Shaun Haber

Finally! Flickr has introduced a way to organize sets. They’re calling their new feature “collections”. You can read more on the Flickr blog:

What are collections, you ask? A collection is a container into which you can place either sets or other collections, allowing you to create a hierarchy as deep as 5 collections. You can place as many of your sets into a collection as you like, and a set can be in as many different collections as you like.

This feature has been long overdue. It is a big help for pro account members who have many sets and until now had no way to organize them.

I am using collections to do the following:

• Create a collection for each year: 2007, 2006, etc. to provide chronological ordering of sets.
• Create a misc collection: a place to store random sets with no chronological meaning.

My usage of this is pretty basic, but the payoff in usability is huge. Compare my “sets” page with my “collections” page:

• Sets - Unflattened and cluttered, hard to visually scan.
• Collections - Logical ordering, much easier on the eye and brain.

This is definitely an exciting addition and something I’ve been hoping they would implement for a long time. I remember requesting this feature on a survey they provided last year in addition to the multitudes of people requesting this on their forums.

Thanks, Flickr, for listening and following through!