Release Notes (Website: Updated Profile and Dashboard) - May 16, 2017

[+Geocaching HQ]

Release Notes (Website only) - May 16, 2017

 

With this release we are introducing an updated Profile and Dashboard (aka: the /my page). We also released a newsfeed of your and your friends’ geocaching activity to the Dashboard.

 

Changes include:

•  


• Simplified page design by removing duplicate and obsolete links
• Update to the user interface to become more intuitive
• Addition of friends’ activity to your Dashboard newsfeed

Please refer to this blog post, if you want to learn about the details behind the decision to update the Profile and Dashboard.

 

You can opt-in to use the new page while we’re tweaking it, or you can stick with the existing Profile and Dashboard for now. Please know that we are working to make frequent edits based on your feedback.

 

Jayme from HQ’s Product Team and Dave from one of HQ’s Development Teams will be watching the thread to answer questions whenever possible.

 

Any posts in this thread should relate to features in this release. Please direct unrelated comments to other appropriate threads. Thanks!

[+NanCycle]

Release Notes (Website only) - May 16, 2017

 

With this release we are introducing an updated Profile and Dashboard (aka: the /my page). We also released a newsfeed of your and your friends’ geocaching activity to the Dashboard.

 

Changes include:

• 
   
  
• Simplified page design by removing duplicate and obsolete links
  
• Update to the user interface to become more intuitive
  
• Addition of friends’ activity to your Dashboard newsfeed
  

Please refer to this blog post, if you want to learn about the details behind the decision to update the Profile and Dashboard.

 

You can opt-in to use the new page while we’re tweaking it, or you can stick with the existing Profile and Dashboard for now. Please know that we are working to make frequent edits based on your feedback.

 

Jayme from HQ’s Product Team and Dave from one of HQ’s Development Teams will be watching the thread to answer questions whenever possible.

 

Any posts in this thread should relate to features in this release. Please direct unrelated comments to other appropriate threads. Thanks!

 

Definitely do not like "Recently viewed caches" being the most prominent feature of the page. Not liking the recent logs taking up so much space either.

[+Shilo]

Only had a few minutes to play around but I like it. The recently viewed caches and logs could be smaller(in 1 line) like the old profile page. My only complaint.

[+van der Decken]

On the new public profile page, the header portion of the page takes up the entire area of my monitor. I scroll down to the tabs and click on Gallery. As it switches tabs, it goes right back to the top of the page... hiding the gallery. I scroll down to the gallery, look at a few photos, and click on the Next> link. Once again, it goes right back to the top of the page... hiding the gallery. Again. So again I scroll down... do you see the problem? Every time I go to look at something, I get the header back again. Waaaaaayyyyy too much scrolling going on for my liking with the new design.

[+niraD]

The first thing I notice on the new dashboard is that the "Recently Viewed" section sure takes up a lot of space. Please provide an option to collapse this section (accordion style, the way the sections on the forums index page collapse when you click on them). Or at least provide an option to make it smaller.

 

When I click on the Statistics or Souvenirs page and then go back to the new dashboard, I get the stupid "Welcome to your dashboard!" popup all over again. How do I make it go away. Nothing seems to work.

 

Yep, I've got a lot of drafts. I guess I need to bite the bullet and start getting used to the new logging interface.

 

The links for caches, benchmarks, and waymarks near home are gone. The link for the map of caches near home is gone.

 

I guess you're phasing out the stat bar:

http://img.Groundspeak.com/stats/img.aspx?txt=I%27m+not+lost...+I%27m+geocaching!&uid=bfc29f53-7d94-4dbb-b4a3-a310797d3684&bg=1

 

And some of the information that used to appear on both the profile and the dashboard now seems to live only on the profile. I guess I'll be using my profile page more often now.

 

On the new profile, I don't like the way the lists of geocaches found/owned are front and center. I'd really prefer the About page to be the default. If it can't be the About page, then the Gallery page might be okay. The Souvenirs page might be okay if the Souvenirs were arranged in some sort of sensible order (rather than the current alphabetical order, which has a rather random effect).

