[EN] Improving navigation: what do you think?

Works well, shouldn't bother those who don't use these functions - all in all a nice update. Using Chromium, I don't see those arrows - instead, I see pale gray boxes on hover. I don't know if it's intentional but I actually prefer this over seeing the arrows.

I'm using Firefox 28.0, and I see only the grey boxes without arrows.

These improvements are nice, but I'd rather see you put time into improving the search functions -- adding multi-term search, fixing the case-sensitivity problem in keyword search in the organizer, and adding the ability to search on keywords within a group.

I'm using Google Chrome and the arrows don't display for me. I don't even get the grey boxes that others have mentioned.

On the plus side though the click on the photo to open lightbox works well and is a useful addition. I agree clicking to exit lightbox would also be useful, but if that's not possible I find the Escape key on my keyboard does the same thing.

Really don't like this lightbox thing.

I tried viewing a friends photos in the Light box and found it very good with the Black background. The Arrows Left and Right are very good and by clicking the X I returned to where I started with no problems.
Thanks, a good idea.

I use Firefox.in Windows XP Pro

Nice update for me.... I have tried with IE, Chrome, Maxthon and Firefox and Opera and they all work for me on my Windows 7 computers. The arrows don't show on my Chrome Browser in the non-mobile browser mode on my Nexus 5 phone and the Lightbox doesn't work on the Nexus 5 phone either in that mode.

Using Chrome and Windows 8.0 I don't get the arrows in the red half circle. However clicking in light box view, previous and next arrows are present.

Following on from my earlier comment saying that I couldn't see the arrows whilst using Chrome. I don't know if you've changed anything at our end or not, but am pleased to say they are now visible and working.

However, there appears to perhaps still be a glitch. When I use the arrow to move to the next photo when that page comes up the arrows are then positioned much higher up the screen in line with the main ipernity logo. They do drop after a couple of seconds, but it would be much better if they'd stay in the same place so you can whiz through until something catches your eye.

Having to wait for them to drop down and become active makes browsing much slower. It's certainly slower than using the arrow keys on my keypad which is how I used to move from one photo to another so would be good if this could be fixed.

Nice work so far though!

The arrows need to be lighter, so that they don't detract from the photo.
Don't want to end up like Flickr with hieroglyphics all over the place.

Figured out why the arrows were moving up and down, which I thought worth adding as a separate comment in case anyone else is having the same problem.

I had my Norton toolbar open and for some reason that seemed to be affecting how the arrows displayed. When ever I switch it off and close it down the arrows display properly and they stay in the same position as you move from one photo to another so all is good! :)

Why do we need these arrows when you can just click on the next photo in the stream?
Please keep the display free from unnecessary CLUTTER.

Also, don't see the point of this so-called "light box".
Never use it, so don't want to be distracted with pop-ups.

Nice features for those who like to do everything with clicks... The right/left arrow keys accomplish the same thing. The entering lightbox mode with a click on the photo is nice... Would be nice if getting out of lightbox mode were just a click away, too -- but I understand that's something the team's working on -- though the ESC key accomplishes that just fine.

Thanks for the updates!!

I'm pleased with recent changes, personally I'm not usually a fan of big changes, but respect to the IP Team for discussing with us, and keeping us clued in :D
I would love to be able to click in lightbox to get back too, and I'm on Win 7, Firefox latest all looks good.

Doing my titles and tags for the last couple of hours, I'm now getting very irritated with these stupid arrows appearing every time I move my cursor. It is very DISTRACTING to keep being alerted by a tiny movement in the periphery of one's vision. The arrows are quite unnecessary, as it is just as easy to navigate to the next photo on the stream at the top. All the arrows are doing is creating clutter, which was the main reason I left Flickr, and I shall feel very disheartened if I have to leave Ipernity too. I need a relaxing stress-free page to work on, without a load of symbols or distracting movements. Keep it simple, please!

Well, I am enjoying the colors very much, but I have to say that the arrows are kind of redundant and distracting to me and as I was adding notes to a photo I accidentally clicked on the photo and it took me into the "Lightbox" view and erased all my notes so that might need some work. I do appreciate your efforts though and that you actually read our comments. Thanks Team Ipernity for that.

>>The arrows are quite unnecessary, as it is just as easy to navigate to the next photo on the stream at the top. >>

I have to add that I agree with this. The arrows are ok, but it does add to the clutter of the page and I am used to navigating with that little thumbnail bar on the top.. it has arrows too, heh. I don't know anything about tablets really, but maybe this new feature is much more useful for tablet users?

The greatest solution would be to make the arrows optional too, although I'm not sure whether every single feature around the site and in the interface can be made optional, heh.

*************************************
Adjustments:

1) photo page: the left and right arrows have been lightened

2) photo page: the "Lightbox view" caption displayed when dragging your mouse onto the photo has been removed and replaced by a "zoom-in" mouse icon.

3) lightbox: you can now close it by clicking on the picture

4) lightbox: items around the picture now disappear after 2 sec of mouse inactivity

Coming soon:

5) lightbox: bigger pictures

*************************************

Very good tweaks!

Plenty of good kudos justifiably going to the Ip management for listening to the members. Way ahead of the competition on this. I like some of the enhancements but would appreciate the team concentrating on some of the mechanics behind the scenes, like case sensitive issues & searches as opposed to unnecessary bells and whistles on the interface. When will we be able to add an approximate date (if actual not known), for film photos?

We do not forget to improve "mechanics behind the scenes". Some projects need more time and different skills than other ones. We are leading several projects at the same time. As soon as a project is completed, we put it online. Remember there are only 3 programmers in the ipernity Team...

I used the Light Box we had on Multiply, but only while downloading my work before leaving when they closed the site as a Social network. On this service I prefer to be able to view photos in the largest size available.

