"images" Vs. "galleries"

Hi, Mallory,

I go back and forth on this. My mind craves the organization of 'Galleries', but I sometimes like to immediately see a variety of images, especially if that first page is well-maintained and pleasing to the eye!

For a while, I was using 'Galleries' here and 'Images' on my AW -- trying to get the best of both worlds.

I'll watch this thread to see what other artists think about the Galleries/Images Conundrum! :-)

EDIT TO ADD: I see you're a 'Newbie' -- welcome to FAA!

On my website I use the shopping cart widget.That means I have no choice, because there is (still) no gallery view. On my AW, I use the gallery view.

I think it depends on 2 things:

1. How many pictures you have! With only a few pictures, it make no sense to put them in different galleries. If you have many pictures, and people have to go through too many pages, you maybe loose them.
2. Different subjekts or styles! Depending on what you do, it can make sense to use galleries for different locations, color, black and white, subjects, etc

Colin Utz
http://colinutzphotography.com

With over 1800 images I have my default set to galleries. Since all your images are on one page I would set your default to images.

i have close to 3000 images now. expecting anyone to wade through all of that spells death for a store. i have a store like that now, and i don't get nearly the volume of sales i do here. when you only have 19 images, there is little point in having galleries.i would start them in images instead. but if you start jumping around in subject them you should have galleries.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I have it set to images because in the world of UI and UX - it's proven that most people will not take the effort to click more than necessary when viewing a page. In other words, the energy it takes to open up the different galleries is subconsciously too much effort for most (sad truth).

That said, I also have galleries (of course). I am nearing 400 images at this point so I personally like the organization. But my default will remain images and I make sure to curate which images of mine show up on the first page always (very strategic about that).

If you have a lot of images, galleries makes it easier for the buyer to navigate in my opinion. Most shoppers know somewhat what they are looking for and they don't want to go through pages and pages of images. You could lose them. If you don't have very many images, I agree that images default would be fine.

From marketing point of view, Vivienne may be right. In the world of UI people behave in a way the traditional psychology sometimes can not explain. But I still like to organize my pictures by galleries.

With a low image total, ie less than a page worth, it would be images every time.

With 26 hundred images, I go galleries. Someone from Wilmington (NC) doesn't care that much about the really cool Alabama images I just uploaded. Someone looking from Pensacola doesn't want to see images from NYC. (Or not right away.) If you are a fan of mine from NYC then you want to see the NY images, etc etc.

I will add, how I arrange those images and what image is used as the icon for the gallery is given a lot of thought.

My ad campaign and current new work is mostly Florida so those galleries are high. Best selling areas also get put high. I sell a lot of Boston images BUT only have 28 and the best sellers are readily available in a search so it goes lower because of its size. I really do put a lot of thought in those first rows. Oh, the image showing on the Florida gallery is the one on the current ad as is my centerpiece in the local gallery. As I shoot more of Auburn and take out ads there, that gallery will be prominent.

I've been torn by this question ever since I joined the site. I've even changed from one to the other once or twice. I believe at the moment I have the default set to images. My own personal reasoning is this... My latest work is my best work, not only for content, but for size and quality. If a visitor is interested in my work overall, they can still go to the gallery sections available for something more specific to their desires.

I have fewer than 50 images atm but I still put them in galleries and I make it the default tab. But as others have said, I also select my cover images and arrange the galleries. I also put each photo into as many galleries as they fit. In fact, according to my galleries I have 145 images.

People look for specific things and they do not want to click through many pages to find it. Therefore images only makes sense with two or three pages. With more its definitely galleries.

I think the FAA default is images, which may be one of the reasons you see so many users defaulting to them.

I used to have my default set to galleries. However, I grew dissatisfied with how FAA displays the gallery thumbnails -- they.don't have the visual impact of an image. I've since changed my default to images. However, I still ensure that every image is placed into it's proper gallery so visitors can easily browse by category.

Hello Mallory, good discussion its back and forth I generally place my sellers first on images page and then some of my interesting photos it depends which ever chose images wgich varry in colors eye catchers. Good luck with desiging and using the right format for your images....

Cheers, Michael Hoard.Principal Actor, Artist
, Photographer.and Writer