Planning Question RE: My Website

Black XR6 · 29-05-2006, 10:49 AM

For those of you who dont know I run a website at www.gtfalconpics.com

Ive recently increased the picture size of the images on my site. Somebody mentioned the pics are a little small for them and when I looked at everything I figured I could increase image sizes without exceeding my monthly bandwidth and having the site down for a period of the month. Which has only happened once. But is still an issue to think about.

Now thats all great, and I like having the larger pics on there. But I am starting to lean towards another style of displaying pics. Instead of having all the images at their final size on screen straight away, I could have a bunch of thumbnails on one page, and you would need to select the images you wanted to see larger by clicking on them.

This change would improve page load times through smaller file sizes, bandwidth usage through not everybody viewing every pic on a page. Also, it would allow for even larger image sizes for some images due to there being no constraint from the template. It would however increase the time it takes to view all the pics from a run though and thus increase time spent on the site.

As you guys, being ford enthusiasts, are the majority of the sites visitors I was wondering what you would like to see?

Should I change the format to thumbnail style gallery with larger images available via clicking, or stick with the current format?

PH47 · 29-05-2006, 01:37 PM

You should always use thumbnails on picture sites.. not just to save YOU the bandwidth but because there's still a lot of people in oz who use dialup connections, and once they see a page full of pics trying to load will just leave the page.

fiery · 29-05-2006, 01:40 PM

I agree with PH47...
I am on adsl.. but at times it is actually slower than dial up (don't ask)..

so thumbnails are a better idea...

looks a great site by the way.. some nice pics of some hot cars..

Black XR6 · 29-05-2006, 10:07 PM

hmm, if its slower than dial up or seems slow. Delete cookies and temporary internet files. May speed it up somewhat.

fiery · 29-05-2006, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black XR6

hmm, if its slower than dial up or seems slow. Delete cookies and temporary internet files. May speed it up somewhat.

I found the problem.. it is apparently because there is not a pop up stopper around that can possibly stop the pop ups from happening and that is causing me to hit my limit a little quick.. and I not only having shaping once but then a second time.. Need to find a cure for this pop up stuff..

All cookies, temp files and blah blah have all been done.. (thanks for the tips though) I have several pop up stoppers but yep.. still an issue..

Anyway back to the interesting thing, your website...
There seems to be a preference for the thumbnails..

Does this means you will change it to thumbnails? Let us know if you do, cos then I will go back and have another look around (just while running slow it annoys to much to wait lol)

wulos · 29-05-2006, 10:35 PM

From experience = people are only interested in super huge sized images that you'd be able to paint the side of a house with....Which means thumbnails - and little regard for bandwidth.
I'd be interested in knowing what sized images people would consider satisfactory as well. (both resolution and kb sizing)

View Poll Results: Should I change the picture layout on the site?
Yes, Go the thumbnails.	10	71.43%
No, I prefer it the way it is.	4	28.57%
Voters: 14. You may not vote on this poll