apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

it's really not bad.

In the new version, I would love it if the next button would stay in the same place so I could just swap through photos quickly. The old one was really bad with this. =)

"Totally sucks big donkey nuts"

That's the funniest thing I've ever read here.

It's not bad, but I preferred the black background, agree with the comment regarding the "next" button staying in one place, and recall that at one point a viewer could fine-tune the speed of the slide show. From the choices for voting we've been given it seems as if you guys aren't too thrilled either, so I'm left wondering why there was a need to change things in the first place? For the apartment slide shows, could you let the owners also accompany the pictures with the music they listen to?

in addition to the buttons staying in the same place — i'd like to see the pictures without the heavy black frame.

Does the gallery come with the puppy? Then I'm all for whatever you do.

i liked the old photo size options. love going straight to a thumbnail page. couldn't get the full size photos in this new gallery just now.

I too preferred the black background, but what really bothers me now is the giant white AT logo block which seems to be occupying way more screen real estate than it needs to be (given its function). I'm sure some of that has to do with balancing against the size of the ad, but it just looks a little too "Web 1995" as we say at work.

IMO, it has nothing to do with the size of the screen - it's the fact that the flash ads appear to make it nearly impossible for the photos to download.

On my [extremely!] small screen I have to scroll down every time I go to the next picture in order to view the whole image. Is there any way to address that? It seems like the "Apartment Therapy" box at the top is taking up a lot of space. I also agree that a black background is preferable.

no... it is bad! (no offense) It's seems to be slower to load, wonky design, a fair amount of wasted space at the top, layout issues for people with screens smaller than 1024 x 768.
Also, can't remember if your old gallery had this or not.. but there should be some instructions on the next back thing. For those who didn't know you can hit the right and left arrows on your keyboard to go next and back instead of clicking the thumbnail images. That's a really nice touch and you should totally keep that - just make it more apparent for users that they can do that.
I'm sure your new gallery will be fabulous though.

I don't see anything wrong with it at all. I actually prefer the white background.

When the gallery is on my screen, I have to scroll down the screen to see the bottom of the photo. Then, when I click "next" I have to scroll down again (it doesn't stay in the same place and I have to keep adjusting to see the full picture). The first time I used this new set-up I gave up 3 pictures in. I liked being able to choose the smaller picture option in the old version so I wouldn't have to do that.

Can't stand it. I agree with jojippitydrum...it seems as if you reverted to an old version rather than upgrading. I can't name a single improvement. I say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The old format (with the black background) was so much better.

It kind of sucks too because so many of the comments on some of the most recent house tours had nothing to do with the home at all, but with the slideshow. Totally detracted from the purpose of the tours.

ALSO, half of the ones I tried to look at I didn't even get halfway through, because either it was loading too slowly or the format was too bulky and distracting.

I think the black background is so much better than the white because it allows you to really get a feel for the home. The white is just too distracting.

Just giving you (lots of) my feedback! (hey, don't say you didn't ask!)

How about using a 60% grey for the background color? I think it's much easier on the eyes and less distracting than white or black.

The problems are not limited to those with smaller screens. I'm using a 1920x1200 monitor, and it's still annoying. jojippitydrum hit the nail on the head with the "Web 1995" comment!

I am not as bothered by it as I am by the fact that now I can't get past the front page of the website using Safari, my browser of choice. I get a "400 Bad Request" error message whenever I try to read more or see comments or follow a hyperlink. Dunno whether that's related to this redesign or what.

One thing the new gallery MUST have is links back to the original post AND the home page. Thanks for asking!

Prefer black to white. Apartment therapy rectangle is TOO BIG. It was loading WAY TO SLOW before.

In the past three years the design of the site has gone from GOOD to OKAY to BAD.

This is the only site I look at that "goes down" on a pretty regular basis.

hehehe -- donkey nuts!! hehehe

I voted for "What's the Gallery?" because I'm a bit slow, eh. Now I get it. Yes, the gallery kinda sucks, although I'm not sure about the bestiality part.

donkey nuts...you killed me!

"slideshow" has yet to work on either my mac or pc and the thumbnails load veeerrrryyy sssslloooowwwly, so i said sorta sucks (medium donkey nut)

Slideshows look best in black or in #CCCC99 or #999966.

You guys need some SERIOUS help with the gallery. I mean... have you even LOOKED at the gallery or did you just throw it up there?

