Flickr
Ludicorp · 2004–2005
Official Flickr uploader for Windows
Shortly after Napster, I co-found a small software company with a friend of mine in Vancouver, B.C. Ludicorp (the company behind Flickr—also in Vancouver) approached us about making a Windows desktop uploader for their increasingly popular photo sharing site.
I designed the interface for the uploader and wrote the application’s networking code in C++ using Win32.
We wanted the Flickr uploader to be colorful and friendly but still feel familiar to Windows users. Plus we supported drag and drop to make uploading easy.
With photos selected, people could remove and rotate photos. A progress bar showed people how much space their upload would take up of their Flickr quota.
Before uploading, we would ask users to tag their photos. Tagging was still a novel organizational concept in 2004 and was really made popular by Flickr.
During upload, we presented people with a simple and accurate progress bar. They could also cancel their upload at any time.
Once complete, people could click through to see their photos on the web or move back to the start of the process to upload another batch.