Soon - New website design

[pieter melissen]

2. The absence of the summary page has been tried to compensate with making selections possible on more than just the IMO number, but also on the basis of name and MMSI number, and more factors. That could be useful, but the summary page was a very useful tool for checking in which category a ship had been allocated, for instance for posting a ship for the first time. So bring back the summary table.

Pieter, the Ship Summary page was discontinued based on feedback from the ShipSpotting Admins.
However some of it's elements have been incorporated on the photo page, such as "Photo Categories", "AIS Position of this ship", "Photographers of this ship" and "Port History".
These sections are presented when such data is available for the photo's ship.

Hugo, we were asked for suggestions about changes, not about mentioning things we like and want to keep as they are. It is not for nothing that I wrote this sticky thread some time ago.
 
http://forum.shipspotting.com/index.php/topic,15646.0.html

[Hugo Vieira]

4. A large section of the some is devoted to most popular categories: Views alone is not the way to go, because some broad categories contain many more ships, than other categories that have been broken down by age brackets etc. It is not for nothing that Chemical and Product tankers is the most popular category in the beta version, it contains all the ships built from 1970 onwards. As long as there is no algorithm combining the number of ships and the number of views per category, it is simply useless. The home page space better to be used for other things, such as an extension of the space foe making comments.

Pieter, that is a great point, thank you.
We will take this into account and refactor the selection of the "Top Categories" in the Home page.

[andrecas]

Interesting re-design. Presumably new site will incorporate the long awaited "https" designation? 
The new design should lend to a better viewing experience for both, Members & Guests.
Looking forward to the final product.

[Hugo Vieira]

About the new website: in general looking very good, a modern, fresh layout. But one important remark:

My request to handle inland vessels with ENI the same as seagoing vessels with IMO has been totally ignored. ...

Pieter, I'm sorry this happened.
This is the first I've heard of your request about ENI numbers.
I will add this to the development roadmap, so we can rectify the situation.
Thank you for mentioning this issue.

[Hugo Vieira]

Looks good!

It would be nice if full-size photo ("full screen") could be opened in a new tab instead of a new window.

Tuomas, that is an interesting suggestion, thank you.
We will take it into consideration.

[Hugo Vieira]

Interesting re-design. Presumably new site will incorporate the long awaited "https" designation? 
The new design should lend to a better viewing experience for both, Members & Guests.
Looking forward to the final product.

Andrecas, yes upon deployment of the new site it will be https enabled.
Thank you for your feedback

[Tony des Landes]

I would like to see the photo dimensions with each image.
I am only interested in high res photos so would not need to open to actual size only to find that it os quite small

[Pieter_Inpijn]

May I remind the IT-group, admin-team and members to this topic:

http://forum.shipspotting.com/index.php/topic,16836.0.html

That was created a few years ago after admin announced that a new website was under construction and members were invited to give ideas.

It seems to have moved out of sight to all concerned........         

[Pieter_Inpijn]

I tried to upload three photo's on the new website and I am not happy with the new upload screen.
It would be nice to make it more compact: now I have to scroll down to fill in the lower fields.
Resizing the screen itself is no solution: then the characters become to small and are difficult to read.
And maybe because of the beta-version: indexing is not tuned yet; after upload all three photo's came back different. It were not my photo's but with my text /details, etc.
 

[pieter melissen]

@Pieter I, did the same, no need to scroll down, 27 inch screen. The photo that came up was not the one I posted.

[Ship Shooter]

Hi All, Admins & Shipspotters !

I guess that's not a scoop that shipspotting is THE worldwide site you start with your search, especially concerning old hulls.

Therefore when you are in search of info, you need first :
1- the picture to quickly identify the correct IMO,
2- once you have the IMO, you are in search of shipspotters who made the effort to add constructive / consistent description of the vessel, sea accident details, etc... in relation with their picture(s).

I have nothing againt people that are using shipspotting to "just" share picture, I just underline that the Description field is important for some users and that its content, when it exists, should be put in evidence... for people like me.

