Can you give me feedback on an app I'm working on?

Question

Hi. Please give me some feedback on this: https://apps.wikitree.com/apps/beacall6/templates.php

The idea of it is to give a visual overview of what categories have been attached to a profile, what templates are being used in the bio, the main picture attached to the profile, and brickwalls. You put in a WikiTree ID and click one of the two buttons (the ancestors go up to 10 generations; the relatives are parents, spouses, siblings, and children; I'd like to add descendants in the future). The relationship of each person to the searched-for/main person is noted in the bottom-right corner. Click on a box and you can see links between that person and others on the page (it's colour-coded; I could explain it all or you could work it out for yourself). The links should take you where you would expect them to go (hopefully). You can start again from each person with the little arrow symbols. It may take about 20 seconds or so to load if the profile has many ancestors (much faster if they don't). You can log in or not. As usual, logging in gives you access to data from your private profiles.

My questions:

1. Does it work for you? (I tested it today on my PC and  iPad, and it worked fine for me, but you never know...)

2. Do you see any problems?  I expect there are a lot of problems, but I'm at a point where it seems to work for me, so I'd like some fresh eyes on it.

3. Is this useful for you?

4. Do you have any suggestions to improve it?

I may have more questions, but that's it for now...

Thanks.

(I found Eowyn's family has a lot of categories and templates, so it may be a good example to put her grandfather's ID in the box: Langholf-10; (I hope you don't mind, Eowyn)).

Comments

The functionality is super cool. But it took me quite a bit of playing to figure out the tricks and the layout (Chrome, Ubuntu). Some things that would make it more intuitive for me:

* members of the same generation don't show up on the same line, so it's not immediately clear that the father and mother of a focal individual are grouped together
* I'd like to see the focal individual highlighted more distinctly than with a heavy border (it took a long time to notice the border)
* I'd like the generational info (S, P, GP) in the top left, and in a more-obvious-than-white color frame.
* I'd like it to be more obvious that you can click on a person and see their relationships highlighted. This is a cool feature, but it was hard to figure out. Maybe a dedicated 'highlight' button?

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Thanks, Brad.

I'll look into displaying generations in a clearer way.

I'll highlight the focal individual more clearly.

About the position of the 'S'/'P', etc... I'm not arguing, but why top left rather than bottom-right?

I don't want to clutter the page with instructions, but yeah... it's not obvious that you can see the lines connecting people without me telling you or you finding out by chance.  How about the colours of the lines? Did you find that intuitive (or just confusing)?

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About the position of the S/P/G etc, I just feel like I'd look in the top left first for that info. I don't have a strong feeling about it. If it was more visually obvious, it might not matter. One thing about the bottom right, it sometimes covers up other text.

As for the colors of the lines themselves, they were perfectly clear. I think the pink-blue convention is strong enough that there won't be any confusion. And it's quickly clear that green means "marriage"; and descendant lines from a focal individual are pale, but ancestral lines are dark. That much I didn't even need to think about.

So, from a UX perspective, there is clickable text (obvious, bc blue). Then there are 3 additional clickable elements: the ancestors, the relatives and the 'direct links' elements (ie, the profile box). None of them immediately tell me to click.

I would *probably* put a border around the ancestors and the relatives icons, to make them look like buttons.

As for the relationship, direct links lines: maybe show them all the time, for the focal individual? From the moment you first put in the id number? One reason it took me so long to figure them out was that I only saw them flash for a quick moment when I clicked one of the other links. If they're there from the start, it'll be intuitive that they will change when I click on a different individual, to change focus.

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OK. Thanks again. I'll bear all that in mind. And, I had noticed that the 'S'/'P'/etc. things sometimes covered text, but thought "never mind..." But you're right - I should fix that.

