Evaluating the Changes to the FamilySearch Family Tree

I have been working with the most recent changes made to the FamilySearch.org Family Tree now for some time and I thought it would be a good idea to evaluate the changes in terms of my previous experience.

The most obvious change is to the position and content of the menu bars on the Detail pages. There are now four different menu bars in addition to a side menu.

This is in addition to the menus in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

OK, I am very familiar with the Family Tree program. I use it almost daily. Despite the recent changes, some of the most confusing issues of all these menus have been preserved. For example, there is a "Tree" menu item and a "View Tree" menu item. Despite the very similar names, they have completely different functions. The "Tree" menu item returns the user to the main Family Tree view and the "View Tree" item focuses the Family Tree on the principal individual who is selected in the Detail view.

In addition, the items in the menu bars #1 and #2 above, are a mixture of drop-down menus with several individual selections and links. Some of the link menus are duplicated in the drop-down menus. For example, there is a "Find" option in the Menu #1 Family Tree menu that is a duplicate of the Find link in Menu #2. The "Person" and "Lists" options are also duplicated between the two menus.

Redundancy in a program is not necessarily undesirable, but it can be confusing. I do not really use some of the options because even though they are more prominently featured, I simply have no use for those specific features. By the way, if you really want to see what is happening with your portion of the Family Tree, look at the Lists items and choose "Changes to people I'm watching." Here is my example.

Those 481 changes are only for September 2018.

One change that makes my workflow more difficult is the fact that viewing Sources and Details are now on different pages, so I have to either have two windows open at the same time or switch back and forth to see the existing data.

The Time Line and its included map feature is a significant help. But I do not use it very often because it reflects work that has already been added to the program and I use maps to do research for records that are not yet added to the people in the Family Tree.

The rework of the details about each person is a neutral change. For me, it is not either more convenient or more difficult to use. I do like changes to the edit options.

Having all the sources for the entry readily available may possibly act as a deterrent to those who are trying to make changes without a supporting source. I am still getting used to the changes to the Standardization menu. I think it makes standardizing an entry easier but I am still not sure how it is supposed to work.

I will probably have a few more comments as time passes and I keep working on the Family Tree. Overall, it is a very useful and well-organized program. I like most of the changes and can live with the rest.