Feedback for new India Images section

Hi folks,

As part of the improvement of some of the key components of IndiaMike, I've been working on an upgrade to the current Photos section to add some key features, and I would really like to get your feedback on the new section before I switch from the current photo module to this new module. The new section is available here: www.indiamike.com/india-images/

I’ve imported some, not all, of the pics into the new section. Once it’s rolled out to the full site, each of your galleries will be available in your profile, so navigation should be a lot easier.

Feel free to click around, add images, delete images, create galleries, and so on. Please note, though, that the images within this section will eventually be purged and reloaded from the current Photos section prior to rolling this section out to the full site, so you will lose any changes you make during this test period.

Besides the new look and feel to the section, I’ve also added in the following:

1. The rating section is based only on "Like": The old way of rating an image from 1-10 is replaced. The rankings for photographs will be made only on the number of "likes" that a pic has. This should eliminate some of the issues we have had in the past of assigning a number to a rating, and hopefully will make the whole image judging and upload process less competitive and more relaxed and fun.

2. Ability to have multiple albums: Previously, the only albums that were allowed were the site specific albums, i.e. Members Galleries, People and Faces, Wildlife, etc. Now, the galleries are user based, and a user can have multiple galleries. All default images get initially added to a "<username>'s photos" galleries. However, you are able to create your own galleries and then edit an existing image to move it to the new gallery, or add a new image to the newly created gallery.

3. Ability to "tag" images and galleries: When you view a pic and/or a gallery, you will notice the display of city, state, and category tags associated with an image, and the ability to add tags of your own. This new functionality has a direct tie-in to the Browse sections on the left hand side. Once an image gets tagged and is indexed as such, you will be able to navigate it by clicking on the appropriate tag on the left hand side. This tagging allows users to browse the galleries in a much better way, I feel, by specifically choosing the area they want to focus on. For now, only the top 10 categories, cities, and states are shown in the left Browse section, but I will be adding a link to show all applicable sections shortly.

Initially, I'm thinking that only the author, the moderators, and certain content advisors will be able to tag photos. It will not be a functionality that will be available to the all users, since there is always the potential for abuse.

Eventually this tagging feature will be rolled out to the entire site, much like the "like" feature is now available in posts.

Other items to note:

- To start off with, the site only supports a one-at-a-time upload process, but I will be eventually adding a multi-upload functionality. Since currently you can only upload one at a time, I don't think this will inconvenience anyone. Also, once the multi-upload functionality is deployed, permissions will only allow certain groups of members to be able to multi-upload. I’m not sure yet exactly who will get these permissions, but the intent is to prevent people from mass uploading images and flooding the site with similar images.

- In the current photos software, there is no option of letting users only edit for a certain period of time, and then preventing them from doing so after. But, I will add this functionality in the new version. People will be able to edit their photos (move from one gallery to another, edit description, etc.) but won't be allowed to delete the image after a certain period of time. This is similar to the existing permissions for the forum software.

- The current limit on the number of photos that can be uploaded in a 24 hour period will continue with this new version.

It looks smart. Nice.

One thing I like with the existing system is the ability to select last 14 days, set 90 images per page, and very quickly run through what might be several hundred photos, like slides on a lightbox, with a few presses of next page.

I'd be very surprised if it would be easily possible --- but if we can have the option to scan a lot of images easily like that, it would be just perfect

The photos/profile link is good. I guess this is a hangover from the old system, but, when we click that, can we just see the users's pics or choose which album to view? This splitting of the pages into most recent photos, popular photos, random images seems irrelevant to me.

Hmm.. Pretty good improvements!

(But can someone improve the look of the new image section?
For example there is text on the left side on the red backgroud and on the right
side there is nothing?
Looks pretty awful..
Maybe a little thing but i have to say it.)

Nadreg

Congratulations - you have done something that is truly fantastic. I wonder how long it took you to do it and if you had help with the painstaking task.

Cheers

Nattusbs

I had previewed the new section to some of the more senior photogs on the site, and many of them had the same feedback. I will work on that as an item next.

I was thinking that in the user profile, I would show the list of galleries that the user has. Once you click on a gallery, you will be taken to the thumbnail listing of all images within that gallery. Does this suit the purpose?

Yes, I have to fill in that blank space. I was thinking of adding the Photos Of The Month, or some featured images there. That should balance out the section.

I've been working on it for the past few months, so the compliments are very welcome!

Thanks for the feedback, folks. Please keep it coming.

Nadreg

As pointed out by Safari-Pena, the right hand side vertical blank space needs to be filled up. As per your thoughts and adding some more, this space could be divided into 2 sections:

On the top you could have "Image of the week".

Below that you could have "Latest images" with the most recent op top and below it the previous latest and similarly going down by date. Say 10 of them depending on available space.

Cheers

Nattusbs

By the way, please check out the Photos Of The Month link on the top left hand side of the new Images section.

As in the testing phase I have again problems to access my own photo's.

.

On 30Mar2009 I've requested for photo details like which state, what town, in case someone likes the location and would like to visit. I very much hope that you have implemented the location as required.

Hi vonkla. Once fully launched, links to your galleries will be available from your profile page. For now, here's the link to your gallery: http://www.indiamike.com/india-image...vonklas-photos

Your wish has been fulfilled. The location field will be a required field in the new software.

Very nice. Like Nick, I think the ability to view a series of thumbnails of current photos would be a help.

Sounding good. Thanks

Excellent, this is one thing I've mentioned a few times about the photo section, it was pretty annoying when people didn't indicate where the picture was taken.

As far as I recall one of the main reasons to make it impossible to delete photos was to prevent dead links in the case that a photo was used as an attachment to a post.

In the current software the move to another gallery has the same effect.