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Genes Makeover

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ProfilePosted byOptionsPost Date

SylviaInCanada

SylviaInCanada Report 25 Jul 2012 20:12

Hi Phil


still do not like the colours ............ much prefer the "old" pale green background with very dark green type .......

................ it is MUCH easier on these old eyes :-D


An interesting fact, possibly unknown to you younger people, is that if one has had cataract surgery, EVERYTHING seems much brighter and glaring. For example, I have to wear sunglasses on days when most people do not bother.

I think this is one reason why I find the background uncomfortably bright, even after you have changed it to a very very pale grey.

The black type only emphasises the uncomfortable feeling because it is such a strong contrast.

Conversely, I need more light when I'm reading than pre-cataract surgery



The titles of the Boards and of the threads should stand out over the content .................. currently the turquoise of the title fades into the background and becomes much less obvious against the stark black of the type in Content.


Too little distinction on threads between headings, names of poster, etc


Preview tab stands out over the Submit button ........ which implies that Preview is the more important. How many people will click on Preview, and then wonder why their posting has not appeared on the thread.

At the very least, have them both the same shade, as they currently are, to give them equal prominence.


Looked at the tree (as you know, I don't often do that :-) ) ......................


don't like the glaringly pale boxes


please differentiate between males and females by different colours. Even different icons for male and female would be better than the current generic head and shoulders.


I don't like the numbers against the names, even though they do indicate tree matches ...................

.................... too distracting ...........


........ and do I really really need to know that I have 1169 matches for Living Living c1974 or 1122 matches for Living Living c1938 ???????????? Answer ................... NO!


Major problems with the tree changes for me are ..................


1. colour scheme

2. No distinction between male and female

3. distraction of numbers against names ........ especially as they are in darker type than everything else

4. needless "matching' and information provided for living relations.






Phil ....................

do I also have to send this by email, or is posting on here sufficient???





sylvia

Sally

Sally Report 25 Jul 2012 21:32

hello phil
i use a screen reader i do have some sight on here i can see most of the type but on beta it is almost invisable it was very uncomfortable and had to shut down within two or three minuets

i can and do spend hours on here

sally w

JerryH

JerryH Report 25 Jul 2012 22:32

I too have had a look at the new tree.

The Colours are again very pale and the font size means that I need a Magnifying Glass to read anything.
The only bit that does stand out is the Record Matches.
If these MUST be shown then plaese tone down the Colour.
As with the Normal New Tree, I would far prefer that the matches are related to Tree Matches only. I find it irratating to click on the star to find I have 26 Record Matches and 1 tree match. For me, the only time I find Record Matches of any benefit is when I am adding a new person (born after 1837) but even then these matches only tend to show if a birth was registered in the same year, or perhaps the odd Census where the spelling matches. For example, my Grandfather was born on Christmas Day but was not registered until March Quarter the following year. There is also an example where the Mother's death in Registered in December but child's birth not registered until March. Using the Registration Matches result in Genes Tree complaing that birth of child is after death of mother.
So why have Record Matches on the tree at all? Tree matches can be far more useful in discovering Hot Matches that Genes have failed to advise.

In terms of the Details Pane then I would like the Section for Notes to be on the Top Menu rather than right at the Bottom of the Details. I use this section a lot to record Life events such as Census. Obituary transcripts and I have more than a few transcripts of Wills as well,

I agree that it would be good to distinguish between Male and Female. On more than one occasion I have entered a female as a male using the old tree and have been thankful the the difference showed and allowed a quick correction..

It would be nice if we could have a photo popup similar to that on Ancestry as well.

But first and foremost please do something about the colours and font sizes so I can read the screen.

Moving to the rest of the site, on the Home Page, the Drop Down Menu for Serch Records is too long and the only way I can read it all is to move up the screen to just display the Menus and then toggle Full Screen. I did send Genes a Full Screen Screen Shot to demonstrate this a day or so back

I agree entirely with the comments on Message Titles not distinct enough and that the Submit Button is virtually invisible. I can just about cope with this but it is not that easy.

Ok, I have had my moan about what I don't like
But there is much about the new site that I do and find encouraging so it is more a matter of how to make a good start, great.

Jeremy

allotment

allotment Report 26 Jul 2012 07:27

Thank you to Phil for allowing me access to the new beta site.

I have to agree with Jeremy amongst others that the new beta tree is too washed out and the red star for matches too bold a contrast. The older green background had a somewhat professional look about it and I don't think that can be said of the new tree format. Clearly distinguishing between males and females is also a necessity. My tree is all but complete as far as I can or want go so I don't have the need to add relations so have not encountered any problems there.