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Hi Brad. I've taken your advice and added borders around the arrows so they look more clickable (maybe I should change the images, too). I've also moved the generation/relationship initials ('S', 'P', etc.) up to the top-left corner. I've added changed it to show the relationship lines onload for the focal person, but I don't think I'm going to leave them there all the time as when you click someone else, I think the criss-crossing lines would be confusing. (But, I have encountered a strange problem with the lines not showing a second time for the focal person.  I'll find the problem and fix it (hopefully).)

I don't think I want a dedicated 'highlight' button for the lines - I think it's good to use the whole box as the clickable region - but I'm not sure how to make it clear that you can get these lines by clicking a box without simply writing at the top 'click a box to see blahdy blahdy blah...'  Any ideas?

I've highlighted the focal person more clearly, but I don't think I like it. I'll probably change it.  Again...any ideas?

Thanks a lot for your input.

* Edited because... I had highlighted the focal person with a big box shadow (like a very big border), but now I've done the same to everyone to show generations, so I'll have to think of another way to highlight the focal person.

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I think the line functionality here, how it's apparent from the start, and changes when I click, is much more user friendly and useful.

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Thanks, Ian! Tested it this morning on Chrome on my WikiTree ID - everything looks great and works. This looks super helpful as I have wanted something similar to this in the past.  Thank you for making it happen. I appreciate your work and generosity.

All the best, Janet

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Thanks, Janet. I'm glad it seems useful to you. Let me know if you have any suggestions to improve it or if you see any problems.

Thanks again.

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updated on 10 Jan 2020:  click here to go to answer below

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My thoughts entirely.

Answer 1

Looking good. Some very quick thoughts:

1. Works for me (FF, Win10)

2. I cannot really see the "little arrow symbols". Oh, on second thought: those are the green symbols. I clicked (no change in my mouse pointer observed when hoovering) and a very fast line was drawn and the screen reloaded this profile...?

3. At this moment is a nice feature with great potential

4. I miss some hoovers/pop-up with explanations. What do the green symbols mean and how do they work? Where is a list what s, g2gp etc means?

Comments

Thanks for looking, Michel.

Click in the middle of a box (not on a link) and you'll get the lines connecting people.  The up arrows show ancestors; the NESW arrows show relatives. 'G2GP' means Great-Great-GrandParent. (GP= grandparent; every other G is a 'great').

Yeah... I could add title tags to give some hints. I'm thinking about all the iPad people though. It seems like a lot of people here use iPads, and they can't hover over things, so...

Edited to add: OK. I've added titles (that you see when you hover) for the arrows and the initials (e.g. GGP).

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Thanks for the quick updates. I know, I am old fashioned without a Tablet/Pad/touch screen thingy

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Well, I find a PC much easier to use (and I'm usually half-working at my desk anyway...), so I don't use a tablet, either. (I have an iPad kind of by accident (and I used it for the first time yesterday to check if code was working)).

Answer 2

Checked out on PC and IPad, features working on both devices.  Really like the way this is presented.  Seems more personal to me than some of the other ways of looking at ancestors.  I believe if I show this to my children and grandchildren I'll actually get a positive response instead of an eyeroll!  

Thanks Ian, I can see using this a lot in the future.

Comments

Thanks, Fred.  I know what you mean - I don't even know Eowyn, but I like looking at the pictures of her ancestors and the projects and things.  (I haven't added any pictures of my ancestors (mainly because I don't have any pictures) and they're not connected to any project, so...) (Sorry Eowyn, I'm not stalking you, I just used your ancestors for testing).

Answer 3

Ian -

Nice! I tested on Firefox and Chrome on Linux.

Ancestors. I would be nice to specify the number of generations, since this can take some time (and be a pretty large display result).

The layout of the WikiTree ID: label and box are a bit "wonky" on Firefox

I thought when not logged in, it was just hanging but I've tried it again after I had logged in then cleared cookies and it was okay. Then (on Chrome) I cleared my browsing data and cookies, tried myself, and it just hangs with no feedback. Okay, I just tried Burk-1339 Relatives and he worked (not logged in) but no (really nice) shaky tree for myself.