So it would be great if the Admins could mention whatever is the way used "consitent description fiels" on the main page : number of words, just a "Description activated" text or what you want.


Second point which is not an easy one as soon as we talk about a photo site, but as you have the hands in the codes, that's the right moment : the main color of the background.
Please keep in mind that some of us prefer black as the main background color to protect their eyes, and use in consequence add-on on their browser to correct the screening of what they watch.
So try to use "standard conversion color scheme" or give a look at the way addon such as "Dark Reader" for Firefox works.

Thanks in advance for you kind attention on these matters.

Regards.

[seaweasel]

Hello Hugo, many thanks for your efforts in designing a new website. I can imagine that this is a huge task and not an easy one.  At first glance the new design looked pleasing and fresh to me but -  what really counts of course is whether the applications have been improved or not. That's what any change should be about and  what really matters for the members of this site. Please take my remarks as constructive hints to consider some details.

Firstly it appears to me that the shown picture in standard size (between thumbnail and fullscreen) is to a certain degree less sharp and clear in the beta-version, what would surely be not acceptable if confirmed by other members. So this should be checked....

The comment overview section on the front page is vital for the community and should therefore be shown to the same extent as hitherto, i.e. some twenty comments should be visible (there are just seven in the beta-version).  And all comments on a certain picture should be visible by scrolling down a bit from the photography. Tearing things apart which belong together isn't a good idea to say the least...

Another point is that the ENI numbers should be displayed under Photo details like the IMO numbers and should be clickable as well to show all pictures of a certain inland vessel. The description is an important  - and time consuming - part of a posting and the complete description should therefore be visible at once without having to scroll down too much. I'm sure that most members are not only interested in a photograph of a ship but also in the details and history of a certain vessel, so please let the whole description be shown at once like it is with the existing version. In the beta-version every detailed description is squeezed together and cannot be read in context - this is completely unacceptable in my opinion.

On the front page of the new version can be read : THE BEST Ship Information and Shipphotos. So let these information be well presented and seen at the first glance...

A further point is the background colour, it should be balanced and only have a small amount of white to be comfortable for the eyes. The pale blue of the current website version is a very good option which isn't too strenous for the eyes. Please consider this very important health factor as well.

Principally the current website is excellent in my view, so please do not change everything just to make changes. Each and every change should be an improvement to the existing and well proven website and this approach should be taken in consideration permanently because it is the key to a succesful new version of this site.

With the introduction of the beta-version planned for next monday already (or for the 27th of February ?) it looks like no more opinions from members want to be taken into account. I'm quite sure that most members aren't aware of the imminent change to a new version, it seems as if they should not be heard too much. Many members are employed and have little time during the week to consider the new beta-version. Please wait at least another week before deploying the new version to give all members a fair chance to react. Starting the new version hastily and without appropriate coordination with admins and members isn't a good start.

It would be very regrettable if the current succesful website concept would be ended without getting an improved version.

Please make sure that it is possible to return to the current version if the new concept has too many shortcomings and would be a deterioration of what the shipspotting community has now.

Once again many thanks to you and your team for your efforts up to now.

Best regards, Hans

[Hugo Vieira]

I would like to see the photo dimensions with each image.
I am only interested in high res photos so would not need to open to actual size only to find that it os quite small

Tony, thank you for you suggestion, we will add it to the development roadmap and take it into consideration how to best implement it.

[Hugo Vieira]

May I remind the IT-group, admin-team and members to this topic:

http://forum.shipspotting.com/index.php/topic,16836.0.html
...

Pieter, thank you for reminding us of this. We will review it soon, and add any pertaining features/suggestions/bug fixes to the development roadmap.

[Hugo Vieira]

...
And maybe because of the beta-version: indexing is not tuned yet; after upload all three photo's came back different. It were not my photo's but with my text /details, etc.

@Pieter I, did the same, no need to scroll down, 27 inch screen. The photo that came up was not the one I posted.

Pieters 
This issue has been fixed, now you should be able to see your uploaded photos