I’ve been trying to help ID CNC photos over the past few days, and it seems to me that a lot of the mis-identifications come from users not going beyond the tiny thumbnails in the suggestions list - often these look “identical” to the organism observed…until you click through to the taxon page.
Would it be advantageous if, when an observation is identified, the identifier is shown the image being identified side by side with the default taxon photo, at a size that makes potential differences more identifiable?
I imagine this being accompanied by a “Does this look like (or “Are you certain that this is…”) the organism you observed?” message with a yes/no choice before the ID is accepted. (Like the “Is the evidence provided enough to confirm…” message that pops up for “potential Disagreements”.)
The “No” choice might return the user to the suggestions list, but add a more general category at the top, e.g. “plants”; “spiders”.
It would probably only work for species level IDs, as the higher categories obviously contain species that will look very different from the default image.
It should be a default system that can also be turned off. Slowing down the ID process for less knowledgeable identifiers (like myself) is advantageous to increasing accuracy. I’m guessing that expert identifiers, on the other hand, would find it an irritation.
Perhaps a “View more images of this species” choice would also be useful.
It would be good to have a system like this for new identifiers, with the more streamlined system becoming available after they’d completed some number of identifications.
How would you feel about having this available as a pop-up when the user clicks on the thumbnail image, so that it is flexible (on-demand) for various ID situations?
Yes, I think a pop-up would be the way to go, but perhaps a stripped down version of that page to make it really simple for new, inexperienced users and identifiers.
Just to make sure I understand you here, are you referring to the Identify page, or are you referring to ID suggestions when one makes a new observation?
How hard is it to keep the original image visible when working through identifications? A pop-up or even make the individual identification enlarge to a full page instead of the miniature icon that disappears when you look at the options. Ridiculous! I feel like half of my wrong identifications are because I didn’t have the original to compare to the options and the other because I forgot what the ID was in the first place. I spend hours going through pictures and by the time I am ready to post them, I am exhausted. I have good stuff, but if you think that I don’t know the difference between a Snowy Egret and a white phase Reddish Egret there is something wrong with the way things are set up. Bad IDs are embarrassing and bad for the system because somebody who doesn’t know but is in a hurry to be the first to verify/identify an image will agree just to get there first, and now you have wrong identification that is considered Research Grade!
It’s an easy fix. When you click on the species name, open the page with your picture on the left and the suggestions on the right with pictures big enough to use for identification purposes. You already open a new page when you click on the view option! But guess what, no original picture to compare it to.