FamilySearch Alpha Design Concepts – Hot off the Press
23 Jun 2009 by Dan LawyerWe’ve been working to refine the designs of the FamilySearch Alpha project. Thanks to so many of you that have provided feedback through comments on the blog or using our feedback links. Please keep it coming. Here are some almost-but-not-quite-ripe design concepts. Take a look and let us know what you think.
We’ve made some small tweaks to the home page. The images below show tweaks to the other main ‘landing’ pages and sub-pages. Take a look and let us know what you think.
Indexing. The Indexing landing page helps people volunteer and start indexing names from historical records.
Learning. The Learning landing page provides access to the following pages.
Learning Courses. Learning courses presents a complete catalog of both online courses and courses taught in the Family History Library.
Topical Article. Topical or skill-based articles that are created and maintained by a community of volunteers.
Location Article. Location-specific articles that are created and maintained by a community of volunteers.
Family History Library Landing Page. The Family History Library landing page provides access to the following pages.
Find a Family History Center. The Find a Family History Center page allows you to do a map-based search for Family History Centers around the world.
Family History Library Class Schedule. The class schedule shows upcoming classes that will be held at the Family History Library.
Family History Library Map and Directions. The map and directions will help people find their way to the library.
Search Landing Page. The Search page allows you to search all of the great content on the site. Some additional views of the search page follow.
Family History Library Catalog Search. Find resources sources available through the Family History Library and Family History Centers.
Search Learning Articles and Courses. Find articles and courses that can help you learn how to research in different parts of the world or improve your research skills.
Search for Ancestors. Find your ancestors in online historical records and trees.
Sign-in or Register.We would love to get your reactions to this images. Please leave us a comment (or two or three…).
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:26 pm
wow… this looks amazing! kudos to your designers
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:28 pm
In response to Abby:
Thanks for your vote of confidence!
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Very nice!
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:04 pm
In response to Donna Lawyer:
Thanks Mom!
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Absolutely wonderful. This is a great improvement. Seamless feel across all areas of the site. I am especially interested in the learning courses. I really like the simple approach to searching all the sources.
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Topical Articles – amazing
Location Articles – wow
Search Landing Page – nice hit format
Search Learning Articles and Courses – and then you can search all this content?! – incredible
This site will be the ultimate resource in learning: what there is to do in doing Family History research; how to do ‘what there is to do’; and help and contribute to others’ success.
Learning, Serving, Loving
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:43 pm
These images are just about looks. I tried day before yesterday, and you should focus less on looks, and more on functionality, usability and speed. I doubt the system is accessible. Recommend giving an user experience designer a dial-up or Wi-Fi connection to test the system with.
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Dan,
These images are just about looks. I tried day before yesterday, and you should focus less on looks, and more on functionality, usability and speed. I doubt the system is accessible. Recommend giving an user experience designer a dial-up or Wi-Fi connection to test the system with.
- Tamura
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:49 pm
The portal is very well designed. The tools now shown are quickly making the site a one-stop-shopping experience.
The font(s), background and graphics are very well designed with no eye strain or distractions.
Navigation to the various topic groups and pages I’ve seen thus far is intuitive. Visitors from all nationalities and walks of life should have a similarily pleasant experience on the site.
Congratulations! The concept has become reality. Can’t wait to see the rest of the ‘magic’ you are working on.
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:19 pm
I just looked around quickly and was amazed at how much improvement in content there is. The only thing that jumped out to me was on the Sign Up / Register page you mention the Wiki but then the tab calls it learning. I like learning better but it’s not consistent.
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Very Nice. When might the Alpha site be available for use? I am new to family history and am looking forward to the Learning Landing as well as the other functionality.
I typically am a “Function before fashion” kind of guy, but have recently learned from experience that creating a look, like you have done, helps those who are less computer literate to step out of their comfort zone and learn new things. It appears that you are on the right track, combining function and fashion.
Will this site be open to non-LDS family history enthusiast?
To me, family history is more than collecting a bunch names, I would like to have the ability to attach journals, pictures, etc. and bring the names to life.
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:18 pm
Images were not the best to look at (not clear) but looks attractive and user friendly!
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Dan — What you and your team are doing with these design concepts is amazing! Very appealing! I love the use of attractive colors and great graphics. This kind of design enhancement will make it so much easier for us who are family history consultants and center staff members to teach others how to maneuver through all the helps being made available by the Church. I love the idea of being able to direct people to one URL from which they can access all these aids. Good job! Not perfect yet, but definitely on the right road!
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:18 pm
It seems to me that the overarching concepts are Search, Learn, Index (or Share?). I understand that the FHL is a powerful image, but the library itself is really about searching and learning, right? Does it need it’s own tab?
I love the clean look, but am concerned that there isn’t sufficient visual contrast between white space and text. It might be difficult for those with less than perfect eyesight.
While you’re at it, it would sure be nice if all FamilySearch products were truly integrated – like having automated source-creation in new FS from Record Search. Just carry that clipboard concept a little further, and more people will be inclined to take the time to include their sources!
