I feel like the selling tools are harder to use now. It used to be a drop down menu and now it is multiple clicks to get to sales history, events, etc.
When one is in Account Settings and is done, and clicks "Home," it would be nice if it would link to the Main Photo Site instead of "Photos." Why would I have to navigate back to Home with an additional click? I hate that behavior.
My Smugmug
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
Just to add my personal thoughts. I have no major objection to the changes as I don't see it causing me any issues with how I manage my site. That said, I don't understand the purpose of the 'Photos' section - I'll never use it (and can't see how it benefits anyone). I also agree with an earlier comment about the name "Photo Site"... it should say "Website" or "My Website". I really appreciate the on-going work from the SmugMug team to enhance and improve the functionality of SmugMug, but it does feel like the development time that has gone in to this change has been a bit of a waste and could have been used on more important and regularly requested features/functionality. Keep safe everyone!
A few follow-on thoughts having used the new header for 2-1/2 weeks.
First of all, I find I much like having the entries in the old customize menu exposed on that second header row, at least with my personal CSS to keep the header width down. I've been doing a site management task in the last two days that required entering the Customizer for many of my folders, galleries, and pages. Streamlining that even a little bit was nice.
I'd like to see an Organize Page button on the second row of the header when a Page node is up, just like Organize Gallery or Organize Folder buttons on the second row when one of those are up. You can't do much with a Page node in the Organizer, but an Organize Page button would let one move back to that place in the Organizer. Here's an example where that could of been valuable. At one point in my little site management task over the last two days, it would have been very natural to walk through several of my pages via the Organizer. In the Organizer, there's a handy Edit Page Design button to support the move to the Customizer I needed. But that approach didn't work well: there was no direct way to get back to that page node in the Organizer after I was done in the Customizer. I had to re-enter at the top and work down. Oh, did I want an Organize Page button at that point.
An Organize Page button on the right -- and an Organize Home Page button on the right when the home page is up -- would make the interface easier to use by making these cases parallel the gallery and folder cases. To be sure, an Organize Home Page button at the right would be completely redundant with the one at the top left, but over on the right is where I seem to want to go looking for it. That's happened a couple of times over the last 2-1/2 weeks. I guess the Organize Folder and Organize Gallery buttons have trained my inner auto pilot that mousing over to the right is the route to the Organizer. Stopping and thinking got me over to the left, of course, but the point is that I had to stop what I was doing and think about the interface. I'd rather interface interactions run on auto pilot as much as possible so the real train of thought can stay on the content of whatever I'm doing.
I haven't used the new photostream display much since the first few days' exploration. I guess that shouldn't be a surprise. I and other SmugMug users, after all, are the folks who chose to pay for all the context and complexity SmugMug's photo site management offers ... when we could have gotten a basic photo stream program for free. I don't object to it being there. But the log-in really should go to the photo site home page. That's the suite of tools we subscribed to.
I haven't used the new photostream display much since the first few days' exploration. I guess that shouldn't be a surprise. I and other SmugMug users, after all, are the folks who chose to pay for all the context and complexity SmugMug's photo site management offers ... when we could have gotten a basic photo stream program for free. I don't object to it being there. But the log-in really should go to the photo site home page. That's the suite of tools we subscribed to."
+10 to that!
My opinion does not necessarily make it true. What you do with my opinion is entirely up to you. www.acecootephotography.com
@Jtring said:
After posting the above, I took some additional time to play with the new Photos / Photostream view. ...
Filter Bar: Sort By. Given the date filter is by capture date, it would make more sense to me to have sort by capture date be the default. ...
I had occasion to drop into the Photostream today. I observe the default is now to sort by capture date. I',m not sure how long that's been there. Today was the first time I've visited the photostream lightbox since my initial exploration. In any case, good move.
