The V4 Photo Gallery Responds to your Finger Swipe too.

Respect the Tablet Prevalence

People browsing the web with iPads and Android tablets know their devices are very capable. They are able to show the full web experience, have vibrant screens and modern browsers capable of rendering the latest web technologies.
 
And there are a lot of them using such devices today to browse the net.
 
So, one of the goals I envision for V4 is to always provide your tablet users the full viewing experience, as close to what you get on a regular desktop as possible.
 
However, we still have to recognize the fact that these devices are restricted in terms of screen estate by design. They've got very useable resolution but they're still only as good as a 17" monitor you no longer have at home.

Making sure there is no difference in User Experience 

Based on the reasons stated above, I know I need to revamp the gallery in order to match the needs of these new devices. Not only that, in the process we are going to streamline everything so that the gallery component works much better on the desktop browsers.
 
Based on these requirements, my first tasks to revamp the photo gallery are:

1. to get rid of the sidebar style thumbnail display, and
2. to create a new UI that put the focus back to the photo.

In the current version, there are just too many things on the page that require a wide screen to show properly, and as a result the photos are far too small on the page, relative to these less important elements.
 
On the right are a few screenshots for the new photo display. Just so you know that you can finger swipe on the filmstrip at the to navigate. The big photo below will respond to your figure swipe too.
 
Secondly, to promote engagement among your users, the comment area has to be re-written too.
 
To simply comment on a photo, your users do not need a full-featured WYSIWYG. It has to look as simple as possible, using a simple auto expanding text box that posts with Ajax so that we don't break the flow with page refreshes. We also want to show user avatar besides their comments:

 
Lastly, the current Gallery Homepage looks just like the forum homepage without its own identity, and it doesn't show enough information like new photos and recently updated albums either. This has to change because your users want to see information right away without additional clicks:
 

It's their experience that matters

Your users care only about their experience on your site and I am all about optimizing it for V4. V4 represents a great leap forward in terms of user experience, and in the future I will post more regarding UI enhancements your users will surely enjoy.
 
Thanks for your time today. Have a nice weekend.
 
2 sets of photos shown in the screenshots above are copyrighted:
 
"Brides & Widows" by Joana Kustra And "Teen Adventure Cover Illustration Series"  by Garth Glazier

License:
Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-ND 3.0)

I don't use the forum heavily, and I've spoke to this before in the Feature Suggestion forum, but my biggest complaint is the intermittent screen which appears after making each post (i.e. the screen that gives you the option to go back to post, go back to forum, etc).   Most people have a preference for this (mine is to just go back to the thread in question) so making them re-affirm (or wait for the re-affirm dialog to disappear) is just a big waste of time. 
 
Even with this small complaint I love the forum and hope to use it more in the coming months.  No other ASP.net forum on the market even comes close. 
  
Edit: Sorry this may not have been put in the right place.... 

pinch
my biggest complaint is the intermittent screen which appears after making each post (i.e. the screen that gives you the option to go back to post, go back to forum, etc).   Most people have a preference for this (mine is to just go back to the thread in question) so making them re-affirm (or wait for the re-affirm dialog to disappear) is just a big waste of time. 

+1
This annoys me too. It adds no value

Hi Mark,
In version 4, the upload feature will be just like what you want -> multiple uploads at once, but it won't be unlimited because as a matter of fact, we are not facebook or photobucket that have unlimited resources. Most of the time the clients don't even have a single dedicated server. Resizing is resource extensive, so we still have to limit the size for the upload.
 
Thanks for your comment!