The layout gets somewhat confusing as families are large. Maybe a separator or something between generations? As an example see Burk-1339 Relatives where it's not obvious between his siblings and parents. Here's another one to play with Reed-9024 -- it would be nice to let me know these are Relatives of Simon Reed, then maybe show first his spouse(s), organize his 15 children in birth order, then siblings, parents? Here's another to play with Scranton-211 had 2 spouses, 12 children and lots of generations of ancestors...

Comments

Thanks, Kay.

I'll take a look at Firefox.  (I haven't looked at Firefox for years...)

Maybe I'll add some kind of colour to make generations clearer.  I'll add a generation number box later.  I planned to kind of cache (if that's a verb) each page by saving it to the server so that a long page would load instantly the next time, but it seems I can't use 'file_put_contents()' on the server, which is how I was going to do it.

I'll look again at the ordering of people, though I'm not sure what the best way would be.  I thought simply by order of birth date would be good, but in the end, I had some problems with the coding and thought... 'Oh, well...'  But I'll try again.

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Hi Kay. I realised what was causing it to not work sometimes. I'm fetching a JSON object (with data on all the templates) from Ales's site and loading the javascript file after that. In that waiting time, nothing works. So, I've put that data into local storage and it will work much more smoothly. I'm relieved I found the source of that problem.

I've just installed Firefox and I don't see a problem, but maybe the problem was related to something I've changed since you wrote that...

I've changed the layout to a grid. I think it looks cleaner.

I'm still working on a lot of things that you and others have brought up on this page.

Thanks again.

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Kay, about your issues up there with those particular profiles... I've made lots of changes and I think I've made it as clear as I can which person is the focal point of the page.  They have a green border, their name is fixed to the top of the page, there's a big black line pointing to them, and the lines connecting them to others on the page are shown onload. I've added colours to group individuals of one generation together (though I'm thinking about making siblings and spouses different colours - probably a good idea*), and you can probably see it makes it easier to see for all of those profiles.  The relatives are in order of age from youngest to oldest, so you have the youngest child in the top left and the older parent in the bottom right (or wherever they happen to land (at least at the end of the list)).  The ancestors are similar, but I haven't ordered them - I've left them in the order that the API gives them.  I think this is better than putting them in age order as couples stay together (unless one is at the end of a row and the other at the start of the next row).

My main problem now is that I don't like how it looks. I don't really like these colours that I've given to the different generations and I'm hoping someone will suggest a better (and feasible) system for showing generations...

* Edited to add... I've made the spouses a different colour from the siblings.

Answer 4

I love the tree that sways while you are waiting for the results. It is a happy little tree. I do have a suggestion - I would like to see the WikiTree ID displayed, perhaps just below the person's name. That would be helpful if I wanted to make a list of changes I'd like to make, or people who are missing a particular category.

Comments

I tried the app on my android phone and it displays different, but still works fine. The boxes are very long for each person and the sticker graphics are cut off, but the text is shown in it's entirety. Still very functional.

I also figured out why some boxes have purple bricks, duh!

I also like that I can click on a profile and then go back to the app without losing my place.

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I turned my phone sideways and it displays much better.

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Thanks, Lucy. Yeah - good idea.  I'll add the WikiTree ID somewhere (maybe with the 'copy ID' function that's on profile pages.)

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Hi, Lucy.  Take another look on your phone, I think it looks better now - both in portrait mode and... sideways. I've added the WikiTree IDs (but not the 'copy ID' function (yet)).

* Edited to add:

I've put a 'copy ID to clipboard' thing on the IDs. 

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Just a quick word about Android phones. I'm not sure why (I guess my lack of knowledge) but I can't get Android to show this well in grid form, so I'm using what I had originally - boxes of different sizes mashed together. I'm not sure about iPhones - I'll see if I can check that later - but I've got it going well on iPad.

I think it looks good on phones, too, now. 

