BetterPhoto Q&A
Category: New Answers

no Editor's First Pick medallions

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July 02, 2008

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July 02, 2008

Good day.

I have discovered a few errors in the addition of the new look and layout that you folks have created. I will number them for readability's sake.

The first one was easy to find - let em explain why.

1) I have found (in the past) that the only way I could see if an image I had posted was selected as a members favorite was to go to My Member Center - Favorites and then click on View Gallery. This would take my to my gallery but (it looked to be) in the form of the free gallery - small thumbs, and such. There I could click on an image and see the Member Favorite heart at the top - if there was one.

Now when I follow the same steps, clicking on the View Gallery link just referrers me back to the current page: http://www.betterphoto.com/mgAdmin/a_Favorites.php. This is the same whether I am in the Favorite Photos, Favorite Photographers or the Am I a Favorite? page. All just refer back to themselves. Needless to say, my ability to see if anyone has mares an image as a favorite is no longer available.

2) The second thing I found is: when I am in the Favorites area, the link to my BetterPholio™ options still says Premium BetterPholio™ rather then Basic BetterPholio™ as it does in all the other sections.

2a) On a side note. I'm not a big fan of the new design. Though it does ad a better more professional look and feel to the area, a lot of the useful info is gone from some images. No more award images are displayed - First Place, Second, Finalist, etc on all images that have them - only some. This is really apparent when you go to a new page and the first image has an award but that award will not appear until you click on the thumb of the image - then it shows up. But, in reality, why would I click on the thumb of an image that I am already viewing the full version.

Also, the verbiage on whether an image has been discussed is the same for one that has and one that has not. Previously when an image was not yet commented on, you would see the Discuss This Photo link. Once a comment was made it would say Read Photo Discussion - but no more. It only says Discuss This Photo for both options. Actually, I just looked again, and the Discuss this photo option is now completely missing in the new version. I see "Sign in to make photo a favorite" but am already signed in.

3) In that same vain: the transition between the two versions of the area when a comment is posted or looked at is pretty odd. You go from the slick new look to the old all-white style. That potion does not look professional or complete to me. As a web designer, if I had that type of a transition on a site I created, I would never hear the end of it :)

4) When you create an album, you give it a title and description - but you can not see the description any where when you are actually looking at the album on the site. I would like the viewer to get some back-story on why the album is called what it is and that info I typed in to the description area.

5) When you click the thumb to see the image, I get a flask of the image in it's original form (white bordered with drop shadow) and then it switches over to the new borderless version. That is really odd and kind of distracting. Instead of looking at the image you think "What was that weird flash?"

With all this said, I really do love the BF site and enjoy posting, commenting and receiving comments on work - there are just some aspects that grind on me. The latest one is that at the resolution that I use (1920-1200) the new layout is REALLY limited. Mainly, I only have 8 thumbs on the page where 16 or more (for me) would easily fit. I feel that the proper layout should be that of a dynamic one. The amount of stuff you see on your screen will be dictated by the resolution that you are running. The static one you have now only looks good at a res of 1024x768 or less.

Thanks for listening and I will forward on any other issues that I find.

Take care all!

- Beau

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July 03, 2008