After playing around with Microsoft’s Surface, I couldn’t get their photo viewing application out of my head. I love the fact that you can move photos around as if they were on a table top. It got me thinking if this same concept could be delivered online. So last night I started playing around with a way to do something similar online.
The Concept is Still in Diapers
Before I give you the link, let me first give you a few disclaimers… The demo page is not the final result but only a proof of concept. Obviously, it’s not quite ready for prime time. After all, I just developed this last night and am sharing it with the Active Rain community first!
Because I just created this, I have not yet coded it to work in all browsers. So if you have Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox, then you’re in luck. For those still using Internet Explorer 6, you’ll probably just see a choppy mess.
Give It a Try
You can try out the concept on this page. I setup a few test for you to interact with. Click and drag the images around. You will notice that that page conforms to the way you want it. You can also see how the interface disappears so you can interact however you want (much the same way you would if there were a group of photos spread out on a table top.)
Zooming In On a Photo
I also gave one image the ability to zoom in and out. Just grab the photo of the empty dining room (For this demo, this is the only image with the ability to zoom). You can zoom in and out by holding the shift key down as you click and move your mouse. Granted, holding the shift key down is not “intuitive” but I just needed something quick for the purpose of this concept.
How It Works
The actual functionality is pretty simple. One important thing to note is that it uses absolutely no Flash! Instead it’s simple CSS and JavaScript.
Expanding on the Concept
How can this be expanded? A few ideas come to mind…
- All photos could have the ability to zoom in and out.
- The ability for visitors to organize and save “layouts” of their favorite photos.
- The ability to dynamically pull in comparable data of multiple homes (this would allow the visitor to arrange the photo and data however they see fit.
- Photos would contain a “tab” links to more information about that particular photo.
What Do You Think?
While I love the concept, I am still trying to think about how this can best be used to add value to the consumer? Or would simply the “wow” factor be a selling point for Home Sellers? I would love to hear your feedback. Is this concept of giving the visitor more control the future of websites? Do you see something like this going mainstream?
Update: Maureen Henry had a great idea to put the demo directly in this post using an inline frame. Great thinking. See below... Remember, If you are using Internet Explorer 6, then it will not render correctly, as of right now, this only works in IE7 and Firefox.
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