Fonts being updated?
I was poking around in the beta platform just now and noticed quite a change in appearance. Not sure if they want comments at this point or if this is just early experimentation but people may want to take a look.
There is a bit of a tradeoff between legibility and how much of the name displays that I'm not sure what I think of. I do think that the list of children looks too crowded.
If no one else sees this, it is possible my Firefox is just acting up today. But one thing that is definitely real is the change from all caps in the tabs bar.
Answers
-
I saw it yesterday, too, @Gordon Collett. And, at least once, I saw the different font on the production site, not just on Beta. FWIW, I use a different browser (Edge) to access Beta from the one I use most often on the production site (Firefox).
I've also noticed a formatting change on dates a couple of times. It comes and goes, and I've seen it on both production and beta. This is a snip from a Change Log, but I have also noticed it on the Following list.
0 -
This comparison shot (Beta on the left with Production on the right) shows many names truncated with the larger font.
0 -
Insert quote from John McEnroe about seriousness...
This first image is from the production system, rendered with Firefox
The next image is from the Beta site rendered in Chrome (because that's the simplest way I can find of not confusing matters when comparing Production to Beta). Note also that the two screens each occupy half the glass of my PC because that's a typical way I arrange things for comparison. (Full size of glass is 1920x1080).
Observe please that the children all show their full names in the current software (apart from "Gertrude Hannah C"). Under the new choices of font etc, none of them show their full name. Nor do any of the birth years appear in any sensible form being truncated to the first two digits at best. (And please don't tell me to hover over the values - I can't compare the family as a whole like that).
Look, I know I have muttered in the past about there being a lot of wasted white-space in the FamilySearch UI but this doesn't seem the way to go, as it makes so much illegible.
Please note - I am assuming that this is a serious proposal as it appears on the Beta Site rather than on a programmer's own PC (experimentation surely shouldn't be done on the Beta Site - isn't the Beta Site for Beta Testing, not experiments?).
So - please, no...
4 -
(Please note - I am assuming that this is a serious proposal as it appears on the Beta Site rather than on a programmer's own PC (experimentation surely shouldn't be done on the Beta Site - isn't the Beta Site for Beta Testing, not experiments?).
I would have to wonder if such experimentation has to be on the beta site. It might look great on one programmers own PC but putting it on beta would let multiple different programmers or alpha testers (if that is what comes before beta testing) evaluate a change using any combination of Dell/HP/Lenovo/Apple/etc. with any number of operating systems using Chrome/Edge/Firefox/Safari/Opera/etc. in both current and most recent past browser versions.
1 -
@Gordon Collett said
"... It might look great on one programmer's own PC but putting it on beta would let multiple different programmers or alpha testers (if that is what comes before beta testing) evaluate a change using any combination of Dell/HP/Lenovo/Apple/etc. with any number of operating systems using Chrome/Edge/Firefox/Safari/Opera/etc ..."
Yes, volume testing of different combinations is probably only practical on Beta but if someone is altering the User Interface in design terms, the design needs to take account of several platforms, and work within established parameters. Some basic testing then needs to take place on different platforms in the software unit and suite test environment before release to Beta test.
The problem here, as I see it personally, is not a subtle one - surnames were truncated in your screenshots, those from @Áine Ní Donnghaile and mine. Mine are probably worse than yours and Áine's because I used a half-width screen. That should be thought about within the basic design parameters, never mind testing.
I suspect that the truncation of the years is an effect of my narrower screen as it doesn't appear on yours and Áine's. But again, design of the User Interface should cover the possibility of narrower screens.
Frankly, the result seems not to conform to what I would have expected the basic design parameters to be.
Now, I could be wrong on all this - it might be that there's some font substitution that's failing to work and that's the issue, not the basic design. But we don't know - we just see the issue on Beta Test with no explanation.
0 -
I used a 1/2 screen working on a 32-inch (diagonal) monitor. I opened Edge (Beta) and Firefox (Production) side-by-side to ensure I was comparing apples to apples.
1 -
And, whaddya know - the User Interface in Beta seems to be changing. The line "ABOUT DETAILS..." is back to All Caps in the Tab Bar (not that I had any problem with that!)
The names in the Family area are better than the previous Beta but not the same as the production system. I see "Edith Annie Co..." instead of "Edith Annie Cooper" in production or "Edith Anni..." in the previous Beta. That might not be too much of a problem for me since "Cooper" is visible in the father's name. @Áine Ní Donnghaile may not agree since her example had a mix of surnames both beginning with a "D" and some surnames were truncated to that "D".
The lifedates in that area are still truncated. But maybe they've not decided what to do there yet.
So someone either saw the resultant user interface and decided it could do with improvement (or even read this thread 🤨 ). Either way it's a step forward, thanks....
1 -
Thanks for your concern. I was told that sometimes beta is used to test things, that is it's purpose. Even tests performed in both Beta and Production provide very different results, so comparing the two will not often be useful. It is kinda like comparing apples to zucchinis. 😵
0 -
Beta was in flux for a while while we tested and fixed our new Font and Typography. We would love more feedback now that it has moved to production.
https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/153646/person-page-font-and-typography-updates
0
