See photos on FamilySearch Family Tree view

A few of my blogging friends already posted about this a few days ago, but it is such a fun change so I wanted to share here too.

To see this view, go to Family Tree.
Then click that oblong shape in the upper left, and put it on "PORTRAIT."

Click the image to see it full-size

FamilySearch Fan Chart interactive inside rotating marquee

One of the new things about FamilySearch.org this year is the huge rotating marquee that welcomes users. It takes up a lot of space on the home page, and one shortcoming is that it provides little practical usefulness. This is changing.

A few days ago the signed-in version of the Fan Chart portion of the marquee began to appear as an interactive version of your fan chart. It works differently than the actual fan chart page. This preview version can be navigated by clicking any visible name, but you cannot access a person page from this point. It is great as a way to preview the feature without ever leaving the marquee.

Maybe someday we will be able to search for names from the search portion of the marquee too.

FamilySearch's new website for Archives

FamilySearch has a page for archivists and potential collections donors. This page gives summaries of the records services FamilySearch can provide to archives and government agencies.

It can be accessed via the About page of FamilySearch.org (a link at the bottom of the new layout).

FamilySearch Archives has a fresh, more inviting look. The most notable additions appear to be a map showing the number of digitization cameras in each country, and a form for collections agents to initiate contact with FamilySearch.

This is an improvement over expecting such people to wait for FamilySearch to solicit relationships or cause them to fight their way through the Support system that other questions go to.

What do you think of the new design?

FamilySearch Press Release: New version of website

	April 16, 2013
	Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 16 April 2013 New Online Tools Help Preserve and Share Precious Family Photos and Memories Features create connections and bring family stories to life FamilySearch New Features Media Kit Infographic FamilySearch.org Video News Release FamilySearch New Features Screenshots Interesting Photos Article: Finding Your Family Story Has Never Been Easier FamilySearch New Features FAQs Current FamilySearch Facts and Stats Training Videos Searching Records Family Tree Photos and Stories SALT LAKE CITY - FamilySearch International, a nonprofit, volunteer-driven genealogy organization, announced the release of significant new enhancements to its web services that allow visitors to collaboratively build their family tree online, preserve and share precious family photos and stories, and receive personal research assistance-all for free. Find out more at FamilySearch.org. "Every person who has ever lived has a right to be remembered and is a story waiting to be told," said Dennis C. Brimhall, CEO for FamilySearch. "Every family is a story in progress." Brimhall explained that the new FamilySearch.org features help move family history beyond research to appeal to a larger audience of people who are very interested in their family's stories, but who don't consider themselves genealogists or researchers. "We all treasure memorable family photos and ancestral stories that inspire, amuse, or connect us. Families can now share and preserve for posterity those social heirlooms that help vitalize their family history," Brimhall added. The enhancements include Family Tree, an online application where users begin by adding information about themselves and then start to add information about their ancestors to collaboratively build, manage, and share their family history. The tree is already populated with over 900 million records contributed by patrons. And there are billions of historic records that can be searched for free to help further expand your family tree. The Photos and Stories feature lets you preserve favorite family photos of ancestors and share them through social media. You can tag people in a photo to identify who they are and connect them to respective ancestor profiles in the Family Tree. The photos can then be easily shared with the online community. You can also upload your favorite stories about an ancestor to preserve them for future generations. Julie Lowe from Missouri is the proverbial photo archivist of her family. She has albums of ancestral photos. Between her and her siblings, they are also walking libraries of countless stories and memories of their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, some great-grandparents, and other ancestors. They will be using the Photos and Stories feature to begin preserving their favorite photos and stories for future generations. Each person can save and share up to 5,000 ancestral photos in Family Tree. "When a parent or grandparent takes the time to tell you a story, there's a bonding that occurs there," Brimhall said. "Likewise, a family photo and story preserved and shared in the context of one's family tree, in an instant, can personally touch us and teach us time-honored principles by those who have gone on before us, like the value of hard work, dealing with life's ups and downs, and the impact of choices." Other features added include the interactive Fan Chart, a tool used by millions to create a colorful fan chart of their ancestry; the Family Tree Wizard, a tool that asks questions to help you begin to build your personal family tree and get you started; and Live Help, a global online community that provides free product help and personal research assistance by phone and web chat 24 hours a day/7 days a week. The help website and services are available in 10 languages. About FamilySearch International FamilySearch is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch and its predecessors have been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources for free at FamilySearch.org or through more than 4,600 family history centers in 132 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

More FamilySearch website prototypes (with screenshots)

 A couple weeks ago I posted about the FamilySearch website design in the works. It is still in very early stages and changes often. The final product that a user sees may be very different, but I've kept screenshots for those interested in the development of the new look.

All of these redesigns are a parts of projects to make the site more user friendly, attract new users, and I've noticed they are more friendly to mobile devices. While this is interesting, it may be a long time before we see any of this--if we do see it released.

I first became aware of this kind of look during the Kinfolio beta and designing of early last year:

FamilySearch Photos (LDS beta) uses roughly the same kind of look (which is also the same look that is being tested for a new home page design):

Here are some screenshots of the new home page design as they have evolved over the last two weeks. I have seen 3 new designs in this time.

 The next design:

Here is the latest version: