Move icons/labels off of photos

Feature Requests
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1

Not a feature exactly, more of a design request. Many of us (especially insect observers) tightly crop our photos as squares to make them more easily viewable on the site and to make a better thumbnail image showing the whole insect close-up. In a few areas of the site and app though overlaying site images (labels and links) are applied that can cover up key parts of the photos.

On the observation page the copyright/flag/info button often covers up key parts of the photo like the markings on this moth’s wing tips. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/91644860

When using the compare/identify popup on observations like the one above when there are multiple photos, the photo selection overlay band covers up the bottom section of the photo as well. When using the default zoom feature to zoom in I am unable to move the cursor far enough down to even see that part of the image because once I move my pointer down to that area it switches from the zoom pointer to the selection pointer. So the only way to see that bottom section of the photo is to open it full size in another pop-up. It seems like just moving the photo selector bar to below the photo instead of overlaying it would solve that problem. If this aspect is an actual bug and not the way it is intended to work… I’m using the latest Opera browser with Windows 10.

In the Android app using the explore tab also shows the label overlaying the thumbnail images with a slightly shaded background covering up part of the image. If the text label was below the image with a solid background color it might be easier to read the text on small screens as well I think.

Again, not really a feature or a bug, but a very small design tweak that I think would solve some minor annoyances.

2

For visibility and aesthetics it would be nice to have the copyright/flag/info button element as one that is only active on hover.

5 Likes
3

I don’t run into this problem, as I simply right-click on the image and open it in a new tab, free of distractions and able to zoom in a lot further.

4

I do that too as a workaround. I just thought this would be a simple improvement from a design and usability standpoint. When using the compare/identify popup it is nice to be able compare images on the left and right side and zoom into both images. That multiple photo selector blocks the ability to zoom into the bottom of the photos on both sides of the compare tool. To open both images in new windows, tile them, and then zoom in, then close them both to go back to the popup is taking extra unnecessary steps. Although one plus to doing it that way and bypassing the compare tool is that the zoomed in location doesn’t move when you move your cursor like it does when using the compare/identify popup. I think changing the way the zoom works there would be a big improvement as well.

1 Like