changes in general
there are MANY of us who are not "everything technology" - we need simple and consistent
recently Family Search has been making so many changes, that a lot of time is lost having to relearn so much - even though we are familiar with the current FS pages, these constant changes are extremely frustrating, and discouragement sets in quickly - we have to mentally tackle trying to understand what has been done and learn all over again how everything works . . . what all the new words/terms mean . . . where things have been moved to . . . etc.
I can't see how the changes on the “new” person page have improved the process at all - I know I don't necessarily have a right to know every reason for every change - but most of what has been changed was never broken to start with
adding new features (ie. “about” tab) is obviously useful to many people, hence necessary - but can't that be done without so much change throughout the entire site - to assess what needs to be added or tweaked is one thing - but in the process to change the look and feel of everything is quite unsettling to many who are using Family Search several hours each day
“new features” could even be added as its own tab on the person page, with a drop-down menu listing each new feature - the user can then click on what he/she needs
to wrap this up, I know that technology enthusiasts find “new” things challenging and exciting - but this work and research is challenging enough - many of us are just trying to do even the basics to find missing ordinances and take care of them - I hope what I have said isn't unsettling to the Family Search team - you are trying to please millions of people - I pray for the Holy Ghost to help you know the very best solutions to all of this - the church is still true and nothing will stop this important work
Comments
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As a volunteer at a local FamilySearch Center, I see many patrons of various ages and capabilities. We also teach patrons how to use FamilySearch by making presentations or handouts for their benefit. I agree 100% with the comments given above. Anytime the look and feel of the site changes, we have significantly more questions on how to use the new site, questions on why things changed, where to find things that moved and it requires time and effort to update any training handouts or materials we have prepared. Minimizing changes to the look and feel while just adding new features is the best approach
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I honor those who try to keep up with the myriad of changes labeled as "Improvements" .... But my experience tells me that we are loosing many dedicated and contributing people in the process. One current example, is the "pencil icon" is not intuitive to many people that it means "edit". Also, moving something (ie. the Life Sketch) usually means that it no longer exists, or at best "I can't find it anymore." Just my 2cents, but I wish there was a little more appreciation for the impact of such rapid pace of changes that doesn't always appear to make sense to many in the genealogy community.
Another example ... adding various individual relationships such as Neighbor, Apprentice, Employer, etc etc as outlined in the training video for the New Personal Page seems "over the top" and in my opinion will result in a whole bunch of "unintended consequences". We are already encountering this with the introduction of DNA where "spurious relationships" are created with lack of credible traditional evidences. This is particularly a problem in a "shared tree" environment where many times peoples' opinions seem more important than informational accuracy. Just my opinion, for whatever it's worth.
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thank you Brent Meredith and melville,dl for your comments - "Anytime the look and feel of the site changes, we have significantly more questions on how to use the new site, questions on why things changed, where to find things that moved" and "my experience tells me that we are loosing many dedicated and contributing people in the process"
last night when i was posting i was worried that i wasn't making sense (i struggle with how to explain when writing vs speaking) - i know that Heaven is fully in charge of all of this - so i am trusting that the end result will be the right thing
but i will never forget something my bishop told me when i was serving as relief society president in my family ward a few years ago - a lot of things i would hear from the sisters sounded like gossip mixed with fact - he admonished me to listen closely, because "information is inspiration"
so it is in that spirit that i give my input, even though it may or may not be valuable to the Family Search team
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