(Design concept, right?)
Incorporating the mapping into “Find a Family History Center’ is great. I don’t see a form for On-line microfilm ordering. That would be really helpful to patrons who know what they’re doing. Any hope of that happening?
The tools you’re creating are awesome! I love helping people new to Record Search and the wiki. Virtually every time I introduce someone to Record Search, they find something they’ve been trying (unsuccessfully) to find for “for years.”
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:26 pm
Nice! This design stands out from the crowd of genealogy sites. It might impress the electronic generation, who hopefully has high-speed Internet. The family against the background of trees at the bottom and the photograph of the family holding hands around an overwhelmingly large tree touched my heart. Could someone write a caption that matches that metaphor? “Missing link” and “connect the dots” fail. Sorry, whoever is attached to those dots. You could connect the dots with lines shaped like a pedigree chart, and the connect-the-dots metaphor could be developed throughout the site, but it seems weak. Genealogy is about connecting families, not dots.
The color coordination and the tinted borders around the photographs are nice touches. On the Learning Courses page, the top alignment of the column of tinted boxes on the right doesn’t seem to match anything to the left, and please fix Sleuthing under Special Events in the middle box. On the Find a Family History Center page, the search button appears slightly teal, not the light blue for Library.
I hope you avoid hyphenation when you go live. “Mem-bers” at the end of the last paragraph on the Library Landing page is atrocious. But I like it, I really do!
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:45 pm
I echo nearly all the sentiments above. In general I love the feel, I do hope that it devolves/collapses (you might know the word) nicely with slower technologies and connections. In general, I hope this portal takes a move away from the heavy Flash emphasis of the tools being developed so far which require a large downloaded plugin and are not easily clickable, searchable, etc… outside of the functionality explicitly built into Flash apps. Particular tools and pages may incorporate Flash, but I hope the basic pages do not get all Flashified. I do hope that this portal truly envelopes the Wiki, Record Search, the Catalog, the Learning, Help and Support, Standard Finder, even perhaps the Forums, the Developer Network. It looks like this may be poised to utilize LDSAccount based on the login page prototype. I would hope then that a seamless integration could be developed to allow Family Tree/nFS search results to appear among other search results when logged in as a member and later non-member when available. This could then link into a new window or tab and carry the single sign-on over. I so look forward to a day where I might be able to consolidate my dozen or so FamilySearch links into one, or perhaps 2-3. Awesome work, sorry for the heavy design talk, and looking forward to great things to come!
June 24th, 2009 at 12:01 am
Very nice looking pages. I also really like the look and feel of FamilySearch Family Tree in labs.familysearch.org. Can we assume that Family Tree will change to this look and feel?
I use as well as provide support New.Familysearch.org and think it is state of the art in database management. Your developers are world class, no, universe class talent.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:09 am
In response to Chris:
Thanks for your feedback. Helps us to know what is resonating.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:10 am
In response to Matthew Hailstone:
Thanks for taking a look and letting us know what works for you.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:16 am
In response to Tamura Jones:
Tamura I have a mixed reaction to your thoughts. There certainly is a lot of consideration in the design about ‘looks’ – people will be spending hours on end looking at it – thus ‘looks’ must be considered. The visual design also gives substantial attention to placement, flow, discloser, and on and on. These are all critical elements in making it usable and intuitive. You are absolutely right however that something that looks nice but performs poorly is of little use. The good news is that the bulk of our effort is on correcting problems with the functionality, quality of search, amount of records available to search, etc.
I’m not sure I understand what you mean by “I doubt the system is accessible.” That phrase is often interpreted with specific reference to US Government regulations about building systems that are accessible to disabled persons. Is that your question or is it something else?
We do regular testing over a variety of connections from dial-up to super-fast and have a strong desire to make the system perform well for all users.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:18 am
In response to Lee Drew:
Thanks for your positive comments. We do hope it will be a ‘one-stop’ shop for the core functions of family history.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:21 am
In response to Renee Zamora:
Great catch on the Sign-in page with the inconsistent terminology. Thanks also for your thoughts about ‘learning’ vs ‘wiki’. We’ve struggled for some time with how to organize and share the depth of knowledge that FamilySearch and more importantly the community of users involved with FamilySearch has to offer. It is starting to feel like we’re getting it figured out.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:24 am
In response to Scott Neff:
We share a common vision. We’re working to bring out the richness of genealogy and help people share more than “…a bunch [of] names…”. It will be available to the general public for free. The timing is soon but not nearly soon enough ; )
June 24th, 2009 at 8:26 am
In response to Phyllis Lewis:
Thanks for taking a look. I’m not sure if you mean that the images were hard to see or that it is hard to get a real feel for how the site will work by looking at images. I suspect the latter. We hope to have this evolved from images to working software relatively quickly. Keep watching.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:27 am
In response to Jimmy Parker:
Thanks for taking a look. Please let us know as you see areas for improvement.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:31 am
In response to L. Embley:
Great insights about the Family History Library. In many ways the FamilySearch Alpha site is an online embodiment of the services that can be obtained by physically visiting the library.
