It would be fabulous if the Previous / Next function could simply be up where it used to be, along with photo numbers. That's where the mouse pointer simply ends up, so the viewer doesn't need to move far. And also, it's not intrusive to the photo when it's near a corner. The numbers look ridiculous centered under the main photo the way they are now, as if it's the really important part. Yes, it's needed, but the captions should be instead directly under a photo rather than way down below the numbers.
A lot of these details had already undergone widespread discussion and trial-and-error and deep thought about placement in earlier SmugMug updates. Since that gallery style hasn't changed, there's not much point to simply trying to find some other spot to place navigational tools just for the point of changing something. Stick with the placements that have already been found to work well and that customers are used to, rather than starting from the basic assumption that every single thing needs to change.
Also, most other sites I've been on in past years have a fantastic function available in many gallery styles that's missing from the New SmugMug, at least people's sites I've seen so far. That is the ability of a thumbnail or any smallish photo to enlarge with a hover-over. It helps with navigation too & looks modern & gorgeous. Now that would be a welcome change!!!
I agree with this. The navigation in the old gallery style worked quite well and captions should appear directly under the photo.
Huh... now isn't that odd. I always wondered why we didn't have this before, as even all the stock photography sites I'm on have had that capability for a couple years now. I'd have thought with a huge rollout like this, there wouldn't even be a question about whether to include it. And we have it in some of the tools--- so incredibly useful where we have it (or at least had on the Legacy sites)! But only in search results? Why would that be?
Paul, I like that as well. I have a chrome plug in that does a great job for Google+, but I will put a feature request in to investigate doing this in more places on your SmugMug site.
Paul, I like that as well. I have a chrome plug in that does a great job for Google+, but I will put a feature request in to investigate doing this in more places on your SmugMug site.
Like Keyword search?
Or at any rate, it would be nice if you could at least customize which gallery style you want for keyword searches...
The new smugmug seems a big step back in usability even if it has a whole lot more of eye candy. That just leaves very little faith in smugmug to actually get things right because it does not seem that they have focused on making their sites have a seamless and easy user experience.
While that's true Gary, what is alarming is the fact that it seems like no user/usability testing was implemented when determining the new designs and features. The new smugmug seems a big step back in usability even if it has a whole lot more of eye candy. That just leaves very little faith in smugmug to actually get things right because it does not seem that they have focused on making their sites have a seamless and easy user experience. Instead, the focus has been on the visual appeal at the expense of usability. It is mind boggling that a feature as basic and necessary as buttons/arrows to skip between images was left out in their galleries. Similarly the minimalistic design of the icons, etc in the galleries all make for snazzy looking pages, while simultaneously making them a lot less easy to use for non savvy users.
- I can't believe this even needs to be typed... Yes, I think there needs to be a scroll arrow to go from picture to picture in the gallery mode, the place where most users live...
Next I'm off to see if they have any of those cutting-edge-newfangled slideshow thingys anywhere. Probably just missing them but don't see em in the standard templates.
I'd also like to see the return of the one-click 'Edit' option for photo captions. Adding the Title as a new field was great, but now editing the title separately from the caption is a double-editing nightmare, and takes forever! And when you get to the caption to edit, there are only two lines visible in the tiny popup input screen.
I know we can edit them through the organiser and there are more lines there, and you can do them in bulk, but then the title is not there to edit.
And I don't always want to do them in bulk. Sometimes I just see something that needs fixing up, and it's a double click to get to the caption input field, and if I have a long caption to edit, finding what I am looking to change is a nightmare.
And don't get me started on caption formats! They have all got mysteriously lost. Even line breaks aren't included. All my text is run-on lines now, making for huge walls of text below some of my images! Not too pretty!
And don't get me started on all the formatting junk that has arrived in the gallery comments since they were restored, although I don't want to complain too much, because I was very relieved they were restored at all, but I do wish they had kept their formatting!
I'd also like to see the return of the one-click 'Edit' option for photo captions. Adding the Title as a new field was great, but now editing the title separately from the caption is a double-editing nightmare, and takes forever! And when you get to the caption to edit, there are only two lines visible in the tiny popup input screen.
I know we can edit them through the organiser and there are more lines there, and you can do them in bulk, but then the title is not there to edit.
And I don't always want to do them in bulk. Sometimes I just see something that needs fixing up, and it's a double click to get to the caption input field, and if I have a long caption to edit, finding what I am looking to change is a nightmare.
And don't get me started on caption formats! They have all got mysteriously lost. Even line breaks aren't included. All my text is run-on lines now, making for huge walls of text below some of my images! Not too pretty!
