Feedback on the redesigned search interface
Thank you for investing effort in modernizing the record search interface. I thought I might offer up my reactions.
- I like the filter at the top. Saves space and intuitive.
- I really like that you remember that I chose "More Options" and "Exact Search" between sessions! That saves me a couple clicks.
- Moving the advanced search/filter options from left sidebar to right is not on its own a big thing, but having it and the detailed search results in the same real estate is a bit frustrating. I am constantly closing and re-opening panels to tweak and view the results
- I preferred having the detailed search results appear in a modal/dialogue. With the new drawer layout, the limited space available requires a good amount more scrolling to see all details.
- The layout of the advanced search panel has more vertical space between form fields, labels, and checkboxes, which also forces more scrolling, especially for the search options that appear at the bottom of the panel. It feels like it could be tightened up a lot.
- I'm not a huge fan of the text "REMOVE" buttons. An X is well understood by browsers, even used on the home page, and would help reduce the amount of scrolling needed. Perhaps hovering on the X could show a tooltip with the action and also shade the background of the items that would be removed to clarify?
I appreciate the great resource that you provide, and am eager to see your ongoing tweaking of the interface.
Answers
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Gracias por su aporte, muy interesante saber que le brindamos recursos maravillosos en su búsqueda de sus antepasados, es un trabajo maravilloso.
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I like that you were so positive in your feedback. I cannot find one thing that I like better!
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I would appreciate a blog post or something from the management as to why the new changes were made? I supported a lot of websites (as an IT admin) for decades (2! :)), and designed a few myself, and am always curious as to the reasons why major UI changes are made, particularly when they seem to be less friendly.
I always found the previous incarnation of the search forms less than perfect, but quite manageable, particularly when you want to do some fine tweaking to a search, but now many of those choices are hidden or removed, which makes a lot of searching difficult and error prone. I apologize that I can't give you effusive praise, but I really really appreciate this product, and want it to be the best it can be.
And I do a lot of searching and linking with the findagrave.com material, and that searching could always be quite finicky, but one thing that would almost always work, is if you find an entry on the findagrave.com site, grab the memorial ID, and plug in the affiliate record ID box (make sure you leave everything else blank :) ), and you would get a hit (on collection 2221801). With the new interface, I have yet to get a hit! Something wacky is going on with the SQL, or your mapping from the form data to your SQL string.
Would it be a horrible thing to offer, say, at the bottom of the page, a link to the old search form? For those of us who don't want to learn the new way :) ? You want people to be the most productive, right? Having the most linked and complete set of data is much more important than a "cool" looking site, in my opinion.
Change for change sake is not always for the best :) Seriously, though, thank you for a great product!
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