Did you see the new design on profile pages?

Question

WikiTree has been slowly rolling out a new design for many weeks.

Today, the last important page was converted: Person Profiles.

Any profile is an example, e.g. http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Whitten-1

Do you see any problems with this new design?

Thanks!

Chris

Comments

... it has ruined the backgrounds  Apart from that I like it, but the background thing enabled one to really personalise a persons profile so I think thats a huge shame.

 

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Hi Nicky,

I actually think the background on your profile looks great.

One thing that I mentioned in a reply to Paula below is that the amount of background wallpaper you see will now depend heavily on your screen resolution.

Chris

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Is there any way we could get the scrollbars to go automatically to the edge of the visible area, instead of having a double set of scrollbars on the profile compare screen? Right now they go about 75% of the way across, so I am scrolling the outer page scrollbars in order to scroll the inner page scrollbars on the side-by-side profiles. Something similar happens also on the profile edit screen with the biography edit textarea.

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Thanks Chris :) It does still look ok there I agree *chuffed*. But for example on here http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Blacklock-44 Ive lost half the pic - Grandad was on two minesweepers and I had both ships icons showing - the Tui & the Kiwi - the dear Kiwi  is now hidden. Ive been looking at the various backgrounds Ive attached and I think with the changes it will be better in future to use small pics so as people get the picture (excuse the pun) as on: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Blacklock-59 All said and done though ... its a silly complaint in the grand scheme of things. On reflection anyway! The new profiles are much better in many ways ... imho :)

Nik

Answer 1

Pro: It provides a transparent background for primary profile photo.

Con: It takes away from the background image surround look and eliminates leaving images on public bulletin board comments.

Just my two cents LOL!

Comments

Hi Chris one small problem the message box and the photos on the right hand side of my page are no longer there I seem to have the memories box on the right hand side of the page Terry

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Hi Terry,

Check your profile again. I removed some funky table formatting commands around the "rules of genealogy". I don't know if you want to add any of it back.

http://www.wikitree.com/index.php?title=Wright-7062&diff=16155600&oldid=16126752

The styling on the new design is a bit more complex than the old, so it's more likely to be unforgiving on conflicts. Sorry.

Chris

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Thank you chris yes it is better but I can not add the table back as it does the same thing its a shame we are more limited to what we can do now Terry

Answer 2

I prefer the old design. The new one looks much more plain and lacks contrast. The whole redesign of WikiTree seems to make it harder for the older members to work with and thus slows them down.  We need to remember that some of these older members are where some of the more reliable information comes from.

Comments

I am not opposed to change but if there is no good reason to change something I question why the change is needed.

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Hi Dale,

Change is the only constant. :-)

The old look was evolved, one change at a time, over the course of six years. I personally hate ground-up redesigns because they are so disruptive. But sometimes they are necessary.

Going back isn't an option. We want to continue to move forward. If there are particular problems with the new design we want to fix them. Please post about the issues that are most problematic for you and why.

Thanks,

Chris

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I did mention the problem, Which is contrast, or lack there of, I understand that going back may be an option but with others macking the same comments about the contrast and the new design requiring more scrolling you may find that some members be required to spend less time here to reduce eye strain. I do not know the reason that these changes were needed but any change that generates negative comments from some of the members that spend a lot of time here makes me wonder if the goal is to slow things down.

Answer 3

I really enjoy the ability to have the tile background. A lot of work goes into putting together profiles not only with accurate info but to be interesting to others who may see it.  All that can't be seen now. I have had comments on profiles about how they loved the background and then read the story. Here is an example

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hendrix-455

Comments

I meant an example of the comments which are bottom right

Answer 4

I think a good way to judge the effect is to look at the archive of Profile of the Week winners.

Comments

Maybe I missed the announcement but if I had known this was going to happen I would have photographed my best pages so that I could still have them. This is discouraging.

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Hi Paula,

Sorry the background images have lost some of their impact.

FWIW, their prominence will depend on your screen resolution. It sounds like you probably don't have much margin around the content box.

Chris

Answer 5

Just one. Once I switch to public view on my profile, I can't switch back to Private view via the tab. If I click on the Family Tree tab, once I'm on that screen then all the tabs work for me.

Otherwise I think the pages I've seen so far are looking pretty great. I love my profile page. I'm glad I can still see the sunflowers down the side.

Comments

I can't see anything but a strip down the right side.

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It might the screen format of your computer.  I see sunflowers down both sides.  On that profile you shared, Henry, I can see the image on both sides also.

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Thanks! I will check. Not all my profiles look the same or have the same problems. I am certain that everything will work out and I do appreciate all of the hard work, Chris!

