a poll on website design preferences...

[ratcreature]

I have been wondering about the design of the fanart corner of my website. I don't have that many fanart pieces up, but slowly they have gotten more numerous (okay, so it's not even twenty, but then I'm hardly prolific) and I wondered whether I should somehow split or reorganize the section into subsections.

Right now the images are sorted simply by reverse date, with the newest on top, with a smallish (120x120px) preview next to a detailed description of the piece, all in the fanart section of my page for fandom stuff. So you get any picture with just two clicks from my index page. Obviously the more pictures I add, the longer the page takes to load, because of the previews, but otoh the previews are just about 5-7kb each, so personally I would prefer having all on one page rather than having to click three times to get to the art even for twice as many pictures (which at the pace of my fanart production are unlikely to materialize any time soon), but then my internet connection is moderately fast.

[Poll #817192]

Comments

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

I was *going* to say that the page could take twice as much, bt I realized as I was scrolling down the page that I was starting to think "Okay, how many more are there to go" even with the number you have now. It wasn't that I was getting bored, but rather that my mind was searching for categorization.

[ratcreature]

What I favor so far would be either to reorganize all the art on the same page, but with fandom subsections, or to post the newest ten dy date and have additional subpages by fandom for all pictures in each. OTOH I'm not sure how much help subpages really are since most of my fanart is DC anyway. I mean, out of the 17 pictures 9 are DC, 2 DC xovers (one with Marvel, one with SW). 4 HP, 1 Marvel, and 1 SGA/Watership Down x-over. I mean, I probably would do a subpage each for DC, HP and one for xovers (including those with DC) and other fandoms.

If I was really prolific I'd go the route of some dynamic database thingy with flexible search/display options or something, but that's a ridiculous amount of trouble for so few images, not to mention that the web gallery systems I looked into required a setup my webhost isn't configured for, so it's unlikely I'd find something working out of the box that I like, so the effort would be kind of overkill. (It's just I'm disgruntled by huge fanart pages in HP where artist have sometimes hundreds of pictures and they are just sorted by date and I have no way to find anything or just display pictures with my favorite character in them, though it doesn't help that many don't have descriptions with their sometimes not even telling thumbnails. It just makes me grumpy.).

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I know what you mean. A page of 100 thunbnails, with barely distinguishable subjects and no description, drives me crazy. \

Some people are really good about it though, going so far as to categorize by individual character and then further breaking down into line art only and fully colored. But I haven't seen anybody who has as much description as you...i *love* the description you use.

[maygra.livejournal.com]

I know as a fan, I'm more interested in seeing fanart categorized by fandom...but I'm not an artist. so I'm not sure if on displaying your work, you're more interested in showing how your art skills are progressing (in which case sorting by date and medium might be better) or if primarily you want to show off your works as a fan of particualr shows/books first.

If it's a combination of the two, then what you suggest above is probably the best compromise...leave everything on one page, but grouped by fandom, but code it so there are section jumps at the top -- people can either scroll through the whole thing or go to a particular section. I have no persoanl preference for new to old or old to new.

[ratcreature]

Well, my main concern is to get people to look at my art, be able to find what they want and not be frustrated. I just don't know whether people want to see easily what has been added most recently, regardless of fandom, which is easiest with one list sorted by date, because then you don't havre to check all the different sections, or rather have all organized by fandom, because they just want to look at certain things, whether they are more frustrated by an additional click for a subpage, and then won't bother to look at all, or by the longer loading time or just plain longer lists if all is on one page, etc.

I just want it to be the most user friendly, that's why I ask what the majority prefers. For example I used to have this setup where the art opened in a new pop-up window, because personally I like that for art, but then I did a poll and it turns out most people rather have the image open in the same window as the art index was, so I changed my page, even though I like that less, because my goal is to make my stuff as accessible as I can according t o what visitors want, in order to get them to bother to look at things.

[catmoran.livejournal.com]

You could do subpages, but have a teaser of 2-3 thumbnails by the link for each page.

[ratcreature]

If I go with subpages for fandoms I'd probably just leave the newest art (like 5-10) with previews on the main page so that some impression of art is visible as teaser and also so people can see what was most recently added without having to click three times, rather than having fixed teaser thumbnails for each fandom.

[thete1.livejournal.com]

I actually really *do* like having it all on one page, and being as how you're one of those all-too-rare and fabulous people who a) understands the size concept of a thumbnail, b) can make that size work with a coherent, non-teasing (I HATE THE TEASING) 'snippet'... it totally works.

That said... yeah, you've already reached the point where it would be a *good* thing to separate by fandom, and also (maybe) consider having more than one column, or, perhaps even better -- have it arranged kind of like Glock does, in little... squares of thumbnails? *tries to find that page*

... ah, she's changed it a bit since I last checked, but: her YJ page (http://twinners.org/everyflavour/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1646)

I'm envisioning something like targeted links at the top of the page to the different sections (to cut down on time for people who only want to look at one fandom), and maybe you could also include a different section for line-art/sketches/will-never-be-completed...? *laughs* I love seeing that stuff.

Additionally -- and this is less a user-friendliness issue than a Te-specific preference -- I would love it if, within your fandom sub-groups, the pics continued to be arranged by date-of-completion/publication. I'd also like it if it continued to be newest first, which makes me wonder why I prefer just the opposite on fan-fiction pages. Hmm.

Additionally X two: I suspect that once your art is arranged this way, you'll be able to keep the "one main page for everything" design for forty, or even much more.

Anyway, hope this helps.

[ratcreature]

a coherent, non-teasing (I HATE THE TEASING) 'snippet'...

Oh yes! I hate incomprehensible teasing thumbnails. Like you get to see a hand or an ear or whatever and can't even tell who's in the picture. What is the point of that?! I want to know whether it's worth clicking and what I'm goint to get. *headdesk*

About the little squares thing, the problem with that is, that I really prefer the info for the picture (when I made it, whom I made it for, if it's an illustration for a story etc.) next to the picture on the page, and that doesn't really work in a thumbnail gallery layout like Glock's page has.

[thete1.livejournal.com]

Oh yes! I hate incomprehensible teasing thumbnails. Like you get to see a hand or an ear or whatever and can't even tell who's in the picture. What is the point of that?! I want to know whether it's worth clicking and what I'm goint to get. *headdesk*

It is seriously the best way to get me to feel negatively about a person's art before I even see it. *laughs* STOP FUCKING WITH MY HEAD.


About the little squares thing, the problem with that is, that I really prefer the info for the picture (when I made it, whom I made it for, if it's an illustration for a story etc.) next to the picture on the page, and that doesn't really work in a thumbnail gallery layout like Glock's page has.

*nod nod nod* I hear that -- and it definitely wouldn't work to have that info on the image page itself...?

[ratcreature]

I could create display pages for each image on which I put that info, but that would be a lot of new pages I need to create (though if I did that I would probably look into writing one php skript that maybe gets the info dynamically or something), but more importantly I want to provide that info and context for people before they click on the image. It's kind of like the blurb/story header that people give for fanfic.