It's a fixed width centering, that doesn't even look good if my monitor resolution were that small anyway.
There's a big ol' empty box with a tiny AT image and a button. Do you really need a huge box for just that? No. You don't.

The thick black borders around the photos are a no. Either a light gray (just to make it stand out), a thinner (no bigger than 2px!) black border, or a thin black border with some whitespace to create a "faux-matte."

I have faith that the original design idea for the gallery was super awesome, you just have a lot of formatting issues that make it totally suck big donkey nuts. :)

And if it helps, I'm looking at it on Firefox 2.0.0.14 (Mac) on a 1280x800 display.

the top bar is way too huge, and the ad is super annoying in the corner there. it would be nice if the image were to display right at the top of the page, instead of farther down, so i don't have to scroll down every time i click through to the next photo. (as a force of habit, i usually end up hitting the space bar to scroll down, which brings me to the next page in the slideshow. arg!)

More and more, I find I'd rather just go to Flickr AT pages than AT itself. Plus Flickr groups like "Pretty Organized" or the like.

i'm so sorry to be negative, but i was trying to view the finalists and other house tours and it's impossible ...

Yeah, it's sucky. But I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who thought so! I vote for a grey background, but
I'd put up with either white or black if there wasn't any scrolling to view the pictures.

I agree with Joan in SB, I didn't even view 50% of the smallest coolest entries on time because I couldn't deal with the gallery. A non-gallery, but Smallest Coolest comment is can't you put the 5 images into the original post like I think you use to do one or two years ago? It's so much easier to browse through, I don't need a slideshow for 5 images that are properly sized and a floorplan, and with the gallery I don't end up viewing all of the images because I don't feel like clicking individually.

Another thing I wonder is, in the gallery, can you have it so that viewing multiple images doesn't create multiple pages, but is embedded in one page? If I click next 10 times, I have to hit back 10 times to get back to the post or anything I was viewing before it. It'd be nice to just hit 'back' and go back to the post.

Bad bad bad. I have a small screen and a slow processor and it is getting nearly impossible to view these galleries. I'm developing other internet habits. You might lose me if you don't change it soon. Seriously.

My husband is installing a new process for me later this week but my screen's not getting any bigger any time soon.

I LOVE apartmenttherapy. I HATE the new gallery.

I don't care what color the background is, and I don't usually have a size issue since I view AT mostly at work and have a huge arse monitor there.

But I do have a severe problem with how slow it loads. It was slow before, but now it's awful. After two "View Slideshow" attempts, I stopped looking at slideshows completely. On my work connection, no single image should ever take that long to load.

On my computer, when I click "view slideshow", nothing happens. I'm stuck on the first photo. So, sucks donkey nuts. Can't wait for the new design.

The good: I like the link back to the original post. I'm so glad you added that. I also prefer the white background, and like being linked to thumbnails rather than the slideshow, because I often open the album in a new tab and save it for later. (Although I'm also okay with the link going to the first picture--not 8th or 24th like it mysteriously does sometimes.)

The irritating: I could do without the big black border on the photos. And I miss that the photos were centered before.

The awful: If I'm looking at photos, I do not like animated ads. Especially when they're almost the same size as the photo! The giant AT header is clunky. It takes up a third of my screen (although it might be better for others, who knows). It looks like you're trying to keep the useful links grouped together, but I'd rather have large photos. The vertical shots really lose their impact when they're shrunk to fit the screen. (And please don't go back to photos so large I need to scroll down for them!)

I'm glad you're trying to improve the gallery, and I'm looking forward to the final design!

Yes the temporary gallery is really bad! Since the ads are so huge I'm actually having to scroll down to see the picture. I've seen posts where the next button isn't even there. The white background is distracting. If this was your new gallery I would never look at another house tour again, which is kind of sad. I enjoy taking a look at how others have set up their homes.

Suggestions: I agree about the next button staying in the same place

A link back to the original post would be great too.

Ditto the comments about having to scroll down to see the pictures on every. single. page. It's incredibly annoying and is making me just not look at house tours, which is the main reason I read AT.

I also preferred the black background, but the dealbreaker for me is the ridiculously inconvenient layout.

First day I saw the white, I thought NOOOOOO, ugh, that sucks!
Then I happened to pop back into a tour later and it was black, and I said, PHEW! What a relief it's black again!
Then I saw white AGAIN and I am very sad to see it's stayed. Blergh.

I don't know why but I really prefer the black. As if the background receeds and I can easily focus in on the rooms.