New Imaginary Image Gallery front-end - Requirements

[elondaits]

This issue is for requirements and suggestions for re-doing the Imaginary image gallery front-ends (not necessarily of the "Gallery" content type only, but possibly of all content types which include a gallery of images). Type your wishes and suggestions in the comments below and I'll add them to this list:

Requirements

• "Download Original File" link in each image (https://github.com/IMAGINARY/imaginary-web/issues/14)
• Individual picture URLs (https://github.com/IMAGINARY/imaginary-web/issues/16)
• Batch upload (https://github.com/IMAGINARY/imaginary-web/issues/15)
• Fix current layout problems (various)
• Better support for responsive
• Load images asynchronously to make the initial load faster
• Take advantage of the full screen width
• Simplify back-end UI: ease discoverability of the "More" fields

  "Nice to have"

• Touch interface (http://flickity.metafizzy.co/) (suggested by Christoph)

[andreasdanielmatt]

it is probably connected to the "responsive" part already: it would be great to have a possibility to show the images also bigger (for higher resolution screens, not only with max size approx. 600 pixels width). We would have to see how this fits into the design though. I could imagine something like a full width image (and the text/info below) - if there is enough size on the screen.

[andreasdanielmatt]

the backend of the galleries is quite complicated (especially the "More (Authors, Licences, Source Files, Formulas, Display)" tab you have to open). Is there a better solution? If somebody knows the interface i is all fine, some of our (new) users did not find these options though (or they were putting info texts inside the title, instead of the description part)

[elondaits]

@andreasdanielmatt : One possibility I was considering is opening galleries in an overlay, like Facebook does (i.e. the site goes "dark" and window of nearly the size of the screen is opened, which shows the image on the left and text on the right.)

This has the following pros:

• Takes advantage of the full width and height of the screen, even if it's an uncommon size.
• The large images wouldn't be loaded until the overlay is opened, which helps make the site lighter (important for mobile).
• Since it's a "separate" UI it can have buttons for downloading, sharing, zoom, etc. without crowding the main page.
• There would be a large space with optional scroll for description and info of the image (some now have a lot of text). The side text could be scrolled without moving the image.
• Galleries could be opened in an overlay from other pages (e.g. home) without needing to go to the actual gallery page.
• Again imitating how Facebook does it, the gallery page could show a grid with thumbnails of all images.

Does this sound OK?