A photo tour without Flash/Quicktime
A photo tour without Flash/Quicktime
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.
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
- Alan Knighting
- Posts: 4120
- Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
- Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France
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!
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
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!
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!
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 like the idea very much - is it very hard to do?
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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