 

The large version of my avatar icon makes me want two separate images. There aren't many images that work well both as a large "about me" image and as a small avatar image. I would put my profile photo back as the large "about me" image, and use a separate image for a small avatar image.

 

Links in my About page are still broken by the "Do you really want to leave Geocaching.com?" popup. Ctrl-click doesn't open the links in a new tab. They are forced into the current tab by the popup. Right-click > Open link in new tab is less convenient, and isn't what is burned into my muscle memory. Please stop breaking Ctrl-click's normal behavior.

Edited May 16, 2017 by niraD

[+MartyBartfast]

Far too much wasted space, in the recent logs section a single line of text is presented in a box which is approximately 7 lines high.

 

Also it seems that cachers can choose not to share their activity with friends, but I can't see a way for me to not see their activity if they have chosen to share it. Please give me the control over what I see rather than leaving it in the hands of others. If this can't be fixed I will be "unfriending" all my friends.

 

Of the 20 recent logs displayed, 17 were logs from friends and it only showed 3 of my logs. I want to see my activity, and not be stalking others' activity.

[+The A-Team]

A few issues that I notice:

• There's far too much white space around each record in the "Recently Viewed" and "Recent Logs" sections. Just the 10 records in "Recently Viewed" takes up a little over 1.5 screen heights on a 24" monitor. The 10 recently viewed and 20 recent logs takes up over 4 screen heights. That's a lot of "below the fold" for just 30 caches/logs. Reducing the amount of padding around each record would reduce the amount of scrolling required.
  
• The recent logs are shown with the wrong date. For example, a friend submitted logs today for their finds on Saturday. Those logs are being shown in the feed under today's date of May 16, rather than the correct date of May 13.
  
• The D, T, and size icons don't match the rest of the website, though they do match the official app. Is it in the cards for the rest of the website to switch over at some point?
  
• Caches with size "Other" are displayed with "----" as the size.
  
• Caches with size "Not chosen" are displayed with "Unknown" as the size.
  

There a couple of things that have already been mentioned in the other discussion that would improve the experience for some people:

• The ability to collapse the "Recently Viewed" section. I don't use that feature, and there were a number of other people that requested the ability to hide it when the feature first rolled out a few years ago. Being able to hide it would help clean up the page for those who don't use it, especially with the "below the fold" issue mentioned above.
  
• Customizing which friends' logs appear in "Recent Logs". I don't necessarily want to see all of the logs of all of the members that are in my friends list. I'd like to select which ones do appear, or at least hide ones that I don't. Otherwise, we'll have to work around this by removing friends entirely.
  

[+MartyBartfast]

You're doing the grey text thing again, what's so bad about black text?

[JamesA60]

I like it. It's a much more modern design and works well on my mobile phone too.

 

My only suggestion is that the ad at the bottom of the mobile version of the page might look like look better centered than aligned left.

https://s22.postimg.org/uih7i77v5/Screenshot_20170516-230836.png

 

And yes, I have just bought a car!

[+The A-Team]

You're doing the grey text thing again, what's so bad about black text?

Yep, and they've gone even farther this time. On the profile page, the "Joined" and "Last Visited" lines are an even lighter grey than they've already been using in other places. Those must be getting close to invisible for those with poor eyesight.

[+Twinklekitkat]

 

Also it seems that cachers can choose not to share their activity with friends, but I can't see a way for me to not see their activity if they have chosen to share it. Please give me the control over what I see rather than leaving it in the hands of others. If this can't be fixed I will be "unfriending" all my friends.

 

Of the 20 recent logs displayed, 17 were logs from friends and it only showed 3 of my logs. I want to see my activity, and not be stalking others' activity.

 

Couldn't agree more. I don't want to see this. How can it be turned off or just show my logs? Please give us the ability to turn this piece off. Otherwise, I too will be removing my friends. I don't need to be reminded that my friends can go caching 24/7 while I have to work.

 

Edit to add: Other than that, I really like it.

