Replace style-screenshot with Preview Button

[kaigou]

Title:
Replace style-screenshot with Preview Button

Area:
customization, backend

Summary:
On the Select Journal / Customize theme pages, where it says "User's Current Theme", turn the image into a preview button for the user's own style.

Description:
Currently, the image is static and doesn't reflect any changes made in the Wizard, which renders it useless (and worse, potentially confusing) once a user's done any significant color/layout changes in the wizard. Also, there's no way to preview changes without going to a separate browser tag/window and reloading.

Retaining the layout/theme names but with a "preview your style" button makes editing a lot easier, because the user would only have to click on the button to get a pop-up screen (same method/function as when you preview potential styles before selection). This would also alleviate the impression that even when one's done a bunch of changes that one's style is still "what's in that picture".

[Possible add'l benefit of implementation but NOT necessarily part of this suggestion, just something to consider: removing the image could allow for three-column setup in that top-most section, with the left column staying as-is, and the middle column listing layout, theme, and the preview button, and the final column listing the additional options. This (I hope) might also reduce the height of that top-section, which would save a lot of time for smaller-screen users who otherwise have to page-down to get back to the page's content, after every save/reload.]

Poll #1744 Replace style-screenshot with Preview Button

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 23

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
12 (52.2%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
4 (17.4%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
1 (4.3%)

(I have no opinion)
6 (26.1%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[ninetydegrees]

I'd rather have both the image and the preview '+' button. I don't necessarily remember layout or theme names so visual reminders, even if they're of the default version of the style, are very helpful to me.

As for your additional not-suggestion, I don't think it would fit people with smaller screens and big fonts, especially if titles/subtitles are long.

[azurelunatic]

It could certainly stand to be labeled more accurately, in that it's the thing with default settings, though.

[ninetydegrees]

Agreed but labeling it 'preview' would be inaccurate as you're not previewing your changes. You're either seeing your journal as it is or seeing your changes once you've saved them.

[kaigou]

Actually, I'd rather have a big button that says PREVIEW -- because the + is associated (for me, at least, so maybe others as well) with "see what this style looks like" and not necessarily "see what it looks like with YOUR changes in there". Okay, so it may, but that's not automatically a correlation between the current use and this extended use, so I think it's better to err on the side of explicitness.

As for rearranging the top part, actually, I'm not really sure. But having that show up on every bleeding page and having to scroll past it each time gets annoying, because once you're in the wizard, it's information that's not really pertinent to the task-at-hand.

[ninetydegrees]

In this case, I would rather have a preview button next to 'Save Changes' that lets you preview your change before you save them. Otherwise you're not previewing anything. You're just seeing your journal as it now.

They are pertinent to me. I almost never go through Customize first seeing as there's a direct link to customize/options in the 'Organize' navigation menu.

[kaigou]

Otherwise you're not previewing anything. You're just seeing your journal as it now.

Good point! I can't see why we couldn't have both -- a preview prior to saving & the little image become "this is what your journal looks like" for those (like me) who tend to save and then check to make sure the changes went through before closing out the page completely.

[triadruid]

Yup, makes sense to me, though the little "+" button irritates me in some indefinable way. It's like Mystery Meat navigation.

[kaigou]

Hah, it's totally Mystery Meat, IMO.

[instantramen]

+1 on both points.