, guys -- it's cosmetics that make you look old when someone tries to customize it. There's no reason this has to be so complex. I speak HTML and CSS fairly well (though I do not use it daily). It's not that it is difficult so much as it is so POINTLESSLY difficult.
Here are what I hope are some constructive thoughts for Smugmug management, as well perhaps some questions in case I got it wrong; show me.
This is really only about Smugmug, it is not a comparison (I never delved deeply enough in another).
I decided I wanted a simple, clean design. I wanted to add a slideshow to the home page, which would be the focal point, and have links to galleries on a nav bar. I wanted to take some words that had been on the home page, expand them a bit, and put them elsewhere.
So I refreshed my memory on how to customize, was pleased to show I could add a slide show with a click of a button. So away I went.
Observation #1: There's NO provision for testing anything. You do it live. The best you get is a half-way view of HTML modifications before committing them, but no way to test the SITE. I was completely afraid to touch the easy customizer as it would likely wipe everything out -- or maybe not -- how would one know? Or rearrange the home page -- anyone hitting it sees it while you finish fixing it. Why can't one have a "test" version of your site, so you can experiment before going live. If you are going to have real businesses (mine is NOT) depending on the site minute to minute, what do you expect them to do? Just be half-down for a day or two as they rearrange?
Onward... so up went the slide show, ripped out some other garbage... took a look -- what? No slideshow on my Android. Hey -- slide show is flash.
Observation #2: Oh come on - Flash is dying, it's been dead on iStuff for years, its dead now on ICS, it's marginal even on many windows systems. Why is the supported, click-once slideshow Flash instead of HTML5 and no choice - offer both if you like. That's just silly. Now I know you may say "just use one of the two contributed ones" - yes, I did; got it. But why not Smugmug -- makes you look foolish, frankly.
Which then took me to looking at my web site on mobile devices -- my android uses a desktop user agent code, but I flipped it and looked at the "lightweight" and "quick loading" mobile site. YUCK. So tried the Android App - yuck (but better).
Observation #3: Mobile support as a photo site is pathetic. The mobile web site doesn't honor any of your customizations, it's completely different. The andoid app is a good browser (like a photo browser) but then what -- consider trying to zoom in on a photo, no option for different resolution, no menu options for information, just.... nothing. Almost no features. Is it a convenient way for people to do facebook-like uploads to Smugmug - maybe. But I'm here to have a photography site.
So off to inclusion of the HTML5 slideshow, rearranging, etc. First build a few web pages for text. What? No native ability to do so? Build a gallery, leave it empty, squeeze your HTML into the gallery description - now do some CSS magic trying to get rid of everything you don't want. OK, did that, but... now someone hits the breadcrumbs and ends up back at the category page with the empty gallery... now try to make those go away...
Observation #4: Why are simple things hard? How after YEARS can you not do something as simple as have an "about me" page without these kind of tricks and arcane crap. Yes, there are good, clear instructions how to jump through these hoops, it was not hard. But why? Letting someone have HTML page just doesn't seem that hard. Which leads me to...
Observation #5: Smugmug reminds me of some technical types who take great pride in the complexity of technology. They revel in it, they delight in showing others how with tricks and complex spells said while facing north in a pentagram you can get a system to work. They think that's being an "IT Professional", as opposed to being able to make technology simple. Just LOOK through these customization forums, at the arcane knowledge, at topics that go on for a hundred pages. I don't mean that every posting your heroes make should be a mea culpa, but one gets the sense of "let us make you one of us, the elite that understand the arcane knowledge" as opposed to a sense of urgency in making the arcane needs go away.
Yes, I know about the easy customizer -- and still afraid to touch it for fear of wiping out my site. Maybe that helps a bit for new people, but the customization forum sure is not dying away.
Doesn't it tell you something that so many people HIRE someone to customize their site?
Finally, a possible paradigm shift, you probably already considered it....
