Isn't far more user-testing required before new features are added to the production model?
The new sign-in page, new image viewer / editor, new formatting of source titles, new fonts. I'm sure other long-standing users of FamilySearch could name a few more new / "enhanced" features that do not appear to have been properly thought through before their release to FamilySearch / Family Tree.
I wonder what is happening? Are the developers under pressure to meet deadlines to "go live" and that is the cause of so many bugs or general problems that are providing us with so much frustration?
There have been just too many problems lately, across a wide range of matters, that should never have developed if properly thought through in conjunction with a team of testers that have everyday experience in using FamilySearch products and could have advised of the problems some of these new / revised features were likely to cause to users.
Answers
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I don't disagree. There are almost always a few glitches that show up, even after extensive testing before release. But we seem to be seeing more than a few.
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Good question. Things do seem a bit frazzled, don't they? I have to wonder if the old basic foundation of the programming for the website which was failing and required them, as stated often in explaining the need for the full redesign of the person pages, to change platforms is so close to giving out completely that they are rushing to get off of it completely.
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But it's not just new stuff that's potentially suffering. How long has the Search / Images facility been in use? And how far off working across all the data is it? I don't know - it keeps failing dismally, then it works well on different data so I get all excited but then discover that it still doesn't work on the older stuff.
And.... How long will it be before catalogue corrections are being made? Maybe these are all being worked through and we just don't know.
Communication is surely key - it benefits both FS and its users. But...
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Here's another problem to add to the list for the engineers to examine:
Although, as @Áine Ní Donnghaile suggests, this might well relate to the subject of new fonts. Whatever the reason for this current appearance of place names, this really does need to be sorted asap, along with the other problems that are certainly not making FamilySearch easier to use, compared to before these changes were implemented.
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To answer the question in your heading, yes as a user I feel this way all the time. I would love to give more explanation but someone often chimes in to tell me my concerns are not valid so I won’t bother. But I just wanted to say many people feel the same way you do. I’m tech savvy and able to work around most issues but my mom is stopped in her tracks by website friendliness issues. They should hire us to do testing. Ha ha
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Features are frequently rolled out into Production in stages. Rigorous testing is conducted before and during the Beta phase; however, occasionally, unforeseen bugs may surface only after the feature is live in Production. Rest assured, our exceptional engineers dedicate tremendous effort to maintain the optimal functioning of FamilySearch
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I would never wish to diminish my expressions of gratitude towards the brilliant efforts of the FS engineers in making the website one of such excellent quality and content. However, I have to stand by my remarks when it comes to some issues that do not involve bugs at all, but have just not been properly thought through. Take the introduction of new fonts and the new sign-in page, as examples.
As has been illustrated, the fonts used for headings and comments fields are simply a bad match - nothing has gone wrong after their introduction, the issue should have been noticed from the very start. Likewise with the issues over the new sign in page. Apart from the heavily criticised inability to be kept signed in for two weeks (which has actually make "security" concerns worse now one can remain signed in for 24 hours in a public place) the long-requested "Show" (eye icon) feature when entering ones password is only apparent after entering the first character of the password - at odds (for me, at least) with every other website that I need to sign in to.
The problem with issues that do involve actuals bugs, or unexpected poor functionality, is that the engineers rarely provide confirmation that they are working on the matter. Indeed they leave "workarounds" (such as how to get a better experience in viewing images, and the problem of making editing of source titles "stick") to ordinary Community members, such as @Julia Szent-Györgyi . True, many issues are fixed very quickly, so maybe it can help when the engineers concentrate on a fix, rather than distract themselves by providing updates. But the ones that have been causing difficulties for users for several weeks, even months, certainly need the courtesy of some interim responses.
On the positive side, @Maile L is currently doing an excellent job of confirming when reports have been passed to the engineers, and providing updates as well as she can (although, sadly, these sometimes advise she has had no further news herself on progress with certain issues). Before that, we had to just hope problems had been passed to the engineers, and only knew they had been fixed when we realised the problem had gone away!
In summary, yes, of course new (or existing / old) features can be subject to unexpected, negative behaviours, but its hardly plagiarism to check out how other websites manage to present certain features and adopt them on FamilySearch (sign in page and use of appropriate fonts are examples here). And when things do go wrong, communication is surely the key issue in preventing our exasperation - in wondering how / when the matter(s) will ever be put right.
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