Need your feedback, ASAP!

[rolandogomez]

I need your feedback ASAP. Today we finally upgraded the forum software to the latest most secure version. In addition it now has a comment system (you have to go to "My Home" and edit your "profile" and "options" to make it work properly, the new friends and buddies system is operating too. Lifetime members can even make their profiles private to friends only.

I've been waiting for the upgrade before we start making any more changes. The search engine is coming shortly, but for now, we have to focus on the portfolio system.

Here's the question, do you like the portfolio system at http://www.imagedots.com and how it interacts with the user's profile page? The whole concept is to make your profile page your main page with your image links there, in addition to a general gallery page for everyone.

Here are links to look at:

My profile page as an example.

Main Gallery home as an example

Things to note, in "My Profile" the page refreshes when you go to the next strip of images, that will change shortly. In addition, we'll have more than one row of thumbs, but for now, click on any image to see the lightbox effect.

You can navigate through the lightbox system using your "N", "P" and "C" keys on your keyboard, at any case, upper or lower.


On the Gallery system, it will have a "nude" viewable by registered (Free) users as we have now. That will not go away.

Let me know your thoughts, remember, search features are coming with Zipcode capability, then the travel notices and more. So just concentrate right now on the portfolio/gallery and the profile page--only!

When we make the move to a better portfolio system, the old portfolio/gallery will remain online for a period to be determined. Thanks, off to bed, rg sends!

[Driftwood]

Hi Rolando

I took a look at the links you posted and general impression is favourable. I definitely think it is an improvement.

I still find the profile page a bit "busy", but in fairness there is a lot of information on there.

I would make the following comments/suggestions for your consideration.

1. The portfolio display at the top of the screen - great, just where it should be.
With my screen dimensions I find that the horizontal film strip layout tends to crowd the main image display. This may only be a function of the way my screen is set up, but I think that a vertical film strip layout, down one side of the screen, (if this is possible) would give more space to the main image display.

2. Next the signature strip - I don't consider this the most important information that I want to show to viewers, and I would like to see it relegated to further down the page.

3. Personally, it is the Contact Information and the Additional Information that I would like viewers to see first and I would prefer to see these 2 boxes placed side by side just below the portfolio. I would also like to see the user's firstname included in the additional information or contact section. I am sometimes unsure how to address people in the forums when I don't know their real name.

4. Next perhaps the forum information and the profile picture. these are of slightly less interest to me when viewing somebody's profile.

5. I think the remaining items could then follow on below if someone was interested enough to look for them.

Please understand that these are personal preferences offered for your consideration only, and I appreciate that others will have different views. The work you are doing to continuously improve the site is appreciated.

I do have one final comment. I followed several links from the initial pages, just to see how it worked, and I ended up at BobbyG's progile page.

The "Friends" box on bobby's page currently contains the statement ...... "BobbyG does not currently have any friends."

That seems a bit harsh.

Might want to rephrase that!

[icuphotography]

Much prefer the portfolio system on imagedot. It was much more elegant and just plain cool.

[schlettyb]

Rolando,

Definitely like the new look of Image Dots. To me, it is clean, easy to navigate, and functional. The profile picture does not hold a great deal of importance to me as it does here on G1, so perhaps placing off to the side or making it smaller would be good. Or maybe my picture is too freakin' big....have to check on that.

But overall, I love the look. I also think that the site loads extremely fast, which I appreciate. I am using a satellite connection, so we are talkin' 14k of bandwidth; roughly half of dial-up. Most pages load in under 20 seconds. Here on G1, the average time to load a page is maybe 1 minute, which is still outstanding...

I like how shortcut keys work to move about the filmstrip, and I also have found that uploading photos works quite well, and is easy to do.

The organizational method you have used in the forums is very logical (at least to me), and I find it is easy to remember where I saw a particular post, based on its category.

I really look forward to the site's growth; keep up the great work Rolando!

[jford]

Personally, I don't see any significant advantage, just a change. Both systems are workable - and in a brief inspection, it's not clear that one is significantly more "intuitive" (to me, at least) than the other.

I do wonder about the categories on the "Main Gallery home:" "Professional", "Serious Amateur", "Amateur", and "Shutterbug"...I know I don't belong in the "Professional" category, because it's been thirty years since I earned money from photography - but I'm nearly never serious about anything, and I don't subscribe to Shutterbug, and ...

Rolando, it's your forum and you have to maintain it. If you think the ImageDots format will allow you to run the forum with less effort on your part (so you can photograph and post more), then, by gum, go for it. As long as there's good work to look at, I'll hang around. Maybe even post again someday.

[trwphoto]

I like it

[postcardsfromthewasteland]

Much better at Image Dots. More crisp and concise.