Currently if you set a focal point on a photo in Photo Center the user has no visual indication that a focal point has been set. There should be some visual clue to indicate someone has set a focal point - like the X-Y coordinates you see in the Featured Media tab in Composer.
Lynda Finley
I just want to upvote everything Lynda says here, and add a couple of thoughts:
- the green thumbtack icon is much easier to see and interpret, can we use that instead of the bullseye cursor?
- It would be helpful to see that thumbtack icon on the actual spot where the focal point was set (as opposed to the top corner). This way a photo editor can verify that the focal point is in the right place.
- It would be helpful to see the thumbtack indication across all tools -- Websked, Composer and Photo Center. That way if producers or photo editors are going through pitch lists, they can easily see which images need to be edited, and not have to open every file individually. (I imagine this could only apply to focal points set in Photo Center, because focal points set in Composer would be local to that article rather than the photo globally?)
Hi Lynda - quick follow up. In Composer - will it be more useful for your users to be able to -
set a focal point while in Composer (if not already set) OR
edit a focal point while in Composer (if already set)
Or is both a need to have? I'm wondering which circumstance occurs more often. Thanks!
Hi Lynda - I jumped the gun on marking it "already exist" when you said "not obvious but I accept". Clearly there is more to do here. Moving it to "Future consideration". Thanks!
How can this request be marked as already exists?
The need for a clear indication of a focal point being set is two-fold:
1 - in photo center so they don't have to click a button to see if it has been set - making the focal point button visually different would mean the user could glance at it when working in photo center and see that a focal point has been set.
2 - in composer when adding an image - especially on vertical images - think basketball, mug shots etc. - to avoid having torso shots or foreheads only on the section front page or homepage.
The reason they set the focal point in Composer is because 1- that was the only place it could be done up until now and 2 - setting it in photo center doesn't seem to carry the focal point into composer - at least there is no visual clue.
The frequency really depends on the type of image and how it would appear when cropped on the section front or homepage.
I see. Thanks for the explanation! So a current problem is that the extra time for users to go to Edit Photo > Set Focal Point in order to check that a focal point has been set in Photo Center. At what point of the workflow do your users need to check if a focal point is set? I'm assuming when adding a photo in Composer and when in the edit photo page of Photo Center?
The need for a clear indication that a focal point has already been set in Composer makes sense. Can you please elaborate on why a user will need to override a focal point in Composer after it is set in Photo Center? And is that something that a user will do often?
Thanks!
It wasn't obvious to me because you have to click on the button to see where the bullseye shows up - I was looking for some sort of visual clue without having to do that. Every click that can be eliminated improves workflow and user experience.
Most likely yes each photo will have one focal point - which could be overridden at the story level if they really needed to do that. The way it is now, every story the photo is used in has to have the focal point adjusted. It would be beneficial in composer to just look at the x-y coordinates to see that a focal point has already been set - and then they could override it if they want to do that there.
Thanks for the feedback! And just to gather additional feedback, why do you feel that the cursor at 0,0 is not obvious? Thanks!
The x,y coordinates are there, just not visible in the UI. This is a good segue to a question I have for you:
Do photos need a contextual focal point override? Or will a photo always have 1 focal point associated with it, in all contexts.
Thanks again!
OK. Not obvious but I accept it. The larger issue is that it's makes no sense setting a focal point in photo center since it isn't honored in composer. I was thinking that by not having x-y coordinates there is nothing to pass to composer - but if there is some other way to pass this information to composer to make the focal point useful that would be good.
Hi Lynda! So for Photo Center focal point setting the way we indicate that a focal point has not been set is by setting the focal point cursor at 0,0 or the top left hand corner of the photo. We moved away from providing the x,y coordinates because we wanted to make the feature simpler to use, and having the x,y coordinates field there makes it slightly more complex.