Preferred Spouse and Parent

Gordon Collett

Sorry for the late feedback but I don't get to the Preferred Spouse and Parent pop up very often and just didn't notice it before.

Here are the current two tabs in the pop up:

This looks strange.

They really should look like this:

Or even better just simplify this to:

Chas Howell

IMO the side by side view is superior. Communicates more clearly and saves a click 

Alan E. Brown

This is a standard tabbed layout, used in many places in FamilySearch. The current tab is highlighted, and the content for the current tab is shown in the content portion of the window. It would be strange indeed if FamilySearch were to do what you suggest, for example, in Settings. We would go from the current:

... to something like this:

There is certainly an argument for saying that the choice of a tabbed layout is not the best choice for the preferred relationships popup. I would not disagree at all. But it would be chaotic to make a tabbed layout work differently in this one case than in all the others.

Gordon Collett

Elsewhere that tabbed form looks fine. In the example you posted I'm sure it is because of the large title and the space between the tabs and the information. That is why it would be best to do away with the tabs and just have two columns of information and display both parents and spouses at the same time.

Or do this:

Something needs to remind the eye that the information directly and closely under Preferred Spouse has nothing to do with spouses when the Preferred Parents tab is active.

Alan E. Brown

I like the suggestion to add a heading below the tabs to make it clear what is being shown. That would help make it clearer what is being shown in the content part of the view; simply highlighting the tab, especially where the Preferred Parents tab is off to the right, isn't all that obvious.

I'm not so fond of the suggestion to have two columns of information side by side. Remember that these pages need to adapt to a wide variety of screen sizes, down to mobile phones. What may seem like a good idea on a wide screen may not work so well on a small screen.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

I know that it's just applying the current style of tabs, but it points out a flaw or shortcoming in that style: when there are only two tabs, it is not at all clear which one is "on" and which one is "off". Is "Preferred Parents" highlighted or grayed out?

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the contents of the tab are all the way over at the left, below the other tab label, with no separation between that label and the contents. In other places where this style is used, the content uses the full width of the box, and there are usually three or more tabs, so it's much clearer which one is currently selected. ("One of these things is not like the others.")

I really like the two-column idea for Set Preferred. Narrow screens could deal with it exactly the same way that the Family Members section deals with it, by putting the right-hand column below the left-hand column.