See a view of your books that has author picture + cover pictures

This is building off of
http://www.librarything.com/topic/104553

but I didn't want to sidetrack the thread.

Basically, it'd be a cool view (edit: as in optional, something you could choose, not something forced upon you, etc.) of your catalog to be able to see:

(Edit: better screenshots below)












Of course, with fancy flyovers or caption in the image for the author name, etc. Not sure about all the other fiddly details (like how to handle it getting too wide, clicking for more covers, sorting, etc.) either, but it's just a general concept. No point in going into all kinds of nitty gritty unless Tim shows some interest.

Edit: This could either be a third view in your catalog after List and Covers, or it could be a subview of Covers (with/without grouping by author). If it was a subview of Covers, you could also possibly have a size -+ button for the author images just like you have one for the cover images. That way you could set it exactly how you want.

oh, nice idea

I don't know about Tim's interest, but mine is about zilch. If this is done, it should be an option... as in Opt in to get this kind of view.

In your examples, you didn't show repetitive covers either... yet lots of my books have them because the same covers shown on Amazon.com have often also been uploaded by members. Such a display would quickly get too wide.

Another point to consider: The height of the pictures. In each case here, you've got the author photos shown at a height larger than the cover graphics. IMO, this would look better if the height on all graphics were the same.

> 3

In your examples, you didn't show repetitive covers either...

That was my first reaction,too, but, if I read brightcopy's suggestion correctly, it's for this view to be of your catalog, so I expect you'd simply see whichever cover you have in your catalog display.

I assumed that since its a view of your catalog that the covers would be the ones you've chosen, one per book. I would also assume that it would be another view that you could choose to see, or choose not to see, like list view and cover view.

5. > As long as it's something I can choose not to see, that's great. Even one cover per book is a lot for some authors. Stephen King, for example...

6> I believe it would be one cover per book in your catalog for an author. But that could still be a lot.

3> Grrr, the suggestion was a VIEW for YOUR CATALOG. :D

You know how now you can choose to view by Covers, or to view by List? It's all about options, my friend!

I'm going to go back to the first post and bold some stuff in case anyone else misunderstands.

> 7

Yes! Suppose you were a completist Isaac Asimov fan!

And about "well, what if you have a lot of books by one author?" - that's what I was talking about in nitty gritty details above. It could be pretty easy to set some cutoff limit to only showing X covers, but having a "show all covers" or "more" link if you really wanted to see them all. C'mon, use some imagination, people. :D

That looks pretty good, BC.

Perhaps there could also be the coloured checkmarks to indicate collections.

Or even, and this might be something that could be considered everywhere there are covers as opposed to text, a 2px border in the appropriate checkmark colour.

I like it as a basic idea. If it were ever implemented, I'd hope that the covers would have a little space between them and the author's photo height were the same as the books.

Also, I'm assuming each cover would be a clickable link to the work page and the author's phoo would be a link to the author's page.

But it is a nice idea.

#9 -

I like it as a basic idea. If it were ever implemented, I'd hope that the covers would have a little space between them and the author's photo height were the same as the books.

Also, I'm assuming each cover would be a clickable link to the work page and the author's phoo would be a link to the author's page.

But it is a nice idea.

#9 - If you were an Asimov completist, you'd probably like the option to use a view like this. Maybe it wouldn't be your primary view every time you check on your catalog, but it would be cool.

Here's a few more mockup pictures.

(Just to avoid confusion - I didn't go to the extra effort of mocking up the new button that would be required in addition to List and Covers. So don't see that Covers is selected and think I'm offering this as a replacement for the current cover view. This would either be an entirely new, third, view or an option that's part of the current Covers view.)

Big author pictures:



And with a smaller cover size:



I really like the bigger author pictures, because I think they help make it more obvious that you're starting a new block of covers for another author. But here's a mockup with small author pictures:

Seeing all those versions, I like the middle one the best. Larger author photos, smaller covers. It would make for a very nice catalog view.

Thanks!

And going back to the previous points about if you had a lot of books by one author an author with a lot of books - I think the point is moot now that I have it as a catalog view just like the covers view. You don't worry when looking at your catalog in Covers view that you have a lot by the same author. It's just a flowing view of all your covers, separated by artist. That's we whole point. It's not meant to replace any existing view, but give you another way to browse your (or other members') bookshelves.

Yeah, don't mind this happened as long as it's optional and I never *have* to see it on my catalogue. Don't like at all.

I like this very much. A reminder that human beings write books.

18> Heh, I don't get it. Why would people ever even think a catalog view would be forced on them? When Tim added the Covers view (assuming it wasn't there at launch), were people up in arms because they were terrified he might do away with the List view?

I can't speak for everyone, but there *have* been times where it's been proposed that such-and-such feature happen, and the question of optional, opt-in, etc comes up, and no, it's not optional. Tim *has* implemented features that affect our LT experience with no option to do it any other way (homepage, for example). More then that, often feature-proposals are either option-free or strongly opt-out, and for some reason certain people think that it's okay to not give users knowledge/opinions before changing their LT experience.

I've just had these experiences in the past, so yeah, I get wary when new features are proposed that I don't want to use... My first question/reaction is always "is it optional"?

21> I'm sorry, but I'm starting to get QUITE frustrated. If someone was suggesting that an "F" style be added to the style list in the List view, would you assume that means the "A" style is going away? It's just getting silly. Why would anyone assume that adding another view to the catalog would wipe out your existing choices?

It's getting to the point where I'm wondering if it's worth it to ever suggest anything anymore. What's the point when people are inventing things to disagree with?

Hey, I'm not disagreeing with anything here! I originally said I was fine with it if I didn't have to see it. You asked me questions, and I responded. That's it. I wasn't disgreeing or inventing things here, I was answering your posts! Goodness.

23> I was mainly asking about in terms of a whole new way you view your catalog, not some minor feature here or there. I understand what you mean on that one. But a major feature like this that would be an entirely new view of your catalog... it just didn't make sense to me to worry about that. Hey, don't take me too seriously! I just need to go to bed. Going to do that now. Hope you have a good night. X)

>15 brightcopy:

I would like most mockup #1

Thanks brightcopy

I like this idea in addition to Cover View. I don't want it to replace Cover View, and I realize brightcopy is not suggesting this.

I'd really like to see this. I think it would also encourage people to add author photos, which is always good.

I think opt-out is better. Whenever you log in to your LT account you should be taken to this view and this should only be changed if you go through a really complicated process of reconfiguring your account settings.

By the way, just ignore me.

Well maybe I should add that initially I didn't think I would use this view (even though it looks good and makes sense) but after the second round of mockup pictures I think I might even use it. It looks good.

The problem I see with this is sorting.

Are you wanting to force the author to be the dominant term in the sort order? So that all the Douglas Adams books are always shown together.

I think the default sort would have to be author. But it could also be interesting to sort by the stats end: nationality, gender, number of books, etc.

29> Yup, this would be a view that's sorted on author first. No way around that.

>15 brightcopy: I like the proportionality of the second mock-up. It would hold up, visually speaking, if a user's collection warranted more than 2 rows.

Love this idea! Second example (at 15) is my favorite.