Answer 5

Love it! Worked great for me (Firefox on Win7 pc).

Especially like the graphic for brick walls - half & full :D

Cheers, Liz

Comments

Thanks Liz.  Yeah... what better way is there to show a brick wall than... a brick wall? 

Answer 6

Thank you Ian, this looks very useful. I tried it on an iPad with Firefox, and as far as I can tell it's all working.

Three small points:

• There is no letter to indicate spouse, as there is for P, GP, etc. Of course, S for Sibling is already taken, so I don't know what you'd use.
• "Link(s):" seems to be a misnomer, because only templates are shown, not other links. Shouldn't that subheading be "Templates:"?
• If there is only one template, sometimes the subheading is "Link:" as expected, but sometimes it is "Links:". See Nathaniel (Alvord) Alford (1697 - 1769) among Eowyn's ancestors for an example.

Comments

Thanks, Jim.

There is an 'Sp' for spouse. Can you show me it not displaying for you?

The 'links' thing is template links. You should see Find a Grave and Ancestry template links.  This is all about checking templates.  The subheading wouldn't be 'templates' as the projects and stickers are also from templates.

I'll look into the singular/plural thing.  I thought I had it done, but...

Thanks again for the feedback.

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Sorry for a false alarm on "Sp". Perhaps the reason it doesn't appear is that I was looking at a couple with public trees but private biographies. I'd forgotten that in that case the marriage is kept secret (though this leaves me mystified how you find the spouse at all when I'm not logged in to the app site).

Ok if "Links:" refers to template links; but I initially wondered why it didn't show more general links as well. Maybe the subheading could be "Template links:"?

Thanks for looking at plural/singular.

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Jim, I changed that sub-heading as you suggested and I fixed that problem with the singular/plural links.  Let me know if you see any more problems.

Thanks again.

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Thanks very much, Ian! This is looking quite superb now. It will be massively useful.

Answer 7

I'm sorry I don't have any feedback to give to you because, simply put... I LOVE IT 

Everything about it speaks to me; from the sway tree waiting for the ancestors to show up, to the little brick walls that tell you where that branch ends, the colours, the little links, arrows. Love the abbreviations for the generations (G2GP, G3GP - soo easy to understand). I can see, right there, in one glance, what I'm missing for my direct lines.

This is just awesome.. I'm very excited to use this app in the future, it will be used soooooo much! 

Comments

Wow. Thanks, Andréa!  But... I'm experimenting with the colours.  I've added colours to represent generations, but I feel it's not quite working...  Please let me know if you see any problems in the future.

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I'm sure the future tweeking will only make it better. You're doing a fantastic job!

Answer 8

I like it.  I really enjoy the look even though I am usually a minimalist.  

That said, could you make it downloadable as a CSV?

The initial choice Ancestors or Relatives could be expanded to use Watchlist as well.  Or even "Last Name".

As already mentioned, the lack of instructions is a barrier.

I would like to filter for "All with category" or "All with no category" or all with or without "Category:Needs Profiles Created", etc.

I see several instances of "Note:  citation needed."  When I viewed the indicated profile, could not determine what led to that notation.  Where is the citation needed?  See:  Fish-505 Mariah (Fish)  or  HatchAtherton-77 Humphrey Atherton

Thank you for your excellent work.

Comments

Hi, Peggy. Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you like it. I'm not sure how helpful I can be with your requests though, because I hadn't thought about them before (creating a CSV file, filtering them...). I'll think about those. 

I want to expand the initial choice to 'Descendants', but I think the watchlist one would be tricky (I'm not sure though - I'll have to ask Kay how she does it on the Bio Check app).

Instructions... Hmmm... Maybe I'll add a pop-up kind of thing with a few notes. Like you, I'm a minimalist. I don't want people to get bogged down in instructions - they make people tired.

As for 'citation needed', in Fish-505, take a look at the bio - it says 

She passed away about 1738.^{[citation needed]}

^{I can't see the other one, because I think there's something wrong with the ID, but it will be the same kind of thing.}

Thanks again.

