[wp-meta] [Making WordPress.org] #1828: Improve Screenshots section

[Making WordPress.org]

#1828: Improve Screenshots section
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 Reporter:  samuelsidler      |       Owner:  mapk
     Type:  task              |      Status:  assigned
 Priority:  high              |   Milestone:  Plugin Directory v3 - M7
Component:  Plugin Directory  |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                    |
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Comment (by kevinwhoffman):

 Thanks @obenland for your work in creating the prototype. Now we can get a
 more definitive answer as to whether this user experience with the slider
 is better than the existing vertical stack . After testing many plugin
 pages with the new slider, I am confident it is not better due in large
 part to the complexity of handling variable-height screenshots. I find
 myself constantly scrolling up and down to navigate the slider and view
 all portions of screenshots. I also worry that the suggested improvements
 will actually introduce new obstacles.

 > 2) Would prefer the thumbnails to be at the top so that navigating
 between images is always in the same place regardless of the height of the
 image.

 While this would keep the thumbnails in a static position on the page, it
 would move the UI even farther away from conventional expectations.
 Separating contextual elements like thumbnails and captions at opposite
 ends of the slider seems counterproductive and would only increase the
 amount of up-down scrolling required to use all aspects of the slider.

 I'd also note the thumbnails are not aesthetically pleasing. This is not
 by any fault of the design, but rather the nature of the images (which has
 been covered before). Thumbnails are often jumbled blocks of text of
 varying aspect ratios. They could be cleaned up a bit by hard cropping to
 a consistent size, but overall they feel sloppy. I would not want that
 strip of thumbnails being the first visual impression of my plugin.

 > 4) Still think a lightbox on click would be really beneficial since even
 at this full-width size some screenshots are going to have a lot more
 detail which might get overlooked at this size.

 I agree, but like @jb510 I don't think the merits of a lightbox are
 dependent upon the presence of a slider.

 At this point I feel we should take a step back and be honest with
 ourselves. Is this screenshot experience better than what we have now?
 After giving it a solid chance, I feel strongly it is not. I'd love to say
 that we can improve it to the point where it is better, but short of
 having all authors reformat their screenshots to a consistent size, I
 don't see a path forward where a slider results in a better experience
 than the vertical stack.

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Ticket URL: <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/1828#comment:51>
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