Thanks for sharing the concern about visual contrast. We’ll watch for this in our testing.
We are definitely heading down the path of ‘truly integrating’ all of the FamilySearch systems. Automating source citing, linking things together, smooth transitions between related activities, etc. This is the first step. It will take many steps to get there.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:35 am
In response to Sue:
Thanks for the great catches on the designs. We’ll correct them.
I really appreciate your comments about the captions of “missing link” and “connect the dots” not being in the same league, tone, power of expression as the image of the family holding hands. We do need to find captions that hold to that standard. Thank you!
June 24th, 2009 at 8:37 am
In response to Karl Greenwood:
The phrase that comes to mind is ‘graceful degradation’. We are honestly struggling with that right now but have some plans in the works that should help.
I think you’ll be pleased with where we’re going with the LDS accounts integration and search integration.
June 24th, 2009 at 8:38 am
In response to Michael Helmantoler:
Thanks for your positive words. As we integrate the Family Tree project into FamilySearch Alpha it will also begin to take on the look and feel of the FamilySearch Alpha.
June 24th, 2009 at 10:58 am
In response to Tamura Jones:
I’ll echo what Dan already said about aesthetics being an important part of the overall user experience, of course balanced properly with functionality, usability, speed, and accessibility. The site is still in its early stages and we have plenty of optimization work ahead.
June 24th, 2009 at 11:14 am
In response to Phyllis Lewis:
Phyllis, your browser might be sizing the images down to fit in the window. When you place your cursor over the picture, does the arrow turn into a magnifying glass? If so, click the picture and it should show at full-size.
June 24th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Dad (Joe Martel) wanted me to comment on these. I don’t know if he wanted a simple overview of what I thought, or nit-picky design comments. And I can be pretty nit-picky. Either way, here’s what you get.
Overall General Comments:
I’m liking the overall feel of the site–I feel like there’s a good use of typographic Heirarchy and color that is very clean and well organized. Nice amounts of open space, it doesn’t feel crowded or overwhelming. The type is just about perfect on how heavy it feels on the eyes.
Text:
I think text blocks need to be worked out more fully, there’s a lot of hypenization going on that looks very unattractive. On “Indexing” there’s a lovely little -”able” left on it’s own line, and on “Library” there’s a -”bers”. They both feel pretty awkward. Personally, I would just get rid of all hypens.
A second thing on text is that on the really large blocks like on “Why is Indexing Important?” and “Course Catalog” they’re too wide. The most comfortable line length for a person to read is about 12 words. Any longer than that, and the reader is going to be stumbling and struggling to find the beginning of the next line. (And I don’t know if you already know this and just haven’t gotten around to fixing it, but here it is if you didn’t…) Generally, if a viewer has any sort of trouble reading, they’re not going to at all.
On Margins:
I think the left hand margin on the white blocks could be bigger. It feels like everythings sorta squished to that side. I personally like the “Library Search Catalog’s” spacing on the white block. It has more space than everything else on the site and I think it looks beautiful. (but then again, I can see why you chose that space size, because then it matches up with the “Family History” logo on top…) Anyways, it just seems to me that everything is a little close to the left, when often times there seems to be a larger space on the right. (IE: “Maps and Directions” has a large space between the picture and the map.)
Navigation:
On the “Learning – England Church Records” I honestly have to say I have no idea how the “Contents” box matches up with the actual “content”. It took me a while to figure out that the bulleted items were the titles, but what the non bulleted items are – no idea.
As for heirarchy on titles and subtitles, You’re using the same semi-cursive typeface for both, but just changing the size (ie. learning article: England Church Records). I personally think using a different typeface or color to differentiate the two would be better.
The super nitpicky:
Two stupid things bother me, and it might just be me.
1. There’s that bar that underlines what section of the site your on. I think it’s great, but that black line on the top of it that overlaps the line of the white box just bothers me for some reason. I would prefer it to be a solid color.
2. The bottom navigation -”Site Map” and “Blog” overlaps that kid and his mom. I look at that, and I just feel awkward.
(Oh, and I think the leading/spacing between “(c) 2009 Family Search” and the bottom nav should be a bit larger. They’re too squished together.)
Anyways…
I hope that was helpful and not too annoying.
June 24th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
I am new to FaceBook. I posted to the Wall when it looks like I should have posted here. Since I’m not quite sure how this works, I am going to repost my wall posts here.
Vea Genlib wrote
at 2:48pm
I am going to be coming in and out of this site several times today. I am a librarian in the Boston area and
am extremely interested in all of the changes that are going on in family search. I work with genealogy in the library and have been asked to do a class for Young Adults in the fall. I went to the Franklin, MA conference in March where I was introduced to the concept of cloud genealogy and a number of the extraordinary things that are planned for new Family Search. I do not have access to it yet because I am not a Mormon, but I plan to use this as the basis for my class when it becomes available. Our YAs are the
Web2.0 generation and this is exactly what I need to engage them. I really appreciate this opportunity to take a look at your work in progress. Many thanks.