By the way, I was looking at the lightbox in the Photostream compared to that in the Organizer. The Photostream one has a few design features I like a bit better, for what it's worth. The captions are more prominent: 16px vs 14 px and white vs grey. Captions, after all, are just about the most important thing on that sidebar, second only to titles, when present, so prominence is good. The spacing on the camera info is tighter: 6px vs 10px. The information block thus uses less space and is less prominent. That's appropriate. I'm still blown away that SmugMug built two different lightboxes.
Is there any new news on getting rid of (hiding) the 2nd black bar when we're logged in? It bugs the s#*t out of me and wastes space. I mean, which of us can't click on a menu item???
@sarasphotos said:
Although I sort of get why the new black bar is there, I'm with @Allen - we desperately need a toggle button to turn it all off when it's not needed. While I do want to be logged in when I visit my site (mostly in order to share pictures), I only use the Organize/Customize tools about 10%-15% of the time so they take up an irritatingly huge amount of screen real estate in comparison to their usefulness. I've never been a fan of the big black bar across the top and now it's doubly so ugly and intrusive!
RANT ALERT!!!
As usual, SmugMug waits til we all get tired of grousing and still does nothing. Every time I open my site I get irritated at only seeing 80% of the height of the screen. I am so tired of software companies dumbing things down for the lowest common denominator.
Please, please, please give us the option to toggle off all or part of the unsightly double black bar when logged in to our account!!!!
@sarasphotos said:
Although I sort of get why the new black bar is there, I'm with @Allen - we desperately need a toggle button to turn it all off when it's not needed. While I do want to be logged in when I visit my site (mostly in order to share pictures), I only use the Organize/Customize tools about 10%-15% of the time so they take up an irritatingly huge amount of screen real estate in comparison to their usefulness. I've never been a fan of the big black bar across the top and now it's doubly so ugly and intrusive!
RANT ALERT!!!
As usual, SmugMug waits til we all get tired of grousing and still does nothing. Every time I open my site I get irritated at only seeing 80% of the height of the screen. I am so tired of software companies dumbing things down for the lowest common denominator.
Please, please, please give us the option to toggle off all or part of the unsightly double black bar when logged in to our account!!!!
... and of the three viewing options "Recent Captures" would have to be of absolutely ZERO value to me. I still haven't heard of a reason why-how some one would use this.
At least let me choose the default (and for me that is "Organise" #1, "Photo Site" a distant #2 and "Recent Captures" light years distant last)
I'm annoyed every time I log into my site to see these "Recent Captures" which (to me) serve no purpose at all.
My opinion does not necessarily make it true. What you do with my opinion is entirely up to you. www.acecootephotography.com
Yes agree. Recent Captures is a wast of time, just adds an extra "click" to get to Organize or Photo site.(give us the option) There are MORE pressing improvement that could be made
Comments
What I'd like to see is a search box setting that searches from the point of search and down its tree.
My Website index | My Blog
I feel like the selling tools are harder to use now. It used to be a drop down menu and now it is multiple clicks to get to sales history, events, etc.
Jason Scott Photography | Blog | FB | Twitter | Google+ | Tumblr | Instagram | YouTube
When one is in Account Settings and is done, and clicks "Home," it would be nice if it would link to the Main Photo Site instead of "Photos." Why would I have to navigate back to Home with an additional click? I hate that behavior.
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky
I'd rather see returning back to wherever you came from. I never go to my homepage or "photos".
My Website index | My Blog
Just to add my personal thoughts. I have no major objection to the changes as I don't see it causing me any issues with how I manage my site. That said, I don't understand the purpose of the 'Photos' section - I'll never use it (and can't see how it benefits anyone). I also agree with an earlier comment about the name "Photo Site"... it should say "Website" or "My Website". I really appreciate the on-going work from the SmugMug team to enhance and improve the functionality of SmugMug, but it does feel like the development time that has gone in to this change has been a bit of a waste and could have been used on more important and regularly requested features/functionality. Keep safe everyone!