* Edited to add: 

Was it Atherton-77? Again, look at the bio.  It says...

His [efforts to instruct the Native Americans] were referred to in the New England Confederation, and Eliot applied to him in behalf of the Neponsett tribe. He was employed in several expeditions against the Narragansett Indians.^{[citation needed]}

^{I hope that helps.}

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Ian - I would think either watchlist or last name could be really tricky, especially figuring out the relationships. Plus there are some really large watchlists. These are great ideas, though.

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I assume that imposing a limit on watchlist or last name would be acceptable to all.  Select: 1-500, 501-1000, or some other more reasonable increment.

As far as relationships, that particular feature doesn't make sense to implement for either watchlist or last name.

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Hi Peggy! What information do you imagine this CSV file would contain?  I guess it's probably doable, I'm just not sure what you expect. Let me know.

Answer 9

Wow!

This is fantastic

Comments

Thanks, Kay. And thanks for your support and advice. 

Answer 10

BUG REPORT

In every case I have checked, the sticker link saying "This profile is part of the Wilson Name Study." the clickable link does not go to https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Wilson_Name_Study-1 as expected.  Instead it goes to https://apps.wikitree.com/apps/.

This is not limited to Wilson name study.  It occurs for every name study I tested.  The same result occurred for Mayflower Project.  The problem does not occur for Categories tested.

I'm using Chrome on a Windows desktop.

Comments

Thanks, Peggy. I'll look into it later.

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Hello, again, Peggy. I'm pretty sure I've fixed that problem, now.  Please take a look and let me know if you still see a problem.  Thanks.

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The problem is fixed for the Wilson Project on Wilson-34418 Margaret (Wilson) Berntson.  Thank you.

However the same link misdirection occurs on Tisdale-9  Abigail (Tisdale) Makepeace on the word "Mayflower" (the first two instances).  in this phrase:  

Abigail (Tisdale) Makepeace was related to a passenger on the Mayflower.

Join: Mayflower Project

Discuss: mayflower

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Also Native American project on item for Unknown-421914Sarah (Unknown) House.

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OK. Thanks, Peggy. All the links to studies and projects should be OK now.

Answer 11

This looks like an app I will be using many times to help with profiles. I am using Chrome on a desktop and everything looks good to me.

Comments

Thanks, Deborah. That's good to hear.

Answer 12

Couples are not showing on the same line

Comments

Thanks, Chris. As it is basically just a list, you may find one partner at the end of one row and the other at the start of the next row. If this is a problem... I'm not sure what to do about it (though I'm open to suggestions).  If it's not what you're talking about, can you show me an example (give me an ID to look at)?  (Bear in mind, too, that there is a different number of columns depending on the screen size/width.)

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Yes that is the case.  You could add spouse out to left with parents on same line to the right which would put all 4 grandparents on same line underneath, and 8 greats on next 2 lines etc.  Would then make more logical sense when viewing

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It's an interesting (maybe good) idea.  But... as it is, as I mentioned, the grid has a different number of columns depending on the width of the screen. An iPad in portrait mode, for example, is showing 3 columns.  That would, in theory, also look a bit strange with 3 grandparents on one line, and 1 on the next, followed by 3,3,2 GGparents...

I'll think about this.

Thanks again for your input.

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Hi Chris, I decided you were right. I've gone for either 2 columns or four columns depending on the width of the screen. I've split the generations up apart from the top row in 'ancestor mode', where I have the focal person and their parents. Looking at ancestors, when a parent is missing, I'm giving the missing space to the lonely parent, so there should always be an even number of spaces taken, which means each row will be either full or half full (nearly always full). I'm much happier with what I see now (though I still want to get rid of the colours - I may see If I can add some kind of separator).  But for now... Thanks for your inspiration. :)

* Edited to add... Oh, and the couples are always together.