Vea Genlib wrote
at 3:57pm
I’ve just been looking at your pages both online and as color print outs and I love them. The format is not cluttered, yet covers a good amount of information. The color tones you use are inviting. The home page gently pulls you in. I’ve seen so many over cluttered web pages that range from off putting to unusable. These are impressive. There is a problem with your Topical Article page. It seems to be cut off. Are these articles a form of wiki? I was also wondering if all your courses are video courses? Are there any that are PowerPoint or screen shots? And are these appropriate questions for this event or should I be asking them somewhere else?
Many thanks,
veagenlib aka Ginny
June 24th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Dan,
The web is international. Accessibility guidelines can be found on the W3C site.
Hm, I do believe you are making a Flash site instead of a web site? Adobe has pages on accessibility too.
June 24th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Dan,
The web is international. Accessibility guidelines can be found on the W3C site.
Hm, I do believe you are making a Flash site instead of a web site? Adobe has pages on accessibility too.
Oh, BTW, the CAPTCHA does not work. The image does not display.
June 24th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
A few questions: Under the Location Article, what sort of photos will be posted, and will this be in Wiki format? Similarly, what sort of events will the historical time line feature? Will there be problems with relevance to family history research?
The search capabilities on FamilySearch Alpha, specifically using the filters, were very powerful. Good job.
June 24th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
The portal pages are well designed and easily understood. Aesthetics are good. Just be sure the functionality is at least as good and that it works as advertised.
June 25th, 2009 at 7:09 am
I like the overall design. I think it’s simple and uncluttered, which will help people to find things easier. I really like the learning section, and think it will get lots of looks.
One suggestion is that you might want to put some kind of instruction (a sentence on the lower half) or aid (tab outline, bubble pop-up) on the homepage to help those unfamiliar with tabs to understand their function. They are very subtle in this version, and they might not understand their function.
June 25th, 2009 at 9:29 am
While I’ve been a member of the website for a few years I’ve been hesitant about using it considering my limited family information until now, not to mention limited experience as a genealogist despite dabbling as best I can over the last 20 years, and, to be honest, more than a bit intimidated by the thought of exploring, and using the site.
Where to begin, how to begin, will they even have information on the country my Father came from, and once I dive in will I ever come up for air, and be heard from again? ;-D
I think I now have enough information to explore the place more than I have in the past, and will start after attending the SoCal Jamboree this weekend.
About what you are doing to spiff up the place, and make it more user friendly….
I like the look, and the different tabs.
I also like the simplicity.
For me, someone who may never visit the Library itself, and still considers himself a Newbie in so many ways, I like the idea of making things as easy to understand, and use as possible, as it cuts down on the intimidation factor, and encourages exploration, learning, and usage.
June 25th, 2009 at 9:59 am
The images and concepts in this post look good to me. Since I’m new to the party, I’ll proceed to unload my impression of the alpha site as it currently stands (without these concepts). I don’t hold punches, because I love you
Loading foo.swf? Really? Why does Grandma care that the flash you’re loading has an swf extension?
I hate it when basic things like scrollbars are duplicated in nonstandard ways. Now I can’t use my scroll wheel or trackpad to scroll. That’s a big loss. Using flash to get fancy like this is so 5 years ago. It can be done with better performance, portability, and effect using AJAX.
The learning and library pages have some issues with padding/margins.
Transparency on the logo in the indexing page is screwed up.
Viewing the record is nice, but better centering when going to/from full screen would be good.
June 25th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I am new to this group so I am not sure, but will this be the new design for familysearch.org? I found the pages really user friendly and actually showed me things I hadn’t noticed before.
I felt like the design sort of guided me to the info available. I loved it!
I do have one suggestion that would have helped me if using it, in the Search area – Family History Library Landing page – “Family History Library Catalog Search. Find resources sources available through the Family History Library and Family History Centers.”
I think it would be helpful to display what the original search on the Library catolog results page was for so when one reads the “Tips: Did you know you can filter your results in the left column?” they could see what the filter helped with. In the example the surname in the left column doesn’t match anything in the Results area
June 25th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
I would encourage everyone who is currently using the FamilySearch Research Wiki, and particularly those who are contributing to and editing the Research Wiki, to take an in-depth look at these Learning pages and give us your ideas and feedback. Working together we need to create the next generation Wiki, integrated to FamilySearch, this is the first prototype. So let us know if this works, what does and doesn’t feel good? Spread the word to everyone and have them come and give it a test drive, and most importantly give us honest opinions and suggestions.
June 25th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
This is a really good job of laying out a learning experience for most new users or those who have never researched. You combine well the Wiki, Forums, Record Search, etc. But I have a couple of concerns with the Learning pages:
First, it looks so structured that I am not sure that a community member could easily come in and add information or create a new page and easily follow the structural layout here. I am thinking that it will increase the burden on FamilySearch employees to maintain it since it will be and needs to be a constantly changing and growing informational site, and the community may not feel comfortable doing that because it looks too professional–there is already a hesitation at first to edit content, this may compound it.
