Thursday, 12 June 2014

Opinions requested on Book Cover display

Greetings all, I was hoping to get all your opinions on something if you would be so kind.

Soph and I are rebuilding our website because the system we were using upgraded in a totally non-backwards compatible way and it's easier to switch to wordpress than it is to make the upgrade work :).

Now we are trying to decide if we should change our cover display method.

We sell eBooks and we found a really slick eBook reader action for Photoshop from this amazing site http://www.psdcovers.com/. We really like the sophisticated look it gives the covers:
New version
However, it significantly reduces the amount of real-estate on the page that the actual cover is taking up and the image does resize depending on the size of the screen being used so it can be quite small. This is how they used to look:
Old version
So my question is this: Do you think we should take the hit on the real-estate and go with the new shiny, or stick with the old version, or for that matter, do you dislike the new one altogether.

Thanks for any opinions :)

12 comments:

  1. what about a black and white cover except for the eyes?

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  2. I think the ebook one looks fine. You don't lose too much size for it. However, for me personally, I would use the ebook one when talking about the ebook specifically. Otherwise I'd use the regular one. That would just be MY preference.

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    Replies
    1. At the moment we only sell eBooks :) Thanks very much for the input.

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  3. I like how the new version looks. Makes it pop more and catches the eye.

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  4. My wife and I both prefer the previous one. Amongst other things, the shine and angle on the new one obscures the cover art slightly, and neither of us really feel like it brings much to presentation. I could see using it in a few key places, like for example a gif that scrolled through multiple covers on the eReader as an ad for a specific series on the front page of the site, but I'd stick to just the cover art on the individual book pages.

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  5. I like the straight up cover. It's larger. The tiltiness of the ebook makes me want to turn it to face me.

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  6. I personally like the older style cover. The one with the e-book style distracts me a bit.

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  7. For me, the original cover is more striking!
    Writer In Transit

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  8. Natasha, I like the old style better. To me, it stands out more than the newer version. I see a difference, but it's really not that much. I don't see why you should take the hit. In my opinion, stick to the older one unless you are dying to have it be a bit more shinier and what not=)

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  9. Hmmm, both look good, but I think I might like the old one better. While I do like the new shiny one, I wonder if it will get redundant with several ebook displays. Unless you can get it to tilt in the other direction, just for variety. I do agree with the others though that it kind of takes away from the cover. It's now "your cover in an e-reader device" instead of just "your cover".

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  10. I like both, but if you still like the idea of an e-reader, I've designed a forward facing one, if you're interested. You're more than welcome to use it.

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