The new Findmypast (Part 2)

[Gadget]

The census search 'form' doesn't make sense 

When born  - Ok
Where - is that where born?
Address - street, etc. but no place (town/county)   

Added -found how now - you have to go through the collections rather than Censuses, land, & surveys  in the Search Records list   - how daft is that 

Second added - It seems to me that the Search Records tab is not really much use unless you select 'Search all records' and select from there!

Continued from:
The new Findmypast (Part 1)

[crimea1854]

I have not read all the comments in this thread, but my view is that this new format is designed to raise revenue by making those without a subscription view extraneous records using up credits!

The previous Army and Merchant Seamen's records search provided sufficient information to make an educated guess as to which record might apply, but now all you get is a list of possibles, which means endless viewing of original documents.

Unfortunately I suspect that the search engine has been designed by a programmer, and was not tested on user groups, otherwise these problems would have been thrown up before they allowed the new system to go live. 

I'm seriously considering whether I will renew my subscription.

Martin

[ankerdine]

I have not read all the comments in this thread,

Martin

I just did. Phew! Well done all of you.

I do not subscribe to FindMyPast but to GR and was going to change over but not now.

I had an email yesterday to say that I had to use my "free" credits for FindMyPast Ireland before 6 April, acquired in early January via this site (some kind person gave out the information).

I never found anyone in the Irish records and was very surprised to see that I could use these credits on FindMyPast UK! I found a newspaper article for my grandparents Golden Wedding which I had never seen before and which was very interesting. I shall now try to download it following your kind advice in this thread.

I preferred the layout of the old FindMyPast. When you opened up the site it gave you a "nice feeling".

I agree with you all; why don't they leave well alone.

Judy

[Gadget]

The link is finally working!
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=681106.msg5264785#msg5264785

From the CEO:

The new findmypast site is designed to provide you with an improved service. We did a great deal of consultation and research and have now put the technology in place to be able to provide millions more records, a more powerful and accurate search, and a better user experience. We’ve had a lot of positive feedback, but we also acknowledge that there are some fixes still to be made. We recognise that some of the features you rely on most have not transferred smoothly, and we are working hard to resolve those issues as quickly as we can.

http://blog.findmypast.co.uk/2014/a-personal-note-from-annelies-van-den-belt-ceo-at-findmypast/

[Hampshire Lass]

I don't think the person who designed the new search fiters actually has any knowledge of the research we do. They may be qualified in computer programming but these filters just don't work to enable us to find elusive records.They only work when you have a lot of knowledge about what you're searching for, which is not always the case. If it was designed by a person knowledgeable in genealogy they would know the obscure "knotty" problems we slowly untangle.

I've just searched for something I resolved last summer on the old FindMyPast. I put in the few details I knew at the start of the search and the answer is now impossible to find.

[Gadget]

I assume that they had a project manager/project managers and a team of systems analysts who would have/should have fully investigated the type of information required by users (by talking to them -even the odd survey if not talking)  and should also know the features of the  individual data sets. These should then have formed the basis of a full systems spec, and specs for individual modules. Programmers would then have converted the specs into code and then fully tested the individual elements, using their own tests and then using 'guinea pig' users.... and so on.... testing to destruction!

But did this happen 

As I said earlier on this thread, in the old days, if I'd have let lose such a system on my users, I'd have been slaughtered.


Gadget

[smudwhisk]

It seems Peter Calver from Lost Cousins was a beta tester.  Wonder if he's going to be championing FindMyPast quite so much in his newsletter now.

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I doubt if this had been a corporate website they would have dared roll it out in this form.  I suspect it was believed they'd get away with it because we're all individual subscribers.  Or perhaps I'm just being a bit too cynical.

[dawnsh]

we're not all individual subscribers, some of the features I use such as browsing the GRO birth, marriage and death indexes to avoid transcription errors and omissions, are no longer available but I have reported this.

There is one corporate user I know who totally relies on this browsability, I'm sure they have complained also.

[smudwhisk]

we're not all individual subscribers, some of the features I use such as browsing the GRO birth, marriage and death indexes to avoid transcription errors and omissions, are no longer available but I have reported this.

There is one corporate user I know w :Dho totally relies on this browsability, I'm sure they have complained also.

By corporate website I mean one provided for use by a single company and its employees only.

I don't doubt there are corporate users as well as people making use of the site in libraries, etc, but its not provided for their sole use.