Second, For those who are actively participating in the Research Wiki it is not really clear that this is where you go to contribute and edit and add information. You have to look too hard to even see that you can edit this. The fact it is a wiki is hidden almost.
June 25th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
The visual change is good. That said, the main focus of alpha should be content and the ease of use. The search feature is an improvement.
The digitization of documents with ease of access is extremely important. http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#start is not user friendly in either speed or functionality. If the alpha is to use this model then some internet user may be frustrated. Will the platform be a factor? I am a Mac OSX user and the Safari application is the main means by which most Mac users will interact with the new site. Incorporate the speed and ease of use of the search feature to the pilot research search feature. The lack of easy scrolling is a step backward. I can scroll by my trackpad on 99 percent of the sites I visit. The pilot site does not allow for easy scrolling.
Many family historians will move quickly beyond the search feature of the site to the actual digitized images. Since this is “alpha”, we await changes as they evolve.
June 25th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Vast improvement over the alpha version posted on the labs site. I like the consistent colors between pages. They are easy on the eyes. Eye-popping pictures add to the appearance. I agree that there needs to be some connection made between Learning and the Wiki so people can relate. Now, if we could just enter some data in there and see the results…
June 25th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
I love the site. You have thought of everything, especially the learning part. But to combine all of the projects going on into one site is wonderful.
June 25th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
The colors look nice and make it easy to read, but are not “standard” on a lot of other sites.
I think the home page should not be a search page. I would use it to welcome and explain the tabs. Isn’t “new.FamilySearch” going to be part of this? I want to keep “me and my ancestors” and “sign in to help” and some of the other things you can do there. Plus tabs for Home, Search, Learning, Library and Indexing.
It seems that the search page should include a search for learning and articles. Your main Search Page doesn’t say anything about searching for lessons and learning. To then have a search learning pages listed under Search doesn’t work. I can see that it would be a good idea for people to search for articles and from them be led to search for people.
When I person clicks on the search tab of a FH site, they expect to be able to search for names and here they do. I do like having the FHL Catalog on that page.
Under the learning tab you also have a search articles, which is helpful. I think you ought to also have a Heading for places and a brief explaination that all are welcome to edit and comment or submit articles to that section.
The word Barnraising doesn’t connect with me. I don’t associate that word with contributing an article on researching a place.
When you are looking at an article about researching something, will it be hot linked to the actual source it is telling you to use?
Can you connect the sources that are sited in new.FS with the actual document in record search? Can we please get a way to clean up new.FS and get rid of duplicate sources, so we can find sources other than Ancestral File and Temple File if people put them in.
Can the pioneer trail list under LDS.org be added to the things we can search in FS? How about the Mormon Immigration Index that is on CD?
Can links to Consultant and Family History Center information be linked to the FS site?
And while we are talking about church websites, why, if FH is under the direction of the Priesthood, isn’t it listed under the duties of the Priesthood in LDS.org > Serving in the Church?
I know I am off track.
I love the idea of one sign in for all FamilySearch/LDS/Indexing/Wiki. It has been a pain having different signins and different rules.
Thank you.
June 26th, 2009 at 7:26 am
I like the consistency and general feel of the site. The sidebars looked helpful and relevant. I really like the refining and narrowing of search results sidebars. It would also be nice to see more helps and tips on improving the search criteria.
There is some inconsistency with Surname vs Last Name. I also have a small concern with some of the low-contrast text (see Class Schedule and Search for you Ancestors pages) and there are places where I’m not sure what’s clickable. I think I know, but I’d have to hover to be sure (All Results) and the refine/narrow sidebars use the same look of text as the main body text in other pages. Mostly from context I can tell they are links, but I generally like to have links be more obvious and visually consistent.
June 26th, 2009 at 7:34 am
Also, I would think some sort of breadcrumb or hierarchy display (where am I? how did it get here?) would be helpful in site like this. Unless you are intentionally going for a “flat” structure (major category at top/tab, with a whole bunch of pages under the category essentially peers–only distinguished by page title?). If I were to drop into some of these pages from a search engine link, I don’t get a lot of guidance as to where I am in the site and where I might look “nearby” to find more specific or more general information (for example see England Church Records page). The related links sidebar would help, but I think a more structured view might help as well (this is a subpage of our England Resources page, here are church records for nearby localities, or more specific localities, etc.).
