Did you see the new Profile Previews on Watchlists? [closed]

Question

Hi WikiTreers,

We are beta testing something new: "Profile Previews."

When you hover over a link to a WikiTree profile a box will pop up with key information about the person. It includes links to the person's father and mother. If you hover over a parent's name within a preview box, it switches to the parent's preview. This enables you to walk up a tree without ever leaving the page you're on.

As of today, for this early live test, they are just on Watchlists. Click here for yours and then put your cursor over any name on the list without clicking on it.

(A note for mobile users: I am sorry to say that this probably won't work for you. Most web browsers on mobile devices don't allow you to hover a link. If you touch a link, you go to the page. You may be able to see the preview box by holding down a link, but I suspect most of the utility will be lost even if you can see it this way.)

Can you see them? What do you think? Post here if you have comments, questions, or problems.

If things are looking good we will make them live everywhere. And I mean everywhere. That's what's going to be really cool about these. They'll appear for links inside biographies, on suggested matches when creating a new profile, on category pages, family trees, descendant lists, surname index pages, search results, merge comparisons, activity feeds ....

They will also work for member's account profiles, e.g. where you see a member's name here in G2G, on thank-you feeds, profile comments, badge lists ....

To see your own profile preview, hover over the link to your profile in the "My WikiTree" pull-down menu link at the top of your Watchlist.

These are privacy controlled so you will see some information that others will not see. For example, you will see your full birth date and birth location, but people who aren't on your Watchlist will just see the birth decade, like on your profile.

What do you think?

Onward and upward,

Chris

Comments

I like that, thanks. It reminds me of when google would let you hover over a website link so you can preview it before clicking the link, they got rid of that pretty fast!

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By the way, one thing we debated in development is whether to include links to spouses and children inside previews. Right now it just says "1 spouse / 3 children" or whatever.

Adding live links to spouses and children would enable you to navigate all around a tree inside the preview. It could be very handy. The downsides are that it would add visual clutter and make the height of the box more variable, which could complicate things.

Post if you have thoughts on this. Thanks!

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What a cool improvement. Thanks so much to the people developing this !

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There is in the box:

↗ Name of the father

↘ Name of the mother

I think it'd be clearer:

Son (or daughter) of ↗ Name of the father

and ↘ Name of the mother

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LOVE IT! Thanks :D

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this is great!

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I tried it ... I see benefits. My first opinion was "clutter" so I think one needs to figure how to increase some white space without being too large.  By the way ... if I hadn't experimented with this, I would not have seen and acknowledged the addition of 2 profiles and 3 great bios Andrew Oliver had made this past month to my bloodline ancestral branch. Instant success on progress. Thumbs up.  Keep up your great work.  I have to go back ... you mentioned upper left black arrow ... have to say I either ignored it or did not see it.

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Wonderful addition!

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Works on my mobile device as well (Android).  Nice feature.

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I like it.  Thanks!

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awesome    thanks

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Thanks for this new feature!
I totallay agree with Chris Whitten about possible more information and improvements!

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Really helpful.

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Well done. Very handy indeed.

-Gilly

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Great!  A good addition for making this work easier.  Thanks.

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I like it. I think it's quite useful as it is. I wouldn't try to add more features and links.

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Wow, I can even hover over a name inside the profile box and get more info.  Great job guys!

If you are taking requests........lol....I want to do able to export a GEDCOM with siblings too........

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Nicely done!   Thank you kindly. 

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Brilliant!

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Chris, this is outstanding!  Nice navigation too, with the little back button.

If you want to stay with the one box, fixed size, you could make the spouse count and children count clickable.  Clicking '1 spouse' replaces the box contents with the first 4 spouses (spice?), a line for each plus a line each for their marriage info, if any, plus a link to "Next page" if more.  And do the same for children - show the first 8 plus a link for "Next page" if more.  For previous page, they can use the back button in top left.

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Thanks Chris, that's great, very helpful xxx

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I like the feature! It's very helpful.

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We have just released a round of improvements, including enabling previewing spouses and children links as Rob suggested here.

Unless anyone spots problems, soon we will make these live everywhere.

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Like the improvements.

Except, for me it now doesn't work at all in IE11 - nothing pops up when I hover on names in the Watchlist.

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This is great!  It works so smoothly, quickly, and quietly, that I couldn't help seeing 2 more improvements (you're probably tired of my suggestions!).  I can so easily browse up and down, but I often like to go sideways, perhaps checking out the successive birth dates on each sibling, and other reasons.  Would it be possible to add an actionable sibling count and display too?  (e.g. "1 spouse / 3 children / 4 siblings")

And the navigation is so smooth and quiet, it's almost anachronistic when I have to go up and *click* on the Back button.  Could 'Back' be triggered also by a hover over it, one second delay perhaps?  Might also be nice to have a second Back button on the bottom, less mouse travel at times.  These are minor improvements, not required, I'm already happy with it the way it is now.

You know, I don't think I have seen a feature like this, so smooth and quick, on ANY other genealogical product!

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They're now live everywhere!