The Tree Matches facility does not seem to work for me as nothing shows when you click on it? This also happened with the ''new tree'' on the old site when Tree Matches only worked occasionally for me and when it did there seemed to be no way of returning to the tree other than going back a page and that took you to the home person in the tree and not the person that you were looking at.

I was one of the fortunate members who never had a problem with logging in on the old site or with error messages etc. However the ''My Threads'' still showing when they had been deleted was a problem and that does not appear to have been addressed yet.

It is good to see improvements being rolled out and let us all hope that GR can now return to being the first stop for those looking into their family history.

SylviaInCanada

SylviaInCanada Report 26 Jul 2012 21:14

errrrrrr


PHIL!



one of the photos that popped up for me on the beta site yesterday was of a female beach volleyball player ....... presumably connected to the Olympics.


The view is from the back, and she was wearing a T-shirt, and, I think/hope, thong bottoms ............

............ but it was pretty hard to tell whether or not she was or not


pretty risque stuff for a genealogical site!


some of the men on site might need a cold shower after viewing this





:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D




sylvia

SylviaInCanada

SylviaInCanada Report 30 Jul 2012 06:59

Have emailed a copy of what I posted on here

+++DetEcTive+++

+++DetEcTive+++ Report 30 Jul 2012 13:06

What? About the Thongs? :-D

It probably gives as indication that the programmer was male ;-)
The static odd images 'might' indicate that when/if it goes 'live', that is where adverts will appear.

SylviaInCanada

SylviaInCanada Report 30 Jul 2012 21:23

I forgot about the beach baby photo!!!

Gai

Gai Report 1 Aug 2012 10:17


Isn't it nice to see we all wasted our time with the beta testing and giving GR Feedback.


:-| :-P :-P :-P :-P :-P :-P :-P :-P

Joy

Joy Report 1 Aug 2012 10:23

Deja vu, Gai

Gai

Gai Report 1 Aug 2012 10:25


Ok from Facebook. I'll probably get in trouble for this;

Gai - Shame you didn't listen to your members and change the colours. We tested the beta site and gave you our feedback. Why did we waste our time.
9 minutes ago ยท Like

Genes Reunited Hi Gai, we will be taking on board all feedback sent to us regarding the redesign, and reacting to it where necessary. Please send an email to [email protected] Thank you

Gai

Gai Report 1 Aug 2012 10:36


Email sent so I wonder if my ISP is still blocked. I guess I'm about to find out.

Porkie_Pie

Porkie_Pie Report 1 Aug 2012 10:49

Gai, I think your comment has been removed from FB

Be careful they will ban you from commenting on FB

They banned me from commenting months ago

Roy

Gai

Gai Report 1 Aug 2012 10:56


Roy,

I hope being a loyal member and telling GR every time Ancestry ads appear on the boards might keep me out of trouble. ;-)

Will wait and see what happens.


Gai

Posted the link to this thread on Facebook.

Genes

Genes Advisor Report 1 Aug 2012 11:17

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for taking the time to send your feedback. We'll be monitoring it closely and making changes where necessary.

I'm very sorry that you feel we did not take your initial round of feedback on board. As a result of the feedback we received from the beta testing, we darkened the background of the boards from white to off grey, as well as made the text a size bigger and darker. We then sent an email to all those who had sent feedback and asked them to look at the changes we had made and feedback again. Only a small number of people did this and it was mostly positive.

If the light background continues to be a problem for people, we will look into other solutions, but of the 5000 people who we invited to test the beta site, only a small percentage sent feedback and this was a real mix of positive and negative, so now that the site is visible to everyone, we will be able to gather more feedback and see what the wider reaction is.

Katie

Gai

Gai Report 1 Aug 2012 11:23



Thanks Katie for replying.

As you can see from this thread maybe some members didn't send separate feedback given that Phil and responded to some of their posts.

Gai

Genes

Genes Advisor Report 1 Aug 2012 11:26

No problem Gai - We try to never release anything which we think would intentionally put our members off of using the site. Everything we do is an attempt to make the site better and easier to use.

Trying to keep up with the boards is a real challenge so please, if you do have any feedback, send it to [email protected] - This address is monitored personally by Estelle and myself on a daily basis.

Thanks

Gai

Gai Report 1 Aug 2012 12:30


Roy,

My comment has just been removed from Facebook but it was there for over 2 hours.



Gai

Porkie_Pie

Porkie_Pie Report 1 Aug 2012 12:35

Gai, I would send you a sad face but my emoticons don't work so i will have to settle for :-((

Roy

Mmmm, apparently they do but only if i enter them as text

Joy

Joy Report 1 Aug 2012 12:54

Katie, the boards are used much less frequently than a few years ago and I feel that the usage may decrease more as people that suffer from light sensitivity have increased difficulty using this site.