Description of need:
When using the Identify tool, the “Suggestions” tab provides a quick way to assess potential identifications. However, it only displays a handful of default photos for each suggested taxon. These few images may not be representative of the observation being identified (e.g., they might show flowers when the observation is of leaves or a different life stage/sex).
To confidently confirm or reject a suggestion, an identifier often has to open the full taxon page in a new browser tab to see more photos. This interrupts the identification workflow, making the process slower and less efficient, especially when identifying many observations in a session. This feature would allow for faster, more confident identifications directly within the Identify interface.
Feature request details:
My proposal is to enhance the taxon preview pane that appears when you click on a suggested species in the Identify tool.
Current Functionality:
When a user clicks a taxon in the “Suggestions” tab, a panel appears showing basic information and a static row of usually 4-6 photos for that taxon.
Proposed Functionality:
Make the row of taxon photos in this panel scrollable. When a suggested taxon is selected, the interface would load more than just its default photos (e.g., display more research-grade observation photos). The user could then scroll horizontally through these images using arrow buttons, a scrollbar, or mouse-wheel scrolling.
This would allow identifiers to quickly view a wider variety of images (different angles, life stages, key features) without ever leaving the Identify modal. This small change would significantly improve the efficiency of the identification process.
I approved this for discussion but I wanted to added some notes:
if you’re using “Visually similar” as the Source in the Suggestions tab, iNat will show you the taxon photo that’s most visually similar to the default photo of the observation in question.
If you click on a suggestion, you’re taken to a view of that taxon in the Suggestions tab that allows you to view all taxon photos for the taxon. Yes, that’s limited to 12, but I suspect for most taxa that’s adequate, as long as the photos are curated well (and the proper suite of photos is available)
If the life stage I want to see to compare, is not among the 12 taxon pictures - I try to find a good and RG picture to add. That is why I add, or reorder, taxon pictures - I use them. Which sidetracks me to adding annotations so that life stage is easier to find. Caterpillars?
I don’t think this would be very effective. The taxon photos are (usually) well focused, full frame photos showing the organism. Most research grade photos are lower quality than the taxon photos, so showing a large number of them in the small boxes allowed by the suggestions tab would just lead to a slow work flow anyway. When I need to find photos that show features that I can’t find in the taxon photos, I usually need to either filter for photos annotated with that feature, or scroll through pages of photos before I find what I need.
That’s a great way to look at it, and I think you’re right. This approach turns a personal identification challenge into a motivation to improve the taxon photo set for the next person. It’s a community-driven solution that works well within the current system.
