Buying a traditional Rights Managed licence for a stock photo should be as simple as buying it Royalty Free. No complex menus to navigate, all options exposed, price updates instantly, help bubbles for every setting.
The inQpi sample demonstrates a stock photo pricing calculator that is almost as simple to use as Royalty Free. To be fair, the achievement was only possible because the agency would be serving the German-speaking market only. A global company would have had to use a country menu.
Play with the options, and note how the settings interact. Hover the mouse (or tap) on the help icons next to the headings for explanations.
When ready, click the Buy Licence button to go to the order form. If you fill in the required details, clicking Next will show you the contract that is ready for order. (Needless to say, no order can be placed.)
The whole thing is powered by Javascript, in AJAX mode: image data is read from XML files.
This sample is a slight re-working of a project from 5 years ago that never saw the light of day and will not be resurrected.
It works well on tablets and PCs, but the design isn’t amenable to the mobile experience. And that’s fine really, picture editors are likely to be making their purchases at their desks. No matter how mobile-friendly you try to make such a calculator, the desktop experience will always be more comfortable and quicker.
Next up, a sample 100% mobile, and 100% fun!