Hello. I need your feedback.

I am working on some new functionality for the site. If you look at the post below (Macy’s), you will notice that I have encapsulated all of the gallery thumbnails and their associated hero images into a single container that doesn’t require popping up into a separate frame (as I have had structured since the beginning), and the thumbnails are in a scrollable pane. I always felt that there was a disconnect with how I have been doing it. I prefer the idea that the user never need leave the page, and that the thumbnails and heroes stay together. The user can either click on the large image, which advances to the next image, or click on a thumbnail which will load in its parent. To browse through the thumbnails, hover over either end of the thumbnail pane (which will trigger an auto scroll), or use the scroll bar below the thumbnail pane to manually scroll through them (my preferred method).

Please let me know if you like this or not. You can either comment on the post itself, or shoot me an email via the feedback form in the sidebar located at the top right of this page. And feel free to be anonymous. Simply enter in a pseudo email address to bypass the validation check.

I am also toying with a new feature that I call “One Up Close”. If you look directly below the Macy’s gallery, you will see a image that I have singled out. Mousing over it will trigger a magnifying function, allowing the user to view parts of the image at a much greater scale. My thought is that, with each post, I will have a gallery along with one window singled out that the user can view in detail. A bonus, as it were. A lot of these windows are dense, which isn’t readily apparent when viewed at 700px, so the user misses out on their true worth. “One Up Close” will load in a super high-resolution picture that can be studied in detail. It isn’t the same as being there in person, but it’s a closer step, no? Let me know your opinions regarding this also.

My intent is to provide a better user experience, both in terms of functionality and in enjoyment. For those of you who frequent this site, and are familiar with it, please, please, please, give me your feedback. And if you have other suggestions, I am all ears. Again, a super simple feedback form is located at the top right of this page.

Cheers.

Rudy