June 26th, 2009 at 8:04 am
I showed them to my wife. She really likes the colors, said they were “soothing” and not distracting or trying to attract attention. She likes the fonts and said the text was easy to read. She likes the balance of text and photos–having such nice photos gives it a touch of class and interest, but not so many pictures as to overwhelm. She really liked how the England page->England Research Series section has times for the instructional videos, and wished the Course Catalog page had the times (length) for those videos as well. She really likes the images at the bottom of each page (trees with family), said it makes her feel like she’s connecting the present (family) with the past (trees). She wondered if the search results pages could show more results per page if desired. She really like the alternating colors and the spacing on the All Results page. She complained that too many search results pages try to cram to much into a small space, so she appreciated have the results there spaced out nicely and distinguished with the alternating background–it didn’t feel crowded and you could tell the different results from each other.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:01 am
In response to Jemma Martel:
Thanks for the pointers of text and spacing, etc. I’ll pass those on to the designers to consider.
On the learning landing page, the page is still more conceptual so the content isn’t completely worked out. That’s what why the ‘contents’ doesn’t seem to match up.
Great comments. Specific and actionable. Thanks!
June 26th, 2009 at 10:03 am
In response to Ginny Audet (Vea Genlib):
Thanks for taking a look at these designs and the alpha site. I also posted a reply in the FamilySearch Facebook group.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:14 am
In response to Tamura Jones:
Not sure I completely understand the ‘the web is international’ portion of your comment. Perhaps you are expressing that I am too US-centric in my thinking. If so, thank you for the reminder.
Thanks also for clarifying what definition of Accessibility you had in mind. We have individuals on staff with specific responsibility to test for accessibility issues. It is a point of continuous improvement for us.
I’m also concerned about the overuse of flash on the site. I think we’ve gone too far and need to do a better job about using flash only where it makes sense and adds optional enhanced value.
Are you referring to the captcha on the blog comment feedback or someplace else?
June 26th, 2009 at 10:18 am
In response to John Demos:
The location articles (and other learning articles) are currently being implemented using wiki technology. The users that volunteer their efforts to create these articles will determine the images to use, the events on the timeline, etc. the content will be as relevant as the volunteers make it. Based on the experience we’ve had thus far with the Wiki project, I don’t believe there will be a problem keeping the content relevant.
Thanks for the positive feedback on the search filters.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:19 am
In response to Robert Hansen:
I’m glad you liked the design. We absolutely have to deliver functionality that is at the same quality as these designs.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:22 am
In response to Craig:
We’ll be sure to do some testing to see if the tabs are too subtle. Something that is hard to see in a conceptual design like this is how what the system is doing to reinforce the users interaction with the page. We hope that users will navigate more by flows than by tabs. The tabs are secondary to the flows in our design.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:23 am
In response to Kiril “The Mad Macedonian” Kundurazieff:
I hope you’ll have a great experience as you dive in. It sounds like our efforts to simplify are resonating with you.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:26 am
In response to Hans Fugal:
I think this is my favorite comment so far, “Loading foo.swf? Really? Why does Grandma care that the flash you’re loading has an swf extension?”
I couldn’t agree more!
I also agree with your thoughts about some of the drawbacks of flash and some of the strengths of other AJAXish type approaches.
Great comments. Keep them coming.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:30 am
In response to Alice Harris:
Yes, this is a draft of the design for familysearch.org. I’m glad the design seemed fairly effective for you.
It sounds like we can do a better job at helping the user to keep the context of what they are searching for during their search experience. We’ll work on that. Thanks for the feedback!
June 26th, 2009 at 10:50 am
In response to B.K. Erdude:
I’m glad you like the overall design. You indicate that you feel this is effective for new users or those who have never researched. Does that infer that it is not a good design for those that are researchers?
I’m not sure I understand the comments about structure. The information structure is not substantially different than the current wiki. If it is not a problem in the current wiki I’m not sure why it would be a problem here. Perhaps I’m not understanding the comment.
One of the keys to increasing the quality of content in a wiki environment is to showcase the best pages. It helps the volunteers adding and refining the content to see an example of the desired outcome. At least, that’s what they say in the research and conferences about successfully wikis.
I do think we can do more to help people realize that this is a place for volunteers to contribute in a number of ways. I’m not sure why it is important to the user that it is a wiki. In my experience, it doesn’t seem important to users that a site is back-ended by drupal, media wiki, mysql, Oracle, apache, tomcat, etc. It does need to be clear that we want users to help add and improve our collection of articles.
June 26th, 2009 at 10:51 am
In response to Marian Johnson:
I’m glad you prefer this design over the current alpha. Can you help me understand your thoughts more about the connection between Learning and wiki?
June 26th, 2009 at 10:52 am
In response to Elaine Justesen:
Thanks for the encouragement!
June 26th, 2009 at 11:01 am
In response to Alice Neff:
The new FamilySearch project isn’t quite ready to be integrated in with the familysearch.org website. When it is integrated we anticipate that there will be a different version of the home page – more of a dashboard. That will be used by those that have accounts in the system.
I completely agree with your insights about the need to search learning content from the main search.
Thanks for the insights on what we need to better to help users understand that we want them to help improve and add to the learning articles. The term barnraising and some of the other wiki jargon is only meaningful to a limited audience. Perhaps we would be better to use language that everyone understands. That might help us get more people involved.
When you are looking at an article, the volunteers that put the article together can choose to link it to related things including records sets that are referenced in the article.