And don't get me started on all the formatting junk that has arrived in the gallery comments since they were restored, although I don't want to complain too much, because I was very relieved they were restored at all, but I do wish they had kept their formatting!
But I digress!
+1
I use captions extensively, and often need to tweak a single caption. I can't seem to find a quicker route for a single photo than to click the wrench, move the mouse twice to get the cursor to the right spot, then click photo details, then move the cursor again and click on the caption box. Then and only then can I actually input/edit the caption.
PS -- Speaking of digressions kimbomac, I know not many Americans get to the west coast of Australia, but I can vouch for the area's beauty. My daughter lives in Fremantle. I thought you might enjoy a photo of the Perth skyline that I took from Kings Park last year. http://bakkers.smugmug.com/Travelogues/Australia/i-tjZZ64C/A
SmugMug site => The Bakker Chautauqua
"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." (Einstein)
PS -- Speaking of digressions kimbomac, I know not many Americans get to the west coast of Australia, but I can vouch for the area's beauty. My daughter lives in Fremantle. I thought you might enjoy a photo of the Perth skyline that I took from Kings Park last year. http://bakkers.smugmug.com/Travelogues/Australia/i-tjZZ64C/A
Wow, lovely shot! Yes, we do have a pretty, but small little city. It's like the country, but in town!
:ivar
I'm on the fence at the moment about the changes. I tend to use "smugmug" mode for the gallery style, and the one thing so far that is annoying me is that the previous and next arrows for flicking through the photos in the gallery has gone. This might seem trivial, but when watching people flick through my photographs on the old smugmug, that is what they tend to use - and is also what I tend to use. Without that, you have to keep finding where you are in the collection of thumbnails on the left, and watching people do that, it seemed a little haphazard as they'd sometimes miss a photo or 2.
You could argue that people will just click on the thumbnail of the photo they want to see, but for some galleries I have the photos in order of taking and I'd like it to tell the story of the event the gallery represents. A lot of people just want to "look through" a gallery one by one.
I tried to customize the site and assumed there's be a "photo navigation" drag and drop, which seems a really obvious option to have, but I couldn't find one.
Am I missing something?
I know there is a previous and next when you click on the photo and go into full screen mode, but for some reason I prefer not to do that.
One other thing; I do miss the old "info" box that came up. It was far less intrusive (semi opaque), and easier to open as the little semi-opaque toolbar appeared over the photo just near where your mouse would be when using the previous / next navigation buttons...
PS - having said all that, great job on the writing of the new site; I'm a software engineer myself and can see a lot of work has gone into it, and I know how hard it is to please everyone..
Any progress on putting these arrows back?!?!? scratch
You used to be able to click on a picture to open it larger in the light box and then click on it again to go back to the thumbnail page.
Now the only way to close the light box is to click on a tiny X in the upper right hand corner that takes careful aim.
Still missing so not awesome yet!
Also, when the picture is opened in the light box it does not always use the largest size possible.
i can see them under the big picture but still very easy to miss at the bottom and i had to scroll down to find it, and i new what i was looking for unlike my clients. the arrows are still so tiny and faint and im on a 27 inch screen so still very NOT user friendly. I still find it confusing with the arrows either side of the thumb nails changing page and not picture. For me i would just like it the same as we have in legacy was straight forward clear and easy to see, are things really getting looked at properly before being rolled out, find that hard to believe if they are
Yes, glad it is back. Poor implementation. Can we have a menu item to change the <> to real arrows of various types and prev/next? Or ". Or will we have to resort to our own custom programming...anyone up to the task? And move that data right under the image BACK to the top. Let us have OUR descriptions directly below the images. There is room to the left of the Slideshow and Add to cart icons.
i dont get the logic behind the tiny arrows hidden at the bottom, can't image why the designer thought it was the way to go, just smacks of another rush job with little thought or regard for usability. I thought the idea of having a original smug style gallery was so it would be just that.....
its stopping me unveiling my site, i have hundreds of people viewing my galleries weekly to order images, many many of them are repeat/regular clients so i cant risk the confusion if i unveil. it always amazes me how folk miss even obvious things let alone something like these issues...
Picturebike - Thanks! I'll go have a look and up your page counts!
LPC - Actually, in some of the threads you missed, there was an early discussion after the rollout where people were so used to using the Graphical Interface, that they did not even know or think to try to use the keypad arrow keys. Kinda like why graphical interfaces were introduced.
So, there were some hot people related to the missing prev/next graphical interface. You know the prev/next buttons were accessible on the finger pad or mouse in one spot were you could just click away without moving your finger or mouse. And if you then wanted to click on something else, you just moved over and clicked - did not have to keep moving your hand back and forth from a keypad to mouse or finger pad. So, no, "all" don't use the cursor keys.
