Cluttered & Demanding

–2 votes
998 views
Does anyone else think the interface is too cluttered and demanding ?
in WikiTree Tech by Anonymous Anonymous G2G Crew (340 points)
What ?

I have more than one great-great grandfather.

Graeme, the first thing to remember is that we don't have a "my" tree here.  We have the tree, which is one single tree that we all share.

"Add" can be ambiguous - we only add a profile for someone whose profile is not already here.  When the profile of a relative is already here, we connect to it by creating a chain of connections between parents and children.

If your parents are connected to your profile, their parents are connected to their respective profiles, etc., then you can connect your great grandparent to his/her father's profile that you said you found.

Of course you have more than one great great grandfather.  But the private one I was referring to is the only one I could find  that was that far back.  Your other lines appear not to have been filled in at all.
Other people have more than one great grandfather as well, possibly the same one as you have, so there might already be a profile for him - that's why dates and locations are important. When you get a few more generations back, there are even more people who have that same ancestor.
@Ros  -  Thanks for the heads up.  It all looks good to me.  Not sure where the issue is.

I agree, I need to add more information.  However that will come later.
I know this.  But I am adding a profile for my great-great grandfather Mockler because he doesn't exist here yet.
No no.

I certainly have a 'My Family Tree'.  It is quite different from others.  In fact, there is a menu at the top right of the website called 'My Wiki Tree'.  Which frankly, does not bring you where you would expect.

The UX on the site needs to be addressed.

You can see all your ancestors because you are the PM.  Others can only see [private great-great grandfather].

@ros - I see.  Thank you.
I think the CLUTTERED is fair fodder for debate.  I've gotten used to it, but I remember thinking much the same when I was new here.  

As for DEMANDING... I disagree, and the most important reason I have for disagreeing is that WikiTree is a SHARED tree.  It is not just yours.  So, your personal knowledge is not a sufficient source, because it can't be verified by others.  

I get that it's frustrating to have to enter all that, but here's how I've gotten around that.  I initially create my trees on other platforms, and I use those while I'm gathering sources for an individual.  By the time I decide to add that person to WikiTree, I have all my sources together on another platform and it's very easy to just add it all to WikiTree.  Of course there are those who, no matter how much research I've done, I can never find an exact year of birth or death date - but that's OK in WikiTree too you should just explain why you made the estimate you did.  

Sourcing everything can be a pain, but it's also what makes WikiTree what it is.  If you don't want to source things, maybe this isn't the place for you and another genealogy site might better fit your needs.

4 Answers

+17 votes

Hello Graeme.

Yes, many people think the interface is cluttered. smiley

What do you mean by 'demanding'?  Do you mean that it's challenging for you to do what you want to do?  

What I can tell you is that some people are thinking about solutions to this...  The people who designed the interface obviously didn't plan to overwhelm people, but these things can happen unintentionally.

Have you heard about the WikiTree Browser Extension?  This has some features which may help you.  If you're worried about clutter, the Readability Options feature may be what you want.

by Ian Beacall G2G6 Pilot (393k points)
+16 votes

As a longtime genealogist, the "demanding" part is what I like most about WikiTree. laugh I have become a better genealogist because WikiTree wanted me to research to find the vital details and sources first before I added an individual to the tree.

The "clutter" is there for a reason--to help everyone be successful using WikiTree. It might could be arranged or organized better, but it's mostly all useful instruction. I'm sure the volunteers who work on the WikiTree interface would appreciate constructive criticism and ideas to help make WikiTree more user-friendly.

All the best as you learn to use WikiTree!

by Nelda Spires G2G6 Pilot (612k points)
Yes, I quite agree!  The demanding part is the challenge and the fun part!  WT has made me make sure I have sourced documents for the information I have.  That's a good thing.
+7 votes
I think there could be some design improvements to use more screen area to have a better looking profile.

It's been often suggested to move most of the stuff that is on the right side of the screen to another tab, for example, which would give more room for the biography.

Many input form boxes do not take advantage of available screen area and needlessly small which makes me constantly resize them for me to readily add data to them.

These items need to be fixed in the underlying software and not outsourced to a browser extension.

These items have been brought up for many years.

I don't think of it as being "cluttered & demanding", but I do think of it as the design could be improved in small ways that would provide larger benefits.
by Eric Weddington G2G6 Pilot (557k points)
I agree that these things should be done in the core, but the policy is that we do what we do in the extension and maybe... eventually... some of it may be moved to the core. I'm the meantime, we have the Readability Options in the WBE, which is very good at de-cluttering the page.
+4 votes
Anon Anon seems to be quite concerned about privacy.  It seems they do not trust WikiTree privacy controls.  Perhaps they could join a project and contribute to WikiTree in ways in which they would still enjoy genealogy on WikiTree in a manner aligned with the Honor Code.
by Warren Kuntz G2G6 Mach 2 (26.5k points)
They've already quit, hence the double-anonymous name.
They didn't really quit properly, but anonymized and changed data (faking birth places) for the few profiles they had created.

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