We (Effective UI) just finished up a new Silverlight application with Photobucket.
The app is called Visual Search, and is designed to encourage visual exploration within Photobucket’s massive library of photos and users, while allowing you to share your results externally using Windows Live Messenger.
Initially, the application will serve the user some featured media results from Photobucket’s site. You can either go from there and dig into the displayed images, or you can search “related terms” that have been gathered from those images. You can also dig into the user’s album in which that image resides, which I think is a really unique aspect of this model. The user should hopefully end up in a result set that they may have never expected, and the user will have explored much more content along the way.
The user can also initiate a custom search and enter any term they desire. The application will then provide results for that term along with related terms.
Again, this application is really intended to not only provide users with direct results of a search term, but also introduce the user with related results and even the source of the result. This is not a revolutionary approach, as many system deliver related items such as an e-commerce site or standard search engine, and social networks such as Photobucket allow users to dig into the source’s (another user) account to view other results. However, the delivery and experience of Visual Search really encourages this format of exploration with minimal effort on the part of the user. I would say it is fairly easy to venture through the various veins and arteries of Photobucket’s library of images and users.
You can also zoom into the images for a larger more detailed view, and you have similar options to the website where you can download the image, copy HTML code embed code or the link code to share.
Another unique aspect is the ability to share using the new Windows Live Messenger bar which is planted at the bottom of the page. This component is actually a javascript/HTML based module that lives on top of the application and can communicate with the Silverlight app for various events including sharing out images you find to other users in your buddy list.
As an example, if a user have a Windows Live account, and the user finds a photo they like and would like to share with a buddy in their contact list, you can easily trigger your contact list view from within the Application by selecting the “Share with Windows Live” button. The user can then select whom they would like to share this out to and it will initiate a chat and pre-populate your message with the link to that image.
This is the first round of the application and I’m not sure about the future of it, but many additional features have already been defined and noted.
Visit: http://photobucket.com/visualsearch/
I had the opportunity to work with Blend 3 beta for most of the production. Expression Blend 3 has some really nice features and improvements, although there are still some little nuances about the whole design to dev work flow, but the new tools like Blend 3 should begin making this a little smoother.
I’m getting a little more familiar working with XAML now, and I am liking the framework and concept. I have also been working with Flex and the MXML (FX-G) framework for graphical mark up, ans they are on a similar level. If you are purely a visual designer with no code experience, do not be intimidated by looking at XAML. It is pretty straight forward and Blend has both code/design and split views. You can see how Blend writes the mark up as you design visually, and this is a great way to begin learning XAML.