Edited May 16, 2017 by Twinklekitkat

[+brendan714]

One comment I have is regarding the unpublished hides page on the dashboard. The listings are very spaced out, and have no special or distinguishing features other than the text written. It just looks really awkward.

 

Another comment is that my recently viewed caches don't indicate owned caches. The little star in the upper left (where the smiley is for a found cache) would be nice.

 

Also a few other things others have mentioned (like how the page keeps going back up to the top on every click when browsing through the gallery, for example).

 

I'd also rather see my recent logs before recently viewed caches or my friend's logs.

 

But with a few tweaks (and user insight) I think this new page can be great! I like the general style! I foresee some profile creativity in the future (banner photo, etc). And no loss of functionality =

Edited May 16, 2017 by brendan714

[+c-h-b]

Far too much wasted space, in the recent logs section a single line of text is presented in a box which is approximately 7 lines high.

 

Also it seems that cachers can choose not to share their activity with friends, but I can't see a way for me to not see their activity if they have chosen to share it. Please give me the control over what I see rather than leaving it in the hands of others. If this can't be fixed I will be "unfriending" all my friends.

 

Of the 20 recent logs displayed, 17 were logs from friends and it only showed 3 of my logs. I want to see my activity, and not be stalking others' activity.

 

I agree! Let me decide what I want to see!

[+thebruce0]

First, woooooow that wasted whitespace. Again...

 

Anyway. Functionally, I didn't use my dashboard for all that much anyway since I bookmarked direct links to all the website sections I used. But, The links on there are good. The main section didn't really have much anyway except a list or two - though now the list(s) are 3 times taller than they need to be. As for which lists, Recently Viewed can be much smaller, and ideally collapsable. The Friend feed should also be shrunk, and should have the option to be hidden for reasons mentioned above.

 

The primary reason I'd use the (old) page was for quick access to my own recently posted logs, and just a page or two. At this point, the only way to get there from the dashboard is to the link that takes you to you entire career log list which is enormous, with all log of every ttype you've ever posted. Not practical. Not for mobile or desktop, especially if you're at 10,000+ finds. (This also applies to the Trackable Logs link which shows ALL logs you've every posted to ALL trackables, ever).

Since there's no equivalent page for that section which was on the old dashboard page, I strongly request you bring back the page-or-two of all your own most recently posted logs.

 

Essentially, that center dashboard section would best contain:

1. Recently Viewed

2. Unpublished Owned

3. Friend Feed

4. Your Recent logs

Each section preferably being collapsible and hideable.

 

And without all that whitespace!

Please, sense a desktop browser and adjust the display accordingly. It's not as bad on mobile, but it certainly is on desktop.

 

Other points I was going to mention have already been mentioned above, including

* The welcome popup won't stay away

* Unpublished Hides link is almost entirely bare.

* Whitespace. Too much.

whitespace.

 

Oh, and that whitespace, tho.

[+WearyTraveler]

I just tried it. Sat here for minutes waiting for the recently viewed and recent activity to populate. Wow - SLOW!

 

It's not my network or my iPad either. I went back and forth - old and new. The old populated quickly each time. The new just sat there blank, with the little green swirling thingie...

 

I go to that page a lot when I'm using the GC site. If you make using that page painful, you're going to alienate your customers.

 

Hopefully you'll keep things like lists, Pqs etc as bookmarkable links so I can bypass the speed bump profile page.

 

Please stop breaking things.

 

Finding caches should be harder than using the website - but that's not happening.

[+Windstorm+]

I generally like the layout of the dashboard. It's nice having the links on the left instead of the right and I'm happy to finally have a way of seeing what my friends have been up to.

 

It would be nice if the "Welcome" and "Manage what your friends see" notes would stay gone after you return to the dashboard. I know it's probably temporary while we're testing the new features, but it got annoying really fast.

 

I think 5 recently viewed caches was enough, especially since there's still an option to View All.

 

I'd prefer that the Recently Viewed and Recent Logs take up less vertical space. Even just reducing the white space between them would probably help.

