Holy Crop!

This big pink bbbeauty is one of several images used by our integration tests to verify the different workflows (crop v. no crop, whether to show the @2x option, whether to default to 400x300 v. 800x600, etc) that run based on the size of the original shot file.

In this case, the original shot is 1000x750, so we assume the shot is intended for HiDPI display and pre-select an 800x600 crop, but there's an option to crop it all the way down to 400x300 for normal screens.

One decision we made with this HiDPI release was that shots must now be _exactly_ 400x300 (or 800x600). (Previously, a shot could be less than 400x300.) This rule allows us to make much smarter assumptions about the user's intentions for display and simplify the upload workflows accordingly.

Before making this change, we peaked at the database to make sure there wasn't a lot of demand for less than 400x300 shots. Roughly 5% of all shots are less than 400x300 and, of those, nearly 18% are near misses, e.g. 400x299 - probably due to difficulty with the cropping tool. So another nice side effect of enforcing the size is that we can lock the crop into a 400x300 or 800x600 selection. The user merely has to position the crop target and never has to resize it.

HiDPI display wasn't a huge feature to implement, but like so many additions, it forces you to think about what you value and what you're willing to sacrifice when tweaking your product's behavior and design. Those conversations and decisions are the reason I love my job - product ownership is the bbbomb.

Hope you enjoy, please stop by and say HiDPI!

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Posted on Oct 5, 2012

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