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

[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.