 

I was going to ask if there was a way to get to the dashboard from the profile and suggest a button (maybe next to the View Forum Posts button), but I see I can do it from the link to my name in the green banner at the very top of the page. Another way to get to the dashboard would be nice on my profile, but not quite as useful when I'm viewing someone else's profile.

 

Because of the height of the new header on the profile page, I end up doing a lot more scrolling because every time I switch between tabs (Geocaches, Trackables, Souvenirs, etc.), the page jumps to the top and I have to scroll down past the header to see the information I'm interested in. On the old page, it wasn't as noticeable because the header was so much smaller. Would it be possible to make the page not jump back to the top, kind of like switching between Basic, Maps, and Milestones in the Souvenirs tab?

 

It would be nice to still have some way of getting to the benchmarks page. Oh, I see I can still do it from the Geocaches part of my profile, so at least there's still a way to get there. Will people who do Waymarking (I don't) have a way to get to the Waymarking page?

[+dprovan]

On the thread where the mockup was posted, I imagined this would be mainly different without being significantly better or worse, so I was surprised at how much I don't like about it. Unlike a lot of people, I'm a big fan of the recently viewed caches list, but 5 is plenty on the main page. If I want to see more, I have a link to see them all right there at the top of the page. Oh, wait, it's now down at the bottom of the list, way off the page...

 

Please try not to waste more than one line on each recently viewed cache. It's nice that you're trying to give me more information, but I don't want it if it quadruples the amount of vertical real estate each cache takes up. And I think "D1.5/T2 Other" would be much, much neater than "[indecipherable icon]1.5[weird line that I think is supposed to be a mountain]2[is that supposed to be a ruler?]----". Don't be so enchanted with icons that you forget that while "D1.5" is not necessarily obvious, it does have meaning while "[random icon]1.5" is no better than "1.5". I can learn "D" means "difficulty" more easily than I can learn that whatever that icon is supposed to be means "difficulty".

 

To me, the most important part of the page was the list of my logs. It's gone! It's been replaced by a list of a whole bunch of logs, most of which I don't care about. (And I actually care about most of my friends: I can't imagine what people think about it who gather geocaching friends like facebook friends.) Sure, I agree, seeing the list of my friends logs is an interesting idea, but it's not what I come to my "dashboard" for, so please put your cool new idea somewhere else. I come to my dashboard to see my logs.

 

I also use the links along the top all the time. Gone. I assume I'll find most of them in that column that goes off into infinity down the left side of the screen, but I want them at the top where I don't have to scroll.

 

Another link I use all the time is the link to the map. Even as inconvenient as it is on the old page, I use it almost daily. When that missing link came up in the discussion of the mockup, I thought I understood it was just somewhere on the page other than where one would expect it, but I can't find it.

 

It's a little hard to tell so soon, but I'm guessing that once I get used to it, I'll prefer the overall layout, like moving the claptrap from the right side to the left side and reorganizing it.

[+Sherminator18]

I would agree that this new Dashboard is incredibly slow. I found myself waiting almost a minute before the entirety of it loaded. Too many graphics and do-dads seriously slow the page down.

 

I personally would prefer the About section to be the first thing that shows when you view someone's profile. I know you say not a lot of people put things here, but I put a lot of time into writing up something for that part of my profile page. I would really like that to be the first thing someone sees.

 

I also agree that the header is way too large and that there is too much white space around the caches listed in the sections for Recently Viewed and Recent Logs. I think it would be beneficial to have this sections collapsible.

 

Also, would be great to not have the page jump back to the top every time you click a new section of the profile.

 

I do like the section on the left with all the links. It is well organized and has everything I would need.

[+Isonzo Karst]

Dashboard, very slow to load.

 

On the plus side, the left side nav bar is nice, and clear and much cleaner than on the old version.

 

Vast amounts of space in which very information little is offered. Few logs are available. None from today, and few from other days?

 

I'd like to continue to see the last months worth of logs. This much more important to my Reviewer account than player account, but I want it both places.

