The discussion revolves around why small images don’t show metadata on hover. niemeyer suggests that this behavior feels inconsistent and arbitrary, especially when multiple images of similar size are displayed together. They propose showing metadata on hover for all images, regardless of size.
codinghorror disagrees and states that this feature is not on the current roadmap. They also mention that showing metadata on small images, like a dancing banana, would be irritating.
scombs agrees that people may not want to see metadata on small, insignificant images, but suggests that a threshold could be implemented to allow for more important images, like charts or close-up views, to display metadata. They also mention that this behavior is particularly problematic on mobile devices with default zoom disabled.
niemeyer reiterates that the inconsistent behavior feels like a bug, and codinghorror responds that zooming is always possible on iOS Safari, making this criticism invalid. However, niemeyer notes that the behavior on Android is as described by scombs.
Small images don’t show metadata on hover because they do not lightbox, that is, the entire image fits in the post.
The behavior feels slightly inconsistent at least, since multiple images on the same post offer metadata on hovering or not depending on whether they are small or large, but for the reader at this point there’s no distinction between such images because they’re all the same size. The behavior feels arbitrary.
I’d suggest showing at least the details on hovering, irrespective of the image size. Then perhaps not expanding for those which are small.
Indeed, most people don’t care about metadata on bananas.
The behavior was unexpected and surprising because the images were all about the same size, and then the divergence of a few pixels meant a completely different user experience when hovering over the image. Felt broken.
I agree people dont want to see metadata on dancing bananas or little robots (so they wont click on it) but they might want to check out a close up view of a chart, a UFO sighting, or something (and will click it).
How about a threshold that let’s the little bananas/robots and other images coexist? Just doesnt seem very Discoursey on small devices the way it is now on mobile with default no zom. Maybe not so easy that the team should drop everything.
BTW, I really like the way images get lightboxed with the slide show arrows. I am assuming those edge case images that are not light boxed get left out. At least there wont be any bananas or robots but that’s what the threshold is for.
Yeah, that’s the exact same issue. Besides the zooming aspect, it’s also unsettling to see two images next to each other, looking pretty much as the same size on the user screen, part of the same post and same context, but behave differently for unclear reasons. By design or not, feels like a bug.
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