Very nice imaging and effects. I also really like how in the beginning of some galleries you use an image with pricing details written on them - sweet approach! Wondering why one of the galleries is Private - images of his crash!
You are still in Legacy, right? Wonder how you are going to show when galleries are updated the way you have now?
I really enjoy your photography - thanks for making it available!
Thanks, theres a few private galleries as some riders want them private as when i sell images i give the rider there own gallery and from there they can download the photos and then if or when they buy more pictures i just add them to there existing gallery. You may have seen a track gallery ive set up but hasnt yet got any pictures in it, there is one with tomorrows date on it which isnt live yet but just has the standard sample pics and the pricing picture. My new smug site is ready i just dont like the navigation and i know it will be a problem with my clients so its a deal breaker for me, as many of them dont even notice the big fat pricing picture thats on every track gallery so i just know they wont see the tiny little arrows lol
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"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." (Einstein)
I agree with this. The navigation in the old gallery style worked quite well and captions should appear directly under the photo.
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Paul, I like that as well. I have a chrome plug in that does a great job for Google+, but I will put a feature request in to investigate doing this in more places on your SmugMug site.
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Like Keyword search?
Or at any rate, it would be nice if you could at least customize which gallery style you want for keyword searches...
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Next I'm off to see if they have any of those cutting-edge-newfangled slideshow thingys anywhere. Probably just missing them but don't see em in the standard templates.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
I know we can edit them through the organiser and there are more lines there, and you can do them in bulk, but then the title is not there to edit.
And I don't always want to do them in bulk. Sometimes I just see something that needs fixing up, and it's a double click to get to the caption input field, and if I have a long caption to edit, finding what I am looking to change is a nightmare.
And don't get me started on caption formats! They have all got mysteriously lost. Even line breaks aren't included. All my text is run-on lines now, making for huge walls of text below some of my images! Not too pretty!
And don't get me started on all the formatting junk that has arrived in the gallery comments since they were restored, although I don't want to complain too much, because I was very relieved they were restored at all, but I do wish they had kept their formatting!
But I digress!
(FeaturePhotography.net)
I use captions extensively, and often need to tweak a single caption. I can't seem to find a quicker route for a single photo than to click the wrench, move the mouse twice to get the cursor to the right spot, then click photo details, then move the cursor again and click on the caption box. Then and only then can I actually input/edit the caption.
PS -- Speaking of digressions kimbomac, I know not many Americans get to the west coast of Australia, but I can vouch for the area's beauty. My daughter lives in Fremantle. I thought you might enjoy a photo of the Perth skyline that I took from Kings Park last year. http://bakkers.smugmug.com/Travelogues/Australia/i-tjZZ64C/A
"The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits." (Einstein)
Wow, lovely shot! Yes, we do have a pretty, but small little city. It's like the country, but in town!
:ivar
(FeaturePhotography.net)
Any progress on putting these arrows back?!?!?
Jason Scott Photography | Blog | FB | Twitter | Google+ | Tumblr | Instagram | YouTube
Andy
cheers
afx
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Let's not fall into the trap of believing that what works for one works for all.
Still missing so not awesome yet!
Also, when the picture is opened in the light box it does not always use the largest size possible.
Cheers,
There's plenty of room for the words.
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its stopping me unveiling my site, i have hundreds of people viewing my galleries weekly to order images, many many of them are repeat/regular clients so i cant risk the confusion if i unveil. it always amazes me how folk miss even obvious things let alone something like these issues...
LPC - Actually, in some of the threads you missed, there was an early discussion after the rollout where people were so used to using the Graphical Interface, that they did not even know or think to try to use the keypad arrow keys. Kinda like why graphical interfaces were introduced.
So, there were some hot people related to the missing prev/next graphical interface. You know the prev/next buttons were accessible on the finger pad or mouse in one spot were you could just click away without moving your finger or mouse. And if you then wanted to click on something else, you just moved over and clicked - did not have to keep moving your hand back and forth from a keypad to mouse or finger pad. So, no, "all" don't use the cursor keys.
Very nice imaging and effects. I also really like how in the beginning of some galleries you use an image with pricing details written on them - sweet approach! Wondering why one of the galleries is Private - images of his crash!
You are still in Legacy, right? Wonder how you are going to show when galleries are updated the way you have now?
I really enjoy your photography - thanks for making it available!
if your on facebook heres my page, good place to see lots of my work without watermarks https://www.facebook.com/Picturebike
Thanks
thanks