Part of the eventual integration of record search and new FamilySearch includes connecting the sources to the people in the tree, etc.
We are also aggressively working to provide better ways to ‘cleanup’ new FamilySearch.
I like your suggestions to add some additional sources to the scope of the search. We’ll look into that.
Great feedback. Thanks!
June 26th, 2009 at 11:05 am
In response to Logan:
Lots of comments. Thanks for taking a look. I’ll have the design team review these.
June 26th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Overall, I really like the site. One feature that I would like to see is an additional way to narrow down search results. I would like little X boxes next to each name so that I could individually filter the individuals that I knew I wasn’t looking for. Then there could be a box at the top of the screen similar to the other “narrow by’s” to bring all the filtered names back into view. Basically it would be an extra way to use to process of elimination. I feel that it would help me in my searches. Especially when there are so many people of similar names or circumstances. Thanks.
June 27th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
I think the new graphics will be a major improvement along with the ability to further refine the searches. Also, I wasn’t sure how or rather who to contact about this. For the New York State Census of 1865, for Wilson Township in, Niagara Co. They have the 1875 census along with the 1865 census together, which is nice but not how it is suppose to be. Also the scans for the 1865 census appear not to be in phocus. You can tell that the copy they were working with wasn’t very good images either, but compared to the digital images of other poor microfilm this does look like they didn’t phocus it but that is just my opinion. Thank you to everyone who has worked to get all of the material up, it has been a mojor asset to a lot of people already. Thank you.
June 28th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Nice job on the design. It looks more user friendly…like it will be easier to navigate around and find things. I will want to check things out when you go live to see if everything works as well as it looks. When will that happen?
June 29th, 2009 at 9:58 am
In response to Kathryn:
I like your suggestion to let me dismiss some of the search results with an x or something to get them out of my way unless I want them back. Nice idea!
June 29th, 2009 at 10:00 am
In response to Lon:
I’ll pass your feedback about the census records on to the team. Thanks for reporting the issues.
June 29th, 2009 at 10:01 am
In response to Roy Bishp:
We are constantly updating the Alpha. All I can say about the timing of releasing this new version of the site is that it will be soon but not nearly soon enough ; )
June 30th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Home page:
1. The colors and design are very attractive. I like the use of pastels.
2. Is connect-the-dots a game/metaphor understood by all cultures who are expected to visit this page?
3. “Families” should read “family’s.”
4. Where are the forums? They will become one of the most-used elements of FamilySearch.
June 30th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Learning:
I like the regional map for browsing. Some people need to know about research in a place whose region is unknown, so in addition to a regional map there needs to be a list of countries, too.
June 30th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Home page:
Is connect-the-dots a game/metaphor understood by all cultures who are expected to visit this page?
June 30th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Home page:
“Families” should read “family’s.”
June 30th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Home page:
Where are the forums? They will become one of the most-used elements of FamilySearch.
June 30th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Learning:
1. I like the regional map for browsing. Some people need to know about research in a place whose region is unknown, so in addition to a regional map there needs to be a list of countries, too.
June 30th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Learning:
2. I think the videos could become the most-clicked item on the site, but only if the video frame is designed optimally. If I were visiting this page and the video frame had on it “How to get started in English research” as it has now, I wouldn’t click on it. But if it had that AND a list of other videos on the bottom of the frame as YouTube does, I might click videos relating to U.S. research.
June 30th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Learning:
3. I’m concerned about the size of the video frame because it pushes too far down on the window any view of a “featured page” or “Did You Know” section as WikiPedia has. It’s extremely important for the sponsor of a community site to feature the best work of their contributors.
June 30th, 2009 at 9:33 am
Learning:
4. The international wiki community gave wiki founders a hard time about using on the wiki the term “barn raisings,” saying it was an American term that doesn’t translate. We have also learned that barn raisings centered around a place are basically unsuccessful. We now call barn raisings “projects” as WikiPedia does, and focus them around a record type within a place, such as census records in the U.S. or probate records in England. I think those learnings should be reflected in this mockup.
June 30th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Learning:
5. The video and the three items under it (getting started, understanding historical documents, and course catalog) relate to small pieces of the wiki, but there’s no item that speaks to the wiki’s core. The bulk of the wiki — and the thing users care about most — is . The information on where to find records equals 80% of the site’s current content, and will equal probably 90% of it in the future.
June 30th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Learning:
6. How will the “Contribute to these communities” section be updated? In a wiki, the subject matter experts can update this stuff in seconds. On FamilySearch.org, it takes an act of Congress to update things. If it’s going to take a coder to update these links, it’s Cathedral approach, and it’ll bottleneck things.
June 30th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Learning:
7. The wiki needs to evolve quickly. So will this mockup page be just a window, a UI that pulls stuff from the wiki to show here? Or is the idea that the wiki will become this?
June 30th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Topical Article:
2. Do current wiki users — especially contributors — understand this page is meant to replace the look of an article at https://wiki.familysearch.org ?
