This is neat.. you should sell ad space to travel companies. (Hell, you could even sell travel ads based on the location that the user is currently viewing)...
1) I would really like the "hand" mode to be the default. It took me a while to figure out I could change it.
2) I would like an easy way to load the whole picture in my browser at full resolution so that I can scroll horizontally at will.
3) Related, one approach to 2 that I've done on another site is to automatically resize the picture to the maximum height of the user's browser when they go in view full screen mode.
The "hand vs scroll" issue is a problem. I asked a few of my friends but the results were 50:50. That's why I'm still not sure which one to make the default.
It's a commonly accepted UI paradigm that the mouse needs to be 'engaged' (via a button press) in order to have a functional effect on the UI. In the non-engaged mode mouse is only used for indicating otherwise actionable UI elements.
one quick tip for taking panaroma picture:
- turn your camera clock-wise so that you can take vertical slices of your pictures which will gave you more height.
I like it. Seems like a useful tool that has been pretty well executed.
Now some observations:
- It's hard to tell who posted a panorama - the only information about the user is their image
- Is each person's rating posted as a comment? This could be problematic if hundreds of people end up rating a panorama
- I'm not too sure your permalink structure is good for the long run (using folders, categorization will make it easier for search traffic to find more content)
These are just my observations, please take them lightly. Like I said, the site is nice overall and can be a useful utility for those interested in panoramas.
Thanks for your observations. I'll make a panorama author link more visible.
Permalinks are a problem, I agree. I would, for example, like to have links like panoye.com/country/city/panorama-name.html but the problem is with google maps. When you signup for your gmap key - you have ONE key for ONE directory on the web server (for example country/city/). It means that I should have (and use) houndreds of gmap API keys :(
That really only applies to the file/script accessing the map. If you're using .hosts files and mod_rewrite, you can just interpret /country/city/panorama-name as parameters and call the maps API from a central script located in the root.
First: How do you pronounce this? Pano-eye? Pan-oy? Pan-o-yay?
Second: I wanted to turn back three times before I created an account because:
1. Why should I have to create an account just to upload a picture? I don't care about people knowing who took the picture, especially since I only have a couple panoramas. Give people the choice of creating an account or uploading anonymously.
2. You want my email? Why would you need this?
3. You emailed me an auto-generated password. Seriously? People will either forget the password and keep doing password recovery or searching through their email for the password or immediately change this to whatever password they usually use on the internet. There is no sensitive information on this site, there's no sense getting in somebody's way and making it a multi-step process for your users to use the password they want to use.
Third: The map on the upload panorama page needs to let me search for locations. I know the name of the place that I took the picture at, why are you making me find it manually?
Fourth: If you screw up orienting the picture (the < 6 deg. error) then you can't get past it and have to re-upload the image. Give me a "start over" button for orienting. Also, I think I oriented the wrong direction because it's telling me that Epcot in Orlando, FL is north of Gainesville, FL, but it's actually south. Either I screwed up or your direction finding is wrong.
I like it a lot. A couple of critiques:
- I had to look for what the app was. Yeah, the explanation is on the right, at the top of the sidebar, but I'd almost like to see it above the google map on the page.
- I'm not terribly keen on the font choices throughout the page... specifically what's bothering me is the character spacing, most noticeable on the right sidebar.
On the whole, I think it's a brilliant idea, and at least to my knowledge, isn't being repeated anywhere else. That said, I'd focus on layout and design, and accentuate the social aspects of the site where I could.
It would be good if when you zoom in on the Google map on the front page, and then go to a panorama from it, and then use the browser's back button, that the Google map would still be how you left it -- so that you can then look at other nearby panoramas).
In a similar vein, the Google map shown to the right of a panorama, should (be able to) locate all the other panoramas too, for the same reason of being able to see what else is nearby.
Your web app is cool. Two ways to survice: Get acquired or die because Google implements the same feature.
Anyway, I really live it. It is really stunning and amazing. But, you should at least let users know how to upload their panoramas. Put a big "Upload" button in your frontpage.
The flash viewer is neat. Esp beause its keystroke activated (arrow & ctrl/shift). Why there is no keystroke for the default viewer? (or is there?)
I have seen such tools on real estate sites (360˚ view). This one looks very neat though.
Nice. Be cool if just above the Google map you could enter a place name rather than clicking through the map. So i type "Glasgow" and it brings stuff near to there.
This is really cool and interesting. Still I'm not sure it will be easy to bring to the masses. People like much more to put useless photos of their cats on flickr.
You're right, I should make it more visible... There is a google custom search field on the homepage (at the bottom of the right column). Or on the menus: Panoye -> Search.