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Hi Eowyn,

Gail asked about the Public View changes as well. It's a trade-off. We intentionally removed the links to the Private View because they wouldn't be there for people who aren't on the Trusted List. That is, the Public View is now a truer representation of what the public will see. The fact that the links worked had confused some people in the past.

You should see a big link in the header back to the Private View.

Chris

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Great! Makes sense, thanks!

Answer 6

Is mine  the only Profile page where the message box is gone and the photos do not display down the right hand side of the page and the memory box up the top on the right hand side  ? if so that is really strange it also affects some of my other profile pages like this one

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bullwinkel-6

Comments

Hi Terry. See my answer above. It was the conflicting table tags. It should be better now.

Answer 7

Love the fresh look and feel!  Nicer spacing and cleaner font.  I've been seeing the new template appear in different areas and was so happy to finally see it on the profile page!  Great work!

One question - will there ever be a mobile friendly version available?

Answer 8

I again vote in favor of the new page designs. They are less cluttered and easier to use... BUT, at the risk of repeating myself, the text has insufficient contrast. I would like to see a different or darker font.

Comments

Darker font would be nice.

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Hi R. and Trudy,

Do you mean a darker font in editing fields (text input boxes), or everywhere? It should be consistent now, but wasn't a few days ago.

The main font is just a smidge grey; we could make it black.

But, it might not be the color that's the problem. It could be the font choice itself.

Chris

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Black would be nice.  Thanks Chris.

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Hi Trudy,

The font color is now flat black. If it's still too light, I think it's the font face that's the problem.

Chris

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I saw the black , it does work better for me. I like it.

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I'm not an expert on this stuff but it may be the font that causes me (very slight) trouble. I magnified fonts and compared them. Wikipedia's letter "o" is 9 pixels square on my display and Wikitree's is 8 pixels. "i" is 3 pixels wide in Wikipedia vs. 2 in Wikitree. Anti-Aliasing and sub-pixel rendering can cause rainbow fringes on letters and skinny fonts may accentuate this. Different operating systems and equipment also display differently so there may not be an optimum solution for everyone

All in all, I think you're on the right track. You're very brave to request people's opinions on something like this.

Answer 9

Currently viewing on an iphone. Example: Rice-52.  

1. "Background" images show up as a strip down right side revealing only a hint of the image. Personally I have never liked the implementation of background images.  I rarely saw one that didn't make the page look busy or cluttered. So I don't mind its removal.  But this isn't a removal. It's now a vertical strip. If that's how it's going to remain then most pages with background images should probably be redesigned to either remove or change the background image to something appropriate for a vertical border.

2. personal memories show up on some pages and not others.  On my profile it only shows up in private view which I suppose makes sense.  In Rice-52 it shows up on neither public nor private profile.  Frankly this is another feature I've never been fond of.  It makes no sense on older profiles and is often used incorrectly -- people placing content there that should be incorporated into the narrative.

3. Ditto with what used to be the secondary set of tabs (tree, descendants, etc). On those pages where it does show up, it's piled at the top of the right hand column further pushing down comments WAY "below the fold" which has always bothered me. Comments should be far more visible than they were and now are even less visible.  On other views, the secondary set of tabs doesn't show up at all. Haven't yet figured out what if any pattern is being followed.

4. On iphone, font is fine.  As I recall from laptop, I concur with others, the font is too light/thin and is difficult to read. I'll post more later from a laptop view.

Comments

5. On some profiles I see all comments.  On other pages I see only a few and then there's a "more comments" link.  I can't determine what logic is used for when "more comments" is used and when it isn't.

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On laptop (macbook; chrome):

1. Background is now a strip on the left and the right. It no longer communicates as a background image, but as borders.

2. Personal memories placement on laptop is same as I described for iphone. Appears on some profiles and not others.

3. Secondary "tabs" set. I think I figured it out. That set of tabs does not appear if a profile is not Open (or Public?).

4. Font and spacing on laptop is annoying. Font is skinny/light making it difficult to read. Spacing between lines requires far more scrolling, pushing important data "below the fold". There's also something odd about horizontal spacing. When comparing duplicates, there is more left hand margin which requires horizontal scrolling of each of the compare screens which increases the time it takes to analyze and complete merges.

5. I didn't re-examine this on a laptop yet.

Answer 10

screen resolution.  I am good at genealogy but not as a techie. I am also one of the oldsters and don't like change, especially this one concerning profiles.  How do you change the resolution?  Will it effect pages outside of wikitree?  I'd still like to know what was wrong with it in the first place?

Comments

A quick way to change the resolution while viewing any web page is the command (or alt)- in combination with the plus or minus sign. Play with this to see if you get a better viewing experience.

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thank you Jillaine. I used the control button instead and it did the same thing.  

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sorry... it's been awhile since I've been on a Windows machine and after I posted this, I even asked myself: alt or control? Thanks for the correction.