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That's much better! Thanks

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But can you make the order of the couples more logical please so that they follow the usual format of paternal across  to maternal lines etc

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Hi Chris, the coding of this seemed like a simple idea, but actually doing it hurt my brain and took me a few hours, but... I think I've done it.    Take a look. 

* Edited to add... "D'oh!" I wrote too fast. I've broken the bit that ensured that couples were on the same line...

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That's it.  Excellent!  

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Thanks, Chris, but... see my edit (above).

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Ah... Never mind - I've fixed it. 

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Chris, after all this... do you think this app may be useful to you?

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I think it may be and will trial it out and come back to you with any feedback or ideas if they occur to me in use.  Thanks!

Answer 13

Hi everyone... I'm back.  Since last week, I've had some great support from Kay, and I've made a load of improvements/additions/etc. to the app. Now I feel that it is almost there. Again, please take a look on various devices and play around with it.  See if you see any problems.  I've taken into consideration everything you've said in the comments on this page. The only one I haven't really been able to address is Peggy's request for expanding this to use a watchlist or simply a family name.  For various reasons, this seems quite difficult to do at the moment, but I will keep it in mind for the future.

A few things you may notice:

• It looks and functions slightly differently on different screen sizes and different devices. (For example, on a PC, there are some pop-ups that you can drag around, but only one pop-up will show at a time on iPad.)
• There are still no instructions. I'll think about that later...
• It can take a long time (up to 90 seconds) to load a lot of ancestors.  I would love to find a way to speed this up in the future.  However, I've changed the links on each box (the ones with the arrows) to open a new window and run the code so that each set of people is not lost (unless you type a new name in the top box... Should I have each new search from the top box open in a new window, too?) 
• I've separated the generations and put coloured borders to show this. The colours of the borders themselves have no special meaning. I was just aiming for good contrasting colours.

Anyway, it's at the same place - https://apps.wikitree.com/apps/beacall6/templates.php - so please take another look.

Thanks.

And... Can you think of a good name for it?

Comments

Name for the App: Profile Inspector

• When I click on the above link, there is a blue question mark in a square on the right side of the WikiTree ID box. Is that anything relevant? Why is it there?

• Can you add a revision number to your app so we know which version we are using? I would like to know I am using the latest version and not some cached version in my browser.

• The circle at the bottom of a box to close all windows, disappears after the first use of it.  I would like to see it displayed there permanently.  When I click where the circle was, lines appear and disappear as I continue to click in that area.

• In the box for my profile, you are displaying the Preferred Name. In the 3 upper arrows and 4 directional arrows it is showing the Proper First Name.  Is this your intentions for the app to do this?

• With one generation chosen and going from first display to choosing relatives, it displayed siblings first from youngest to oldest, then me, then parents (mother, then father). [now switching to show relatives for my father] It would be more logical for me if you would display the parents first (father, then mother) then me, then siblings (oldest to youngest) and then children (oldest to youngest).

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Thanks, Tommy.

What are you using (browser/OS)?  The thing next to the ID box should be an image of an eraser. If you log in, the box should be pre-filled with your ID.  There should be an eraser there to clear the box.  Can you try giving your browser a hard refresh* to see if that helps?

Yeah, sorry about the X.  I just changed the behaviour of that earlier.  My mistake - I forgot to bring it back.  It should be good now.

• In the box for my profile, you are displaying the Preferred Name. In the 3 upper arrows and 4 directional arrows it is showing the Proper First Name.  Is this your intentions for the app to do this?

No, I can't say it is my intention to do that.  I'll take a look at that.  (Which of those seems better to you?)

• With one generation chosen and going from first display to choosing relatives, it displayed siblings first from youngest to oldest, then me, then parents (mother, then father). [now switching to show relatives for my father] It would be more logical for me if you would display the parents first (father, then mother) then me, then siblings (oldest to youngest) and then children (oldest to youngest).

