Faster Photo Books: Update on Inkubook Improvements

If you visit Inkublog occasionally or if you receive our newsletter, you’ve probably noticed that we sometimes refer to the surveys we’ve done to get your feedback about Inkubook. The speed and performance of the site is something that has been a bit of a problem spot, so we’ve been working hard to make improvements. We’ve made some fairly significant changes that have resulted in making things work noticably faster, and we’d like to take a little time to tell you about them.

Start Your Book Faster

Some of the changes we’ve made will help you get into Inkubook and get started on a book faster than was possible a few weeks ago.  Here’s what we’ve done:

1. Your user home page and the book editor will load more quickly on your computer. We made this happen by using smaller files and grabbing less data each time those pages load, which results in overall speedier performance.

2. We reduced the size of the background files that draw on your screen. Previously we had been drawing really detailed versions of the backgrounds both on your pages and in the dialog box where you select new backgrounds for your book. We discovered that we could get just as good a result with smaller files, so we downsized them. As a result, it doesn’t take nearly as long for the backgrounds to draw on your pages in the editor or in preview, and the Get More Backgrounds dialog box will show up more quickly, too.

3. We take bigger handfuls when we upload your photos. Originally we were uploading your photos one at a time. Now we upload photo files two at a time, which means the process goes twice as fast. If you’re the undisciplined sort who tends to eat potato chips two at a time then you might know how much more quickly your bowl is emptied compared to the dainty person next to you who eats chips one at a time. (Not that I speak from experience or anything.)

Finish Your Book Faster

We also have a category of improvements that will be noticeable to you as you’re building your book or returning to a book to continue working on it.

1. We aren’t using as much memory. This doesn’t mean that we’ve abandoned trying to remember what’s on our grocery list. It means that we’re storing fewer things in your computer’s memory so it doesn’t have to work so hard to pull things up. For example, we only store the high-resolution images needed for the pages that are right in front of you at any given time, rather than storing in memory all the high-resolution images in your whole project. We get what we need when we need it.

2. In general, we’re being smarter about how we load things than we used to be. We used to load all the thumbnail images for the book, then all the pages, then all the backgrounds. Now we load things according to the order that you need them. So that means that if you open your project and go immediately to page 12, we work on getting you what you need for page 12 before we get other things.

3. We’re storing things closer to where you are. This one is two-fold. First, the application files are stored locally on your computer so we don’t have to load them from the server every time they’re needed. We will occassionally need to retrieve things from the server (as when we’ve recently made updates that refresh everything), but the need to retrieve everything from the server will happen far less frequently.

The second part of this is that, before too long, we’ll be using a different server storage arrangement that will have your project files stored in a number of locations. That way we’ll be able to retrieve them from the place that’s closest to you geographically. U.S. locations include Ashburn (VA), Dallas/Ft. Worth, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, Palo Alto, Seattle, and St. Louis. So if you live in Portland, OR and work on your book from home, we’ll get your files from the server in Seattle. But then if you visit your sister in Portland, ME and work on your book while you’re there, we’ll get your files from someplace much closer, like Newark.

There you have it: a (relatively) brief list and description of some of the things we’ve been working on to make the Inkubook experience better for you. If you think we’re going to stop there, fear not. We’re still on our path of continuous improvement. We just wanted you to know where we are right now. 

Make sure to stop by to see how much more quickly things happen. It’ll give you an opportunity to work on a book that’s been languishing or to check out our new calendars.