I'm closing this G2G post to move the discussion here: https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/792328/have-you-seen-the-new-profile-previews

By the way, thanks for that bug report, RJ, and thank you Rob for all the great suggestions. I like the idea of adding siblings.

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This is VERY useful! It helps me to know which profiles need to be completed, revised, etc. Thank you so much! I will get right on it as soon as I return from work-related travels next week! Carol (Baldwin-3428)

Answer 1

Excellent! This will make paring down my watchlist a lot easier.

Comments

HI, Sharon, can you describe what you would look at to pare down your watchlist?  I can easily see where using the popup would help identify how to improve profiles (by quickly seeing the missing information), but not sure what I would use to eliminate someone on the watchlist.

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When I can't remember who the person is and what they're doing on my watchlist, I can use the popup to look at their surrounding family without having to open the profile and without leaving the watchlist. That's often enough to jog my memory, and it's faster than going to each profile.

For example, I look at my watchlist and see a name I don't recognize. I could click on her profile, but a second of hovering tells me that she's the granddaughter of one of my n-times-great-aunts; now I know why she's on my list and that I don't need to click through for further study. Another person turns out to be descended from a branch of cousins that's sufficiently far removed that I don't need them on my watchlist, but I already know I'm going to remove them when I click through to their profile.

(If this gets added to the Bulk Trusted List update page, that'll *really* speed up my watchlist paring.)

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Thank you.

Answer 2

I love it!  So helpful and concise. Thank you, Chris and Team.

Answer 3

This is a nice improvement. Thanks!

Answer 4

Bloody Magic. Great job Chris and to your team

Answer 5

These are absolutely smashing! Thanks! 

Answer 6

Okay! this is nice.  Thank you.

Answer 7

Neat. Saves us a click. =D Good improvement!

Answer 8

This is a great improvement.  

My one comment is that it appears to let you traverse up to parents, but not down to children.  Would be nice if you could go in either direction.  Is listing the children hard due to the number being unknown?  Perhaps limit to the first six, with a link to bring up the next six, etc.?  Also, as a stop gap, perhaps a way to navigate back, if I go to a parent, a way to return to the child again.

Comments

Hi William.

Ales argued strongly for adding links to spouses and children. As I mentioned in my comment at the top, I think the major downsides are just the clutter, and as you say, the fact that spouses and children are variable. This can change the size of the box significantly, which can lead to other issues.

On the previews, can you see a little back arrow that appears in the upper left when you have moved to a parent, etc? I think these may be hard to see on certain browsers.

Chris

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That back arrow truly is teeny.  If you had not mentioned it, I might not have seen it.

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I can see the back arrow in the top left corner, BUT since everything else we can hover and it moves, it would be great if we hover over that 'back arrow' and it will return to the previous screen, which is the child.

Thanks for something very useful.

Answer 9

Works like a charm! Thanks!

Answer 10

Sounds good except for us ipad and iphone users.

Answer 11

Oh, this is fabulous!  Now I can look at my watchlist and without opening all my same-named people, I can figure out who they are.  Wonderful, wonderful!  Thank you so much Chris, Ales & team.

Answer 12

I really like this!  It would be great to have links to the spouses and children also. Maybe you could create two links for this purpose... 

• Spouses: one link for spouses that would display the link to the spouse when there's only one, or link to a list of spouses if more than one. 
• Children: same concept - One link for children that would display the link to the child if there's only one, or the link to a list of children If there's more than one. 

Just an idea to consider!

Comments

Great idea! Another option would be a link to the "Family Group Sheet". Nice option for multiple marriages and/or lots of children. It would be a good jumping off place when researching someone.

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One of the teeny, tiny icons takes you to the descendants list, so if you want to see a person's sibling, you can hover over the person's name, then open the parent's descendant list in a new tab.

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I hadn't noticed those teensy icons, so thanks for pointing them out!

Answer 13

Oh, that's really cool.

Answer 14

The way it is at this moment is wholly satisfactory. Tweak it and maybe ruin it. As it is said above, MORE info would obscure other points. This now displays ENOUGH and NOT TOO MUCH information.

Ha. HAVING used it now to test it out, I point out I would like to have the up-front OPTION of NOT having a pop-up in my face when I'm trying to look at what's what and who is whom.

But other than that complaint, it is useful as a reminder of who is whom.

Answer 15

I like it and it works great. Thank you, Chris and Team.

Answer 16

What a great improvement!   Love it, and like others have said it will help with my management of my watchlist.

Answer 17

Thanks for yet another excellent - and totally welcome - feature, Chris, Aleš, and all the unnamed Tekkies!

I can't wait until you add the spouse and children to this feature.

And if navigating this feature makes you as dizzy as it makes me, just take a chocolate/favorite snack/beverage break!!

Answer 18

Best Idea ever, Great work. Thanks.

Answer 19

Oh this is super awesome especially for those of us with several branches with repeated names through generations to where we can make sure we are in the right twig of that branch - they all look so similar

Answer 20

Great addition to features - really helps to see what's what without having to leave the page.