ScotlandsPeople (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) has relaunched with a new look website.
One immediate thing I can see is that you cannot easily switch from births to marriages or deaths in the search screens, as you used to be able to do at the bottom left of the screen after a search - they are now individual screens, and you now have to click on the Statutory Registers link at the top to get to a menu displaying other events.
There's a news release at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/news-and-articles/welcome-new-look-scotlands-people.
I will provide a full review this evening!
Update: So I've now had a proper chance to look over the site. After I queried it, ScotlandsPeople has kindly informed me that the issue I've raised above about not apparently being able to switch to other life event search screens after a search in another life event category is incorrect - they've introduced a further button called Refine search, located just above the list of results, when you can then choose to do a search in other categories for the same person, as before. So the same thing, but now an extra click away.
In fact, that fairly well sums up the new ScotlandsPeople site. Nothing has really changed, apart from the branding - but there is a little more effort now required to do what you could before. The font is much larger, meaning more scrolling down pages to fill in all the fields needed, or to see more results, and there are a few extra clicks in place for a few functions. That's potentially going to prove tiresome when doing a long search session.
The NRS has tried to spin this as "We have redesigned the site to make accessing Scotland’s records easier than ever with quick, simple searching of our birth, marriage, death and census records." But throughout this afternoon, several genealogists I know have asked a simple question - how? The search processes have seemingly not changed, the site has had a lick of paint, but that seems to be it.
For the site user, this is not an evolution, it's just a corporate rebrand. There are no new records, no new enhanced indexes (there are still many birth and death records that have no mother's maiden surmane listed in the index, for example). There is still no list of what kirk session material is actually available, and you still can't expand Virtual Volumes to fill the screen when using it. And what has happened to the 1921 census enhanced index that Queen's University Belfast was supposed to be creating as part of the contract to create the main index - is that arriving, and if so, when?
To look on the bright side, the fees have not gone up, and the site does seem to be working - albeit with heavy usage earlier at launch, I did occasionally come across a few 'page inaccessible' messages. There are still some unfinished touches - the site's Our charges page at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/content/our-charges is showing an error 404 message, for example. I've also read a comment on the ScotlandsPeople Facebook page that one user suggests she can no longer use the platform on her old iPad, so there may be compatibility issues for some users with older devices.
Overall, I would suggest that I am relieved that that there has not been a disaster today, but quite disappointed that very little has actually happened. It would be nice to see the site be pushed to get more from the records available, with further enhanced indexes, and perhaps even new fields created (witnesses at marriages, for example?).
Chris
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Quite agree. It has no more features or improved search aids than before. All we have got is a new layout and typeface which in my opinion does the site no favours. It was a clean, sharp look before. Now it is more like a child’s reading primer - the typeface is too large and as you say takes up way too much room. It looks more than a bit clumpy.
ReplyDeleteAny change that means more clicks than before to reach the desired page is never a good thing.
Thanks Chris. Sounds very underwhelming.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the bit about "Refine Search". I'd never have guessed that because changing from a birth search to a death search, say, isn't refining it in my dictionary. Refining would be providing tighter search values, not changing the type of search.
ReplyDelete