This would be typically as follows:

1. Sign Up: A new user signs up for the web application from a desktop computer. Here the user provides her / his name, email, cell-phone number; creates project folders and groups of persons who will have access to these folders. Here's a mock-up of this screen.
   
   Interactions/ design decisions:
   
   • The application is designed so that the person creating the Project folders is considered Administrator for the upkeep of these folders, with the right to edit & delete folders, add, delete or edit group members;
   
   
   • Persons added as group members to the Project folders have the right to upload & view pictures therein, but can delete only the pictures they personally have uploaded.
     
   • All pictures are private, non-public. The pictures can be shared with designated group members, but not with the public at large.
     
     
     
2. Upload photos: There are two possible scenarios here:
   
   One, the user takes a picture/s with a camera-phone, & uploads directly from the phone to the web server.
   
   Interactions/ design decisions:
   
   • The application to facilitate the process of uploading from the camera-phone to the web server will reside on the phone itself. It will permit uploading of a picture/s, an audio file that provides a description of the context of the picture, & a text area to attach various tags to the same.
     I am exploring various options for doing this from cell-phones: XHTML, WAP, J2ME etc.
   • User can edit each picture (size, clarity) while retaining the original.


Two, user takes picture with a digital camera, transfers the pictures to her desktop, & uploads to the server.

Interactions/ design decisions:

• The user logs in to the web application & follows the instructions for uploading. Audio option?
  
• User can edit each picture (size, clarity) while retaining the original.
  
  
  Mock-up of screen
  
  
  
3. Browse photos:
   
   Browsing would be possible in all or some of the following ways:
   
   1. By date
   2. By projects
   3. By tags
   4. By author
   
   Option 1:
   Display of this information: Spatial as well as time-based. ( Click on July2002 in the map below to see the time-based interaction; & clicking on the orange dots in the extreme left of the largest blue rectangle shows how each individual picture can be brought to the fore. )
   
   
   
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5. Option 2:




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Pictures taken are displayed as tiny images set into the blueprint for that project precisely at the location they are representing, & clicking on those tiny thumbnails would bring up the full image. I am not too much in favor of this option for the following reasons:

1. Architects may not really see much value in this: any moderately-capable architect will know, by looking at a picture, where it really belongs to on a site. The analogy could be made about giving a doctor an image of a skeleton, clicking on which would bring up different details of different bones in the body. A doctor worth his salt will simply know by looking a say a tibia, where it belongs. The mapping might be simply superfluous.

2. The technical detail of how each picture will be mapped to its precise coordinates on a blueprint. Aside from the fact that any major project will have a number of blueprints associated with it, GPS coordinates will not really help in this kind of mapping. So how will it be done?

Option 3:


This would be the conventional drop-down list allowing for search results to be displayed according to date, or project, or author etc. On making the choice, a conventional album-type of display reveals all the thumbnails, clicking on any of these brings up the bigger picture.

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Go to application

November 17, 2004