Mary Beth (#215)–we’ll explore some other design options to further distinguish spouse/children. We’re hearing from several that the change was good, but not good enough.

Andy (#222)–thanks for such a clear example of what you are thinking–we’re looking and it and discussing.

Jamie (#227)–Thanks for the excellent description. (It is also a great example of the saying a picture is worth a thousand words–you typed 965. )

Suzanne and Marni (#s228 & 229)–Please send a screen shot to me via email (kfreestone at ancestry.com). We’ll investigate what you are seeing. Also please include information about which browser you are using.

What I did was fairly simple.

Just open a profile view of a person and then do a control-print screen. Open the Windows “Paint” program and then do a control-v to paste it in. You can then play with it however you want. it took maybe 15 minutes for me to put that together.

Iam not thrilled with the new design. There is too much on the page and the colors blend, so it is hard to find anything.

I have updated to the new version.

Hi Andy, you are off to a good start. Wish I knew how to do that as I have some really great idea’s that I will try to explain.

First, with both views, the now new look and Andy’s version.

My biggest problem are the many boxes and lines. The tool bar at the very top HOME, FAMILY TREE”S ETC needs to stay as that is where we go to get out side of the tree.

Then there is the box with the persons name, photo, vitals etc. I love Andy’s idea of putting the parents back up and to the right of that person. Makes it clear that they are Parents and not children.

Now as for the tool bar directly under the person. (show immediate family, view family tree etc”.

SHOW IMMEDIATE FAMILY. We could get rid of the show immediate family as we already have the show siblings under the parents which will do the same thing by dropping down the siblings and showing ALL immediate family already. Just a thought so don’t crucify me for asking.. If people want to keep the SHOW IMMEDIATE FAMILY it could be moved just above the person and out of the way.

VIEW FAMILY TREE. This is a must to keep as I refer to it every time I come across some another tree to see how closely related they are to people in my own tree. But this could also be put above the person with the SHOW IMMEDIATLY FAMILY.

SEARCH HISTORICAL RECORDS should be placed below the person as that is what we do, look for more records…

PRINT OR PUBLISH needs to go above the person with the others as that is not something we are constantly doing over & over again every day. get it out of the way with the rest.

ADD A NOTE is good but no one but you can add a note so we could get that out of the way by putting it at the top also.

MORE OPTIONS while I do like this little feature we could move this at the top as well or incorperate it into the page below the historical records down on the right side like it was before. Makes it fun for new to explore this feature. They will never know it is there under more options.

NOW that we got the first tool bar out of the way and out of our faces we cleaned it up a bit with the exception of the SEARCH HISTORICAL RECORDS. I’ll get back to that later.

NoW on to the TABS

OVERVIEW is nice but is only a valuable tool to get back to the person when clicking on the other tab’s. Why not put BACK TO SO & SO like before??

FACTS & SOURCES. Maybe this is just me but all the fact’s and sources are already on the page. You can easily see the sources by clicking on the source citations. I think it could go also but for those of you who may need this FACTS & SOURCES we could move that above the person in a nice streamline box that would include the other stuff I mentioned above.

MEDIA GALLERY. We already have a media gallery for that person so why not put a media gallery or photo thingy up above the person that will take us back to ALL of the photos in our tree like before.

COMMENTS should be some where easily seen and SHOULD also include the # of Comments made so if there are comments they will NOT be over looked.

HINTS We already have hints but should be underneath the person so we don’t have to scroll across the page.

MEMBER CONTACT ?? Still can’t access this thing..

THE MEDIA GALLERY BOX that includes the photos and the little tiny box on the left that has photos, stories, audio & video is enough. But take the Stories out of there. I’ll tell you where to put that in a minute. Leave the photos visable but get rid of the view the media gallery below the photos and just add a little box that says add photos. Simple and not to hard to figure out. We can already see the photos by clicking on the arrows and we can also see ALL the photos for that person when we click on the word photo. Thus there is no reason for the MEDIA GALLERY TAB or the VIEW MEDIA GALLERY under the photos.

Now for SEARCH FOR HISTORICAL RECORDS, COMMENTS, STORIES etc. These things should be placed underneath the person where the SHOW IMMEDIATE FAMILY, VIEW FAMILY TREE ETC are now. If you place them underneath the edit button but still inside the box where the edit button has been returned to they will be out of the way and easily accessable and will eliminate the need for all the tabs. Thus getting rid of the toll bar underneath the person and the tabs as well. Walla, a cleaned up Family tree page.

Also, as for the persons box, as in where their photo is, the vital info like birth & death date & place and where the parents should be on the far right. Could we clean that up a bit, like getting rid of all those lines. If I was more of a Computer wiz like Andy, I could show you what I mean. God, I wish I knew how to do that. It would save me allot of time typing something I can’t see, lol…

Anyway, those are my ideas. The tool bar above the person should also be a dark green to separate it from the rest of the page. like the MEDIA GALLERY, TIME LINE, FAMILY MEMBERS and so on.

What’s the point of “tinkering” with this new setup? Admit that it’s a goof, scrap it, and give the subscribers what they want. If not, I’m seriously considering dropping my tree too: this new arrangement is just hideous in too many ways to list.

There was just never a good reason to make things *worse*. Change it back already.