June 30th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Some of the concept design pages might be useful to see side-by-side with the pages they are possibly replacing.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
here is the only suggestion I can think of for the homepage!
http://bacolicio.us/http://labs.familysearch.org/alpha
June 30th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
This optional look is awsome. The main home page seems empty because we are used to having so many things there immediately, I guess.
I loved the place and topic pages. They look sooooo professional. I cannot believe that is Wiki!
I also loved the Catalog Search. It is about time we do something like that to make it really friendly.
Thanks for all the great work you do.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
The portal looks wonderful! It makes me feel envy to have it also in Spanish and Portuguese. Any plans?
More people will be inclined to do research with such a wonderful, professional artwork.
June 30th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Where will the functionality for Wiki contributors be located? I assume they will be under the “Developers” tab. Is that right? All of the current functionality under the Wiki headings of Navigation, Community, Toolbox, and Personal Tools are used constantly by the contributors. While users of the information being created under the current Wiki would not need all of those items, they also must be made available to those who we hope will be willing to contribute their knowledge to the Wiki or its successor.
As your design teams continue to work on these pages, please remember to incorporate things into the design to encourage potential contributors to add their knowledge to these pages.
I would hope that the re-design of the look and feel of these pages would also not make it more difficult for contributors to add and format new pages and the information on those pages.
June 30th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
I would hope that before this whole redesign is introduced, that the Wiki contributors and, indeed, the whole Wiki community of users, etc. will have an opportunity to do a rather rigorous “Beta” test of the functionality of this redesign.
June 30th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
When you integrate newFamilySearch and/or FamilyTree where will that be located from the home page? Will the search be searching the database within newFamilySearch or just the record search databases? Will these be included by the time the Alpha site is ready to go live?
July 1st, 2009 at 9:34 am
The very top of the page is too busy on the FS Indexing page. You might try putting the documents someplace other than the top. Or supressing their contrast more to make the “Overview” box stand out more.
Colorblind people just won’t see that as clearly.
July 1st, 2009 at 9:41 am
Very, very nice. A big improvement!
July 1st, 2009 at 12:21 pm
I haven’t had time to look at everything, but what caught my eye on thevery first screen was “connect your families dots” – it should be “connect your family’s dots” – unless you are speaking of multiple families, then it would be ” families’ “. I think.
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:53 am
1. I like the clean look of the home page but I find that having the search field on the main page as misleading. Too many visitors, unfamiliar with how the collections are organized, will enter the name of interest and then get discouraged if there are no hits (or too many). Such a visitor won’t be connected with the vast resources available at the Family History Library. (This problem has existed ever since FamilySearch first went online.)
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:55 am
2. Note that the reference to “Consultations at the Library–Schedule an Appointment” needs to be removed.
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:56 am
3. Please edit references to “Reference Consultants” at the Family History Library. The title is now “Research Consultants.”
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:57 am
4. “Find a local branch of the Family History Library” should read, “Find a local Family History Center.”
July 6th, 2009 at 7:12 am
Amazing and motivating!
I love the usability and fuctionality.
A trail; breadcrumbs would be helpful.
On the Search Landing Page in Brows Record Collections – British Isles seems to be missing!
On the same page the placement of the US census collection seems confusing.
To employ a spell check feature may save a lot of editing time with WIKI articles. It may give some community contributors a bit more confidence motivating them to contribute.
Please allow Beta testing before releasing to the public.
July 8th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
As a wiki contributor I was asked to review the design for functionality. I have to admit that I was lost. “Learning” doesn’t really tell me that I’m going into the wiki community. Features that would be of interest to me: to be able to remain on the page that I’m viewing after I log in (as opposed to being kicked back to a main page); to be able to easily navigate to a previously-viewed page; a spell-checker would be nice; have better instructions about talk/discussion/forums for providing feedback (there are so many options that it’s difficult for a user to determine which is the most effective).
July 14th, 2009 at 7:14 am
Haven’t read but just the highlights. Are you building the capability to upload images or link to other image managing and sharing web apps like Picassa Web?
July 14th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Taking another look, I noticed that background image is deeper than the screen. At all three resolutions my monitor can display (800×600, 1024×768, and 1280×1024) the family in the silhouette is cut off. I have to scroll down to see them, and the links at the bottom. Also, I would move the family to the right so the “Site Map” link isn’t on top of them. I like the position of the church’s logo on the bottom left relative to the graphics.
In the B&W photo of the couple that switches with the scene of London, the husband looks like a candidate for the “missing link” and the wife’s dress is a dotted print. I was amused, so if you’re going for humor and a less serious approach to family history, viewers might get it.
The photo reminded me a little of Ancestry’s marketing campaign, “Who else was a fashion plate?” etc., but I can’t find those ads anymore.
July 19th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Under the heading Finding a Family History Center there is a maps link, but when I go there all I find is Places to worship.
August 12th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
I just have one word for you, SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOTIOUS! These changes are coming so fast and furious I just wonder if you guys get any sleep! Thanks for all your hard work!