I kept the same pattern for the two options (Ancestors / Relatives), i.e., youngest to oldest.  I can see why that may seem like the wrong way round for you with the Relatives view. I'll think about changing it (I can't do it immediately, as I need to think about how best to do that).  I'd like to hear what anyone else thinks about this.  I honestly hadn't thought to do it the other way, because with both views I'm going back in time as we go down the page.  Having said that, I've been thinking about the button... I have three arrows going up to go up the tree (and it would be logical to have down arrows for a descendants view when I can implement that), but the order of the page is opposite. I'm clicking ↑, but scrolling down.  This one hurts my brain a little, because I think having ancestors at the bottom of the page seems right, but I really don't want to change to up arrows for descendants as 'down' is actually in the meaning of the word 'descendants'...

Anyway, thanks again for taking a look. I'll think about the order of the relatives view.

* Hard refresh:

• Chrome, Firefox, or Edge for Windows: Press Ctrl+F5 (If that doesn’t work, try Shift+F5 or Ctrl+Shift+R).
• Chrome or Firefox for Mac: Press Shift+Command+R.
• Safari for Mac: There is no simple keyboard shortcut to force a hard refresh. Instead, press Command+Option+E to empty the cache, then hold down Shift and click Reload in the toolbar.

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My above notes were all tested on Safari for macOS with 15" diagonal.

There was no login button, but my WikiTree ID automatically showed in the box.

Edited: When I do a browser refresh I can briefly see the Login Button before it disappears, but I still get a blue box with a question mark in it to the right of the WikiTree ID box.

Edit #2: When I click on the blue box with the question mark in it, it disappears and the box with the ID in it goes blank. (I am thinking that it can't find the graphics. Is the filename or path to the filename correct or is the graphic file present where it is supposed to be?)

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My only thought about the image is that your browser's not supporting the webp format for some reason.  I thought it was supported by all browsers now.  I'll change the images to jpg...

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The eraser shows up in the WikiTree ID box on my iPad after I login.

Apple does support webP with the current browser that I am using (supposedly).

Apple started supporting webP with Safari version 14

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Now the X in the circle only appears once any of the four buttons is pressed and disappears when it is pressed. That's good now.

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Yes, I just did a quick search and found they were planning to support webp... I don't know why it didn't show for you.  Anyway, I've changed the images to jpg and png anyway, just in case.

Not seeing a login button was my intention.   If you're already logged in, you don't need to see the button.  When you saw it and then it disappeared, that was because... well, the same thing, the button is on the page, but as you're logged in already, it's hidden.

And thanks for the name suggestion. I'll keep it mind. I was thinking about maybe something with 'overview' in it...  The idea is/was to give an overview of a bunch of profiles to quickly see which profiles have pictures, stickers, categories, project boxes, and so on. I realised yesterday that I could add the bios and sources without too much difficulty, and I felt it became... bigger(?) with those added.  Without them, you'll want to go to many profile pages to look at them, but now it's all there on one page, so it's more convenient...

Anyway... thanks for your help with this.

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Now the X in the circle only appears once any of the four buttons is pressed and disappears when it is pressed. That's good now.

Thanks. Yeah, I thought that was better, too. 

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I accidentally did an Ancestor 10 when I thought I was doing a relative. I like how the different generations are colored differently with the outside box. However, I think the inside line on the left side of each box that is blue and pink is distracting from the outside box color. Those lines seem to indicate male and female and the boxes themselves indicate male and female by a background color respectively.  I would delete those lines and let the background color of the box indicate male and female. Unless I have misinterpreted the purpose of what the inside lines are on the left side of each box.

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You've understood correctly. I was just using kind of the same idea as I used in my Chrome extension, where I have a thick dark blue/pink border on the left and then a lighter blue/pink as a background (which I think looks good).  However, I did that before I added the thick box-shadows that you see (I realize they don't look like shadows - just a second border - but that's what they're called).  I'll maybe do what you suggest and change that border. I've done what you suggested and changed that border.

