New uploader comments
DJ-S1
Registered Users Posts: 2,303 Major grins
I usually use SmugBrowser to upload lots of photos, but this time I had just one to do. I went to the universal uplaoder and I really liked the new look of that page. It's very well done.:thumb
I dragged my one photo onto Smuggy, and it chugged away the 2333K file. I expected to see the "we received one photo" message but instead I got an "Ack! We didn't receive any photos. Try again or send and email to blah@blah".
I tried again and nothing on the page changed so I assume that the same error happened. I tried to "browse" to it and the same thing happened.
In order to figure out the problem, I went back to the home page, clicked control panel, hunted for and clicked "upload log" and then found the "greater than 48Mpix" error 3 times.
Here are my comments about the experience:
- The "Ack" error message in the Smuggy box needs to be more noticeable. A popup would be great, since the user has to close it and therefore will read it. As it stands, the only reason I noticed anything was wrong was because I already knew what it was supposed to look like if successful.
- Make the "Ack!" message disappear. If the "Ack" error message has to stay in the Smuggy box for some reason, at least make it go away when another upload is attempted. Then it can reappear if another error occurs. Right now you have no idea what is going on subsequent tries.
- Put a "control panel" button on every page. There's a "control panel" button on almost every page when you are logged in - except on gallery pages and (apparently) on the upload page. This makes absolutely no sense. If it is useful on a category page, it is no less useful on a gallery page or the upload page.
- Put a link to the upload log on the upload page. When your upload completes with no error, you get a link to go to the gallery page or to check out the upload log. Why then is there no link to the upload log when there's an error which is when you actually need to read the log?
- Kill the generic "Ack!" and be specific. Since the upload log generates an error message stating what the problem is, Smugmug obviously knows what the problem is. Put it in the Smuggy box (or in the popup error message)! Why put a generic "Ack! something happened!" message and make us hunt for the log?
HTH :deal
I dragged my one photo onto Smuggy, and it chugged away the 2333K file. I expected to see the "we received one photo" message but instead I got an "Ack! We didn't receive any photos. Try again or send and email to blah@blah".
I tried again and nothing on the page changed so I assume that the same error happened. I tried to "browse" to it and the same thing happened.
In order to figure out the problem, I went back to the home page, clicked control panel, hunted for and clicked "upload log" and then found the "greater than 48Mpix" error 3 times.
Here are my comments about the experience:
- The "Ack" error message in the Smuggy box needs to be more noticeable. A popup would be great, since the user has to close it and therefore will read it. As it stands, the only reason I noticed anything was wrong was because I already knew what it was supposed to look like if successful.
- Make the "Ack!" message disappear. If the "Ack" error message has to stay in the Smuggy box for some reason, at least make it go away when another upload is attempted. Then it can reappear if another error occurs. Right now you have no idea what is going on subsequent tries.
- Put a "control panel" button on every page. There's a "control panel" button on almost every page when you are logged in - except on gallery pages and (apparently) on the upload page. This makes absolutely no sense. If it is useful on a category page, it is no less useful on a gallery page or the upload page.
- Put a link to the upload log on the upload page. When your upload completes with no error, you get a link to go to the gallery page or to check out the upload log. Why then is there no link to the upload log when there's an error which is when you actually need to read the log?
- Kill the generic "Ack!" and be specific. Since the upload log generates an error message stating what the problem is, Smugmug obviously knows what the problem is. Put it in the Smuggy box (or in the popup error message)! Why put a generic "Ack! something happened!" message and make us hunt for the log?
HTH :deal
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Comments
I am currently finishing up work on the MacUploader. After that I will be looking at the Unverisal DND uploader, error reporting is one big thing I want to improve.
There is some other good ideas in there, will have a closer look when I am working on it.
Cheers,
David
SmugMug API Developer
My Photos
I noticed the facelift on the uploader page as well, it does look nice. While it has worked well for me (I've seen lots of people reporting issues) it could use some enhancements.... here are some ideas I had way back...
http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=255894#post255894
one thing I failed to mention back then is that when you "drop" pictures on the smugface, it should immediately check the file sizes, types, etc. for issues and report back to the user right then, not fail later, with a vague error message, and make us go to the upload log to see what happened...
Glad to hear DevBobo is on the case!