We are excited to announce a new look for NPN; the tiled grid view! Images now display big, uncropped, and beautiful when viewing the critique or gallery sections. Vertical and Panorama images now get the respect they deserve as well.
FYI, these are still sorted by the post creation date when viewing a category, but they read from left to right, so the newest image is in the top left, the two to the right of that were posted before it, then to the next line. The avatar of the original poster still shows slightly larger than the people that have replied as well.
Because we have to load large images for this display you may see some performance issues on very slow connections, we are working to improve this in the future.
We hope you like these changes. We are constantly working to improve the experience and benefits of being an NPN member. Please send us your feedback!
David: Iâm still seeing Flora and Macro in the original presentation mode. Is the new look being phased in gradually and if so when might we expect the changes to show up in all categories? Never mind. I signed out and signed back in and all is well. Spectacular improvement IMO. >=))>
I echo all the thanks and appreciation for the effort that it takes for making these kinds of changes. And I can also understand the desire to make the site "one of your own". This is usually the natural evolution of sites that have been purchased. After all, it was sold because something no longer worked as it did in the past.
I am glad that there is a new sense of beginning with many of the members and of course the obvious excitement and dedication of David is obvious. Thank you.
I will be the first to say I am not fond of it. There, I said it.
It wouldnât be right to just stop there so here goes. I personally and IMHO, and as one, find it difficult to scan. It is really not a grid but three independently scaled columns and as such my eyes just donât like it. A grid implies a regular spaced series of things such as squares on a chess board. I find that scanning back and forth in an irregular pattern causes some loss of "place". You donât agree?
The left to right reading isnât quite right either. Look at the following three samples from this morning
Sample 1 has a 3days ago image in the top left which should be the most recent in this view. BUT right below it should be an older image yet this on shows a 1 day ago image. That 1 day old image is surrounded by 3 and 4 day old images.
If they are out of order many will be missed as I donât have the time to scan through all the posts looking for just recent ones.
I would prefer to have photos about the size of the ones in the "grid" on the left side of the the screen with as much text will fit to the right. I guess sort of a large preview.
BUT, lets not forget, taking nothing away from David, the true value of a site is in itâs members. Not in how the site is laid out.
Thanks for the risk you took in investing in this site and the hard work you have put into it.
Many thanks to David for making the change. It is a definite improvement.
My only suggestion is I wish there was a way I could go to a screen that showed everything as posted - in order of posting. Then I would not miss anything and it would be efficient. Now , I have had to limit my computer time lately and maybe there is a way to do this - if so, would someone kindly point me to it. I readily admit that I donât completely understand the site as yet.
To clarify, I am talking about all items together ie all the âgroupsâ.
Davidâs intro seems to suggest that within a group the photos are posted in order of their original posting. Im having trouble observing that but if it is the case, its great.
Great change David - I think we all know its hard to wrestle with the software creating these sites.
@Greg_Giesing I understand your points, and this was discussed previously here. We are a bit limited to what the software provides us, so this is just a better option than what we had before (most people think so anyways). Aligning the grid is a bit of challenge as you would have tiny thumbnail images with lots of empty space around them similar to the old site which is not terribly visually appealing. The ordering does get a bit wonky because of the way the tiles get laid out with different aspect ratios, but really do you need to know exactly when one image was posted over the other? This seems highly irrelevant compared to seeing a large preview of the image. There is no perfect solution, but I feel this is a great compromise that everyone will get used to over time. If your biggest concern is catching up with the most recent posts, you should try using the âNewâ button to see only new posts since your last visit.
@Kathy_Snead the images are displayed in the order posted when you visit a category, they just read from left to right, next line, like a book. You may also find the âNewâ view useful. If you want to see everything that is new, just go to the main categories page and click on âNewâ
@Jeffrey_Sipress Iâm not ârefusingâ to do this, itâs just the way the software works. Itâs much harder to display a list of names in an efficient manner vs. an avatar. I kind of like that this is the only option as it helps prevent people just visiting photos of people they know and helps to not create cliques. Iâd rather an image be judged on itâs merit rather than who created it.
thank you all for reading and especially David and Kathy for responding and the suggestions.
In preparing the samples I noticed that if the width of the page was changed then the columns would rearrange themselves. Just found that odd. I would not have thought it to update on the fly. If that can be changed and you are concerned about processing time maybe this would help. Itâs got to be a memory hog constantly updating.
This is adaptive design and the way it should work, itâs not memory intensive and itâs not like youâre changing the width of your browser constantly, most people rarely change the size of their browser.