A few follow-on thoughts having used the new header for 2-1/2 weeks.
First of all, I find I much like having the entries in the old customize menu exposed on that second header row, at least with my personal CSS to keep the header width down. I've been doing a site management task in the last two days that required entering the Customizer for many of my folders, galleries, and pages. Streamlining that even a little bit was nice.
I'd like to see an Organize Page button on the second row of the header when a Page node is up, just like Organize Gallery or Organize Folder buttons on the second row when one of those are up. You can't do much with a Page node in the Organizer, but an Organize Page button would let one move back to that place in the Organizer. Here's an example where that could of been valuable. At one point in my little site management task over the last two days, it would have been very natural to walk through several of my pages via the Organizer. In the Organizer, there's a handy Edit Page Design button to support the move to the Customizer I needed. But that approach didn't work well: there was no direct way to get back to that page node in the Organizer after I was done in the Customizer. I had to re-enter at the top and work down. Oh, did I want an Organize Page button at that point.
An Organize Page button on the right -- and an Organize Home Page button on the right when the home page is up -- would make the interface easier to use by making these cases parallel the gallery and folder cases. To be sure, an Organize Home Page button at the right would be completely redundant with the one at the top left, but over on the right is where I seem to want to go looking for it. That's happened a couple of times over the last 2-1/2 weeks. I guess the Organize Folder and Organize Gallery buttons have trained my inner auto pilot that mousing over to the right is the route to the Organizer. Stopping and thinking got me over to the left, of course, but the point is that I had to stop what I was doing and think about the interface. I'd rather interface interactions run on auto pilot as much as possible so the real train of thought can stay on the content of whatever I'm doing.
I haven't used the new photostream display much since the first few days' exploration. I guess that shouldn't be a surprise. I and other SmugMug users, after all, are the folks who chose to pay for all the context and complexity SmugMug's photo site management offers ... when we could have gotten a basic photo stream program for free. I don't object to it being there. But the log-in really should go to the photo site home page. That's the suite of tools we subscribed to.
Not a fan of this change. At the very least the new row should be collapsible or we should be able to set some sort of "auto-hide" flag.
"...
+10 to that!
www.acecootephotography.com
I had occasion to drop into the Photostream today. I observe the default is now to sort by capture date. I',m not sure how long that's been there. Today was the first time I've visited the photostream lightbox since my initial exploration. In any case, good move.
By the way, I was looking at the lightbox in the Photostream compared to that in the Organizer. The Photostream one has a few design features I like a bit better, for what it's worth. The captions are more prominent: 16px vs 14 px and white vs grey. Captions, after all, are just about the most important thing on that sidebar, second only to titles, when present, so prominence is good. The spacing on the camera info is tighter: 6px vs 10px. The information block thus uses less space and is less prominent. That's appropriate. I'm still blown away that SmugMug built two different lightboxes.
Is there any new news on getting rid of (hiding) the 2nd black bar when we're logged in? It bugs the s#*t out of me and wastes space. I mean, which of us can't click on a menu item???
RANT ALERT!!!
As usual, SmugMug waits til we all get tired of grousing and still does nothing. Every time I open my site I get irritated at only seeing 80% of the height of the screen. I am so tired of software companies dumbing things down for the lowest common denominator.
Please, please, please give us the option to toggle off all or part of the unsightly double black bar when logged in to our account!!!!
... and of the three viewing options "Recent Captures" would have to be of absolutely ZERO value to me. I still haven't heard of a reason why-how some one would use this.
At least let me choose the default (and for me that is "Organise" #1, "Photo Site" a distant #2 and "Recent Captures" light years distant last)
I'm annoyed every time I log into my site to see these "Recent Captures" which (to me) serve no purpose at all.
www.acecootephotography.com
Yes agree. Recent Captures is a wast of time, just adds an extra "click" to get to Organize or Photo site.(give us the option) There are MORE pressing improvement that could be made
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