It was not all that long ago that Flickr rolled out their big redesign, and not their chief competitor has rolled out one (albeit a smaller one) of their own. 500px announced today that they have completely redesigned the photo page on their site.

The new photo page layout – which 500px is dubbing “Focus View” – is focused on putting more emphasis on images, displaying them larger, and making use of more screen real estate.

The new Photo Page offers photographers a more visually appealing way to showcase and share their work online than ever before. We have also improved the browsing aesthetic for non-photographers, so you can continue to spend hours watching beautiful photos.

New Feature Listing

The 500px photo page redesign includes the following features:

• Focus View feature for photos, enables full-screen view with simple shortcut ‘H’ and maximizes photo browsing experience.

• Shortcuts are located below each photo in Focus View. Click on a photo or press ‘H’ for Focus View. Press ‘M’ to maximize the photo, ‘L’ to like, and ‘F’ for favourite.

• Arrow keys let you go back and forth between photos to mirror the ease of 500px iPad App experience on your computer screen.

• Larger photos on Popular, Editor’s Choice, Upcoming and Fresh feeds and on your profile.

• Photos expand in size for superior viewing on larger monitors.

• Optimized viewing for panoramic photos, they look better than ever before.

• Photographer information, easy sharing and like & favourite buttons are featured in the new header.

• Comments are located below the photo as well as a visual list of the people who’ve favourited or liked the photo.

• Want to know who was the last person to V&F your photo? Just look to the bottom right, and easily expand to see a full list.

My Thoughts

Overall I like the changes, I think that they succeed at bringing more emphasis on the images. The limited amount of time I have used the new design have been a little frustrating, but that is mostly due to the fact that I am not used to the layout and shortcuts quite yet.

These new photo pages as well as the new portfolios have really improved on what was already a great product at 500px. I am very curious to see what they will upgrade next.

What are your thoughts? Do you like the new photo page, or do you prefer the old one?

[via 500px]