The arrows are A Good Idea, indeed.

I guess with all the touch devises, these arrows are unavoidable. Still I don't like it
My suggestion --> show them ONLY on touch devices.
And for desktop --> maybe use cursor-left & right keys to do the same (but be sure not to interfere with horizontal scrolling on narrow screens/windows

Of course cursor-left/right keys can be used to go to the previous/next page.
You'll find all the shortcut keys above the footer of each page.

Ipernity seems to currently be going through a phase of rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic; instead of messing around with silly changes to colour schemes or where the navigation arrows are they need to sort out the seo problem, as images still cannot be found with any external search engine. I've checked this yet again in order to be able to give an update ; unfortunately things have not improved. I've put images up of sculptures that appear nowhere else on the web, tagged as always with name and place, so you'd expect that a search for them would come up either via the words or- preferably- as an image, but neither is the case.
Old flickr images come up, new ipernity ones do not.
Club Ipernity should sort out the basics, not waste energy on cosmetics.

"Ipernity should sort out the basics, not waste energy on cosmetics.

Agree; pictures still can not be found on the web. Please make that the number ONE thing to solve once and for ever.

I agree with comments that suggest improving the search engine capabiities as a matter of urgency.
I consistently receive enquiries based on people having searched for places or plants / insects but it is always the flickr version that they have found, not once (so far) the ipernity version of the same image with the same tagging.
I hate flickr and love ipernity,; please do not shift it in flickr's direction EXCEpT for their seriously effective search results.

Previous/Next buttons are good, but not where I'd expect to find them (but is anything, these days?). Once found, however, they're fine.

The Lightbox thing is pretty, but not useful to me. Is there a spot where I can turn that off? Otherwise, every photo I open will require me to click on the X to close Lightbox.

Well done!

Yeah, when you type "pony" in Google image search the first image result has to be of my pony. Personally, I don't care. I haven't needed the SEO for anything, I can always link back to my photos or photostream if I need someone to see the pictures. I have many other ways of promoting myself if I feel the need to promote...

That being said, it seems to be an important feature for many users, and built-in SEO also should be sort of obvious on a site like this. Maybe Ipernity is already working on it. But why does it take so long? So I do sort of understand why some people are getting all Hulk on this.

Improving navigation needs to be more than a couple of arrows. The search functions -- both within Ipernity and from the outside world to Ipernity via search engines -- need immediate attention. I've been sending messages to Team Ipernity about these issues since I joined last May. I always get a speedy, polite response that they are aware of the problems and are looking into them. But nothing has been done.

I manage a couple of groups on F*ckr that I'd like to bring to Ipernity (along with some new paying Club members, I hope), but I will not do that until the search issues have been resolved.

1. As stiffleaf and rectangulART have said, the SEO issue needs to be taken care of.

2. Why is keyword search in the organizer still case sensitive? Shouldn't this be a relatively easy fix? I have never encountered another website with case sensitive internal search.

3. There is still no way to search within a group. The groups I want to bring to Ipernity will not function properly if we don't have the ability to do searches within the photos in the group.

Please, Team Ipernity, put aside the colors and arrows so that you can concentrate your efforts on the site functionality issues that are important to members.

Thank you.

Nice one :)

Is there any way of disabling the annoying light box function and returning to things as they were....or at least make the light box 'light' instead of 'dark'?

So far so good! Merci. :)

Wasn't using the arrows on the keyboard simple enough? I don't use lightbox often enough to really care about that change, but must agree with some of the opinions above about cosmetic changes taking a back seat to your search engine. I find that using search here doesn't factor in tags and only focuses on photo titles.

Arrows good idea...Light Box not so good !

Its very nice, thanx

Other things I'd like to see:

1. Keywords showing up in the order that I type them in, not all jumbled up.

2. Sometime dates for when the exact date is not known.

3. Easier arranging of photos in albums. If I want to insert some new pictures in the middle of an album, I have to scroll up with each one individually, which can take ages, as the page doesn't remember where I was with the previous one and slides back to the bottom again.

4. Better search facility when organising albums. Sometimes I search for things I know I've got, but the search tells me I have no items with those words.

5. More stuff showing up on the internet search engines.

I see no arrows or grey boxes in Chrome - I am not the only one.

When I am using the latest version of Chrome....and open a photo page, I find that the arrows disappear if I move my cursor above the image (and reappear if clicking below the title). A pity that this action does not occur with other browsers. However, I would prefer if Ip concentrated more on behind the scenes functionality as opposed to gimmicks. Such as improving search functionality and providing date options for those who have analogue images.

A whole year to get things in order and still not much improvement.
There is a countdown in the top right of my Ipernity page counting down to when my subscription to the 'Club' expires. I don't think I will be renewing my membership.

I would really hate to see an exodus of people from ipernity, as I've made some great new contacts here. But I totally understand the frustration about Team Ipernity's failure to address issues of functionality. I've been waiting for a year to see improvements in the search functions (particularly search within groups) before bringing a couple of groups over here from Flickr.

I wonder if a subscription to UserVoice feedback is very expensive? Then we could all vote new features up and down - just like another well-known photo website (although unlike the other place, hopefully Ipernity could be more responsive to what their users actually want).

was that a flying pig I just saw ?..........

Another thing I've just noticed is that the photo search only goes up to 50 pages.
Don't tell me there are only one thousand photos tagged with "England"!!!

Ipernity needs to improve the search functions first before messing about with lightboxes.

Seconded!

Totally agree !!

Another very good point!

I like the on the edges of the photo page. It is very unobtrusive and convenient. Works fine in firefox and chromium on Linux.

I like the improvements =) And what is most important, pages still loads fast.

Nice and simple addition. I have no use for it, but it's not on my way :)