I suspect Smugmug suffers from the classic "Installed base" issue. A joke as an aside (hopefully not offensive, not intended to be)...
"Why could God create the earth in only 6 days"?
"Because he didn't have to support an existing installed base".
OK, it's old and not original, but... Smugmug needs a new design. So build one. Smugmug V2. And keep V1 going. Let people migrate (or not). Then V3 in a couple years. Whole, completely different, no legacy support to tie you down. Develop something fresh, let people choose. Maybe (or maybe not) in a few years the very oldest is desupported. If you get rid of the upward/legacy compatible paradigm, you can create a revolutionary rather than evolutionary look and feel."Because he didn't have to support an existing installed base".
But let each run from the same database of images. At the same time. So it's a shell, a skin. Cosmetics. Provide a way to choose which gets your custom domain, test the other with the nickname domain or even have us buy a "test" domain. There are few complaints about image storage itself, or reliability, or money handling, or customer service. It's all look and feel.
Because, guys -- it's cosmetics that make you look old when someone tries to customize it. There's no reason this has to be so complex. I speak HTML and CSS fairly well (though I do not use it daily). It's not that it is difficult so much as it is so POINTLESSLY difficult.
1
Comments
I just hope you'll be around to defend us and explain the benefits of this approach if we do this and it's not as backwards compatible as people would like.
Still here. Just don't forget the part about "keep V1 going". There's always the possibility of a "New Coke".
But if you don't take some risks you never win. It's the guys out hip deep in the swamp with cameras down near the mud who get the great wildlife shots, not the guys up in the jeep with the lenses wrapped in plastic.
Great post. I especially like #5, which it seems Baldy and the rest of the SM execs will never come to understand. When you're hip deep in it and living and working with only those people who are in the same mindset and of the same background, skill level and love of deep tech., you'll assume everyone is. Been my biggest bone of contention for years.
They do so much well, yet I think this one thing is their biggest drawback.
http://mcq.smugmug.com
My portrait business is just starting to pick up now and I need a better site and I'm afraid SmugMug isn't going to be that site.
No SM account* / no axe to grind either way - but I certainly agree with this - on all fronts
Nicely put.
pp
Flickr
Reagarding the arcane knowledge I must admit that it does draw some people to SM vs. competitor sites to a point. Should some or most of it be unneccesary? Absolutely! But should it go away all together? No way! At least half of the arcane scripts I have added and far too many hours spent have been to remove all the c.r.a.p. and clutter that simply doesn't belong there to begin with by default. If one were to start with a minimalist, elegant looking site there would be no need for all these heroic gyrations to mop up such a grand mess. From a clean design one could then add in all the extra c.r.a.p. they desire as an option. One man's garbage is another's treasure. But when it starts out with such a mass of junk, useless (to me), gimicky, outdated, unattractive, bells and whistles, etc... you have no other choice but to jump in and start scripting. Beyond the need for major cleanup there is the desire to personalize one's website with one's own logo, design, about page, etc... so that it doesn't look so canned/generic/boring. That all takes extra work as well, some of which I actually like having the freedom to inject. So I wouldn't want all the arcane options to disapear, though it could be greatly simplfied in a V2.
With regards to a revolution vs. an evolution this will be difficult indeed. V1 almost needs to die a natural death. I agree that simply starting over with a more modern 21st century design would be easier than piling atop such an ancient beast hoping ye ole foundation doesn't crumble upon itself. Maybe SM2 would need to be a spinoff company or something to really pull this off effectively - new team, fresh ideas, different design approach entirely, etc... That's a tough one. If V2 is truely revolutionary I'm sure most of the V1 customers would be willing to suck it up and make some changes to their *precious* sites. I mean lets face it, quite a number are threatening leaving to completely different hosts anyway! There they will be faced with the same dilema, starting back from the generic offerings. Though those offerings may be a lot simpler to get looking good from a base starting point with fewer arcane skills and hours required to achieve nice looking websites.
My Smugmug Gallery