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Tommy, I've switched the order around as you suggested in the Relatives view.

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Thanks Ian.

I like it. The new order seems logical to me now. Also, the generational boxes look cleaner without the extra inside left lines.

In thinking about the Proper First Name vs. Preferred Name, I would go with Preferred Name if it only applies to my profile, but I would go with the Proper First Name if it is going to apply to all the profiles.

Also, I noticed that the profile names are either blue or pink, but I can't seem to make any since in why that is the case. If you can, you might want to make the male profile names blue and the female profile names a dark shade of pink to further the distinction between male and female.

You mentioned "Overview" for a possible name for the app. How about "Profile Overview"?

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Tommy, the profile names being different colours is probably just the default behaviour of internet links - links that you have visited are by default presented in a different colour.  Kay mentioned something about this, too, so maybe I should change this...

I think I like 'Profile Overview' (though I'm still open to other ideas).

Thanks again, Tommy.

Answer 14

I only saw this post this morning, so you have already dealt with a lot of issues, and it looks GREAT. I also love shaking the tree while loading.

My usual browser is Firefox (84.0.2 on Windows). There is a small rendering problem with the buttons across the bottom of the box overlapping the buttons at the top of the box below. Comparing it to Chrome/Windows, it looks like the issue is in the interpretation of the position CSS on the .bottomMenu, but I haven't looked at whether this should be fixable by you or if it's a FF bug. It looks right in Chrome and Edge on Windows and Safari, Firefox and Chrome on iPad so I suspect it's a Firefox Windows CSS bug.

I expect I will use this to check that families have the right set of categories and stickers for everyone. Thank you.

Comments

Thanks, Scott.  I hadn't looked at Firefox in the last couple of days... I've just found a CSS hack to target Firefox and hopefully fixed it.

And yeah - checking that families have the right categories and stickers was my aim, so... great!  

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That looks better - thank you for the quick response.

Answer 15

Love it, love it more with the changes you've been making. Looks great on my Chromebook. When I checked it this morning I guess the default number of generations checked had been reduced from 10 to 5, making it load faster, which was what I was going to suggest as for me if often timed out while loading. It's very useful as you intended-- I've made several changes just from comparing couples' profiles. For an app name... you appropriately called it a visual overview... what about something to go with the tree metaphor, like Bird's-eye View?

Comments

Thanks, Stephanie. I'm glad you like it. Yes, I changed the default number of generations, because 10 seemed to take a long time for some profiles. Depending when you tried it, the timing out may have been a mistake in my code. In theory, it shouldn't time out. But when it hasn't loaded after 90 seconds, it feels like it must be broken.

Thanks for the name suggestion.

Answer 16

Hi. This app sounds super cool unfortunately i cant get it to work. Im using my android phone, i dont know if that makes a difference or not. When i clicked on it originally from the newsletter there was a tree moving and a box with my name, another saying numbers and ancestors and relatives but i wasnt able to click anything. It had an option to log in but i couldnt do that either. I do apologize if i put my answer in the wrong place here, i was having trouble figuring out how to add a response.

Comments

Hi Jennifer,

I'm really sorry. I think I added something that broke it a little, but I think I've fixed it now, so please try again. Close your browser - or just open a new window - and see if it works OK for you.  To be honest though, I think an Android phone's not the best way to use it, but take a look and see what you think.

Sorry again for breaking it.

Answer 17

I love it as I can red it a bit clearer but agree with info from Brad on highlight button!

Thanks for this I will enjoy using it.

Comments

Hi, Linda.  I'm glad you like it, but I don't think I'm going to change the highlighting thing. I think having the whole box to click on is easier, and besides that, I'm running out of space around the border to add many more things. As it is, there are some initials around the border which may be confusing at first sight.  I don't want to add more.  An icon would be good, but I don't know what kind of icon would say 'click here to see this person's connections to people on this page...'

Anyway, thanks again for the positive words.