A photo tour without Flash/Quicktime

Get some feedback on your site or ad from other rental owners and techies. Also a library of online resources so you can make DIY improvements to your web presence.
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vrooje
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Location: Burgundy, France

A photo tour without Flash/Quicktime

Post by vrooje »

Hi everyone,

I need your help!

I've been working with a friend who owns an apartment in Paris -- I built his website for him (there are lots of similarities to our own website).

He has expressed interest in a virtual tour, but doesn't want people to have to download extra software. We decided to try and use a clickable floor plan.

I have a draft of it up and running:

http://www.experienceparis.com/fp.php

Will you let me know what you think? I want to know what works for you and what doesn't, and any way you think I could improve this.

Eventually I want to use something like this on our own website, so I really want to do this right!

Thanks. :)
Brooke
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roxytoo
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Post by roxytoo »

yes, works very well for me and very quickly so was quite surprised!!!

on another note for me anyway the lack of a 'real' lounge would put me off renting but thats another story and not something you were asking! The site as a whole looks great!
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

It works well for me, if a little slow, considering I have broadband - maybe 6 seconds for a pic to appear.

Another cracking site Brooke, good to see you picked the right picture for the homepage (I knew you would, just checking!)
Paolo
Lay My Hat
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Alan Knighting
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Post by Alan Knighting »

Brooke,

I'm on 1.2mb broadband. The floor plan is a little slow to load. Once it does, the individual pictures load quickly.

Regards

Alan
Clexane
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Post by Clexane »

Looks good and it works in Firefox as well.

It was really fast with me but I am on 8mb broadband 8)

Nice work!!!
So you wanted a holiday home in france ...

www.villaemmanuelle.com
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

Interesting...

I think the floor plan is slow to load because it's actually a mosaic of sliced images (so that I could use javascript to do a simple image swap to turn the triangles red and blue). Each image is tiny, but there are a lot of them. I could have just made a big image and used an image map, but I really wanted to be able to highlight the triangles so that people would know what room they're looking in.

The other images are supposed to load when the page loads, so that they show up right away when you click the triangles. Interesting that they didn't for everyone. I'll try to optimize them some more.

Thanks!

I worked on this site after getting reviews on our site from you Lay My Hatters, so really this site has a lot of your touches in it! :)
Brooke
alexia s.
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Post by alexia s. »

Brooke,
On my iBook the photos (& the floor plan) appear in less than a second - Mac rules! (.....they're the best visitors, too.)
Best,
Alexia.
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Ciapolin
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Post by Ciapolin »

Well I'm on slow-as-you-can dial up, and everything appeared really quickly - a couple of seconds tops.

I love the idea, although I'm not sure the quality of the pictures does the place justice (again, not sure that was your question).

I tend to avoid tours on sites because generally my pc can't cope - but this works brilliantly! You are clever!
Carole-Anne
Cascina Ciapolin
www.piedmont-holidays.com
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Tried again today on the pics I hadn't clicked yesterday and it is much faster, under 2 seconds per pic. Must have been a temporary slowdown at my end.
Paolo
Lay My Hat
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enid
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Post by enid »

Another slow connection feedback - worked well - not all photos loaded onfirst click but were very fast after that. I like the idea very much - is it very hard to do?
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

I like the idea very much - is it very hard to do?
Actually, no, it was very easy! I mean, it's a bit harder than typing a paragraph in HTML, but it's far simpler than a full flash or QT virtual tour! For the techies out there, it's a simple javascript on-click image swap. The vast majority of browsers and operating systems have this technology available by default, so virtually anyone should be able to use it.

I was thinking about how I could offer this to laymyhatters. I can't figure out a way of packaging this easily, though, so that e.g. someone could just download it, type in their filenames, and go. Everybody's floor plan will be different, so I don't think it can be that easy.

I could post a step-by-step in the Personal Websites section, if there's enough interest.

I re-checked the floor plan downloads in Firefox and in IE -- the page loaded quickly in Firefox, but IE took forever to download each individual floor plan image. Firefox wins again! :)

As an aside, I quite agree that some of the photos really aren't up to snuff -- especially the bedroom photo with the rumpled covers! My Mom and her sister did just stay there, though, and said it was very nice. I'll be recommending that the owner hire a professional photographer or at least re-take some of the photos.

Thanks, everyone!
Brooke
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

I could post a step-by-step in the Personal Websites section, if there's enough interest.
I don't want to put you to any trouble, but I would be interested in seeing how it is done.
Paolo
Lay My Hat
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enid
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Post by enid »

So would I - please, please!!
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

Excellent idea :D
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

Instructions posted in the personal websites section!

viewtopic.php?t=841
Brooke
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