Sketch Fest improvements... with question!

[ellenmillion]

http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/sketchfest/sketchfestartist.php?id=9

Is it too obnoxious to list Sketch Fest #1 first? Should I list them in reverse order? Should the finished work come first, or last?

Thoughts?


Making that change was a little trickier than it looks because it involves making a different kind of date tracking system... it was previously set up very manually; I honestly never expected to use the site for this long, so I didn't make it as expandable as I should from the beginning. This gives me the framework to do a great deal more, so it was worth taking a little extra time to do it right.

I have also fixed the prompts page that sorts by prompters so that it shows prompters who aren't registered - that was a tricky one! Who's bright idea was it to allow people to register or not as they chose? Oh, that was me...

Comments

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

Feels somehow tricky. I like that the chronological order means you can track how a participant's sketches changed (and hopefully improved ;), and if it's chronological, the "Finished Works" at the bottom makes a lot of sense, but I think having the images in different orders in different parts of the page is confusing.

We have the sketch wall, the artist page, the prompt page, and the pager(next and previous links, and as it is new images are on the left on the wall and prompt page, but on the right on the artist page and pager... To pick one, I'd go with "new pics at the left" in all places, because it's most convenient when youi're checking new images on the Wall.

By the way, is there a link somewhere to the site where you can see which sketches you sold? I wanted to check something there (Shouldn't I have $20 in my account?), but couldn't find it.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Yes, there's an admin page where you can see your sales... and I don't appear to have linked to it yet! Good catch! It's here: http://www.ellenmilliongraphics.com/sketchfest/sketchfestadmin.php

I will PM you about your balance.

And... working on getting the reverse chronological order going correctly!

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

[gymnopedie.livejournal.com]

Your numbers are wrong.

Mine lists July 2011 and uh... I didn't know I had a time machine ;) Should be June - sketch fest 15. was sitting here trying to figure out where I was last month when I know I'd done it, when I saw it said Sketch Fest #16 (July, 2011)

[pixiewildflower.livejournal.com]

I like chronological order...most obsessive/compulsive people like me would see that the most natural way.

[marrael.livejournal.com]

Dang. If finished work is going to be on the artist page, my sketches are going to outnumber the finished works by a lot. ;)

I like chronological order for images (but I think I would like it consistent with the sketch wall, with newest top and left). I also noted that the big fancy header text (for the previous sketchfest dates) adds a lot of scrolling. I love the font, but maybe put the dates to the left of the thumbnails and left-justify instead of centering the images? (I have a lazy scrolling finger.) Finished work could stay centered, and I have no preferences for it at the bottom or top of the page (top of the page *feels* more natural to me though).

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Heh. Finished work was on the page already, but all mixed in so you couldn't really tell the difference.

Hmm. Shall play with something smaller/more compact.

[redokapi.livejournal.com]

Reverse chronological is nice because the newer (and hopefully better) stuff is at the top where it's more visible. This is useful if someone wants to "check in" and see what new stuff an artist has done recently (or for the most recent fest), so they don't have to scroll all the way to the bottom (which is a loooong way for some artists). I don't know if anyone actually *uses* the Sketchfest site this way tho.

I could see several possibilities for Finished Work. The top or the bottom is fine. I kinda prefer the top, because I like having the "better" stuff more visible. However, given that Sketchfest is really more about the sketches, maybe the bottom is better. It might also be neat to have it in a column along the right-hand side, or even have it's own page.

[jenny heidewald (from livejournal.com)]

Please, please, please don't change it to put the oldest stuff at the top! Fresh is best for the top. <:) I need to load everything to another site so I can obsessively put them in order with the finished works as well. :D Every time I go through the physical cards I do that as well. :) Looking good! I am pacing myself tomorrow, but I have 40 blank ACEOs, just in case... ;)

[kelkyag]

I prefer newest first; finished work at the bottom (maybe with a link at the top) is as reasonable to me as anything.

The page you link to has your most recent work from sketchfest #15 labeled as sketchfest #14. (I did not thumb through all of them to see where the off-by-one error snuck in.)

The "prompts left" section confuses me, as at least on your page, it seems to be a scattering of prompts from different sketchfests. Is it supposed to be that, or all prompts ever, or prompts from the most recent sketchfest?

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

In reversing the chronology, I'm now off on all months, alas (except 1)... need to figure out how to remedy that! I may need to change my dating system a tad.

The prompts are all prompts ever... so people can look back and remember if they left that prompt yet or not.

[kelkyag]

The prompts should go at the very bottom, then, and be compact, as they may get very long indeed. Is the "inspired by" page for the prompt-leaver only? (That is, can only I see the page of sketches responding to my prompts?)

And another thing!

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

Again for consistency: The borders marking something as for sale.

On the Artist pages and Wall they are red and solid if the pic's for sale for anyone, red and dashed if it's on hold.

On the "See what you've inspired!" page it's red and dashed if for sale.

On the Prompts pages there's a note saying a thick border marks something for sale, but those borders don't actually show up.

Re: And another thing!

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Oh, hm. Yes, I should standardize those, for sure! Thanks for catching it!