 

The cache titles no longer indicate the status of the listing, disabled, archived, active (reviewer, published/unpublished). This is a HUGE loss of information.

 

Don't care for the small "settings" wheel placement between Recently Viewed and Logs.

 

 

Public Profile... I don't like having the personal info relegated to an About Tab.

Edited May 16, 2017 by Isonzo Karst

[HiddenGnome]

Hello! Thank you to everyone who has provided such in depth feedback so far. We will be looking through everything very closely and making adjustments, but I just wanted to quickly address a couple of items that jumped out at me.

 

Performance of Recent Logs: this is a known issue and we are actively working on making it faster. We were trying to find a balance between making the recent logs available quickly and highly optimizing it. Unfortunately, for some of you that balance tipped more on the side of watching a loading icon for eternity. It will get faster though.

 

Filtering Recent Logs: Our intention is to provide more flexibility on what is displayed on Recent Logs. Once again there was a balance between trying to make it available and adding all the bells and whistles. We didn't want to add lots of filtering options if the community only wants on/off. So yes, lets discuss how this can be more functional long term without making it overly complex.

 

Recently Viewed is HUGE: We will be reducing the number of recently viewed geocaches to 5 in the short term. There are also discussions about reducing some of the padding so each item isn't quite so large and long term making the entire section collapsible.

 

More to come! Thank you for your feedback!

[+Damned Rodan]

SO much wasted space — really dislike the big icons; it's infinitely better for me to be able to quickly see a few "recently viewed" logs, rather than a plethora, and then my last 30 days of logs in a relatively compact space. I have no interest in a big list of my friends' logs; better to use that space for my past 30 days.

 

Can't even use the "logs" link — it looks like it's trying to load every log I ever wrote and ends up locking up my browser. There was so much NOT wrong with what you had.

[+taybee]

hi all

I do not like the new looks on the New Website pages but can live with them

 

main BUG For me Are

 

1 public profile page is How Missing Profile Information I have 3 or 4 links in the area to help Geocacher to get the right Answers for same of my cache's

Are you going to put this Back

 

2 the icon is to big on the New Pages

 

3 missing the send EMaill to geocaachers

[+thebruce0]

Thanks for the check-in HiddenGnome, good to know things are being considered. Please keep considering

 

On the point of cache property icons - I can understand the intent of moving away from D and T for localization with various languages; but what about the option of having icons localized? Keep the D and T identifiers for any Difficulty/Terrain labels that start with D and T (and return to whatever they were for other languages as well).

I can see that the icons are the same ones used in the GC app, so it's good that you're moving towards unifying visuals; but note that at least in the app the icons are different colours than the numbers - right now the numbers and icons are cramped together and look like a jumbled mess. If you keep'em, consider changing the icon colours from the numbers, like the green and black grey in the app display.

[+The Snowdog]

New "Dashboard" comments...

 

THE GOOD: I've long wanted more than five entries in the "recently viewed" caches list. But I would prefer to keep the old layout, see five at first, and have a dropdown tool to see more. Seeing recent friend logs is kind of fun, but NOT mixed in with my own.

 

THE BAD: WAY too much wasted space (and too much white space) and fonts are too large, with the result is that there is not nearly as much information on the screen as before. It may look a lot better on a phone but on a PC it has the same issues as Windows 8/10 (trying to make the same layout work with both phones / tablets and desktops). Mixing friend logs with your own is just wrong - I often want to browse through just my own log entries. And why is their a "view all" option on "Recently Viewed" but NOT on "Recent logs" ? In fact from the new page there does not appear to be a way to see a list of all of your own logs as before. That alone renders the new dashboard unusable. Running the menu down the left side instead of across the top means that you have to scroll to get to what you want. It should stay across the top.

 

THE WORST: The new page removes a LOT of functionality that I use daily. For that reason alone, I won't use the new page - it can not show me what I want to see. Again, "unusable" is the word that comes to mind.

 

THE FIX: Some good ideas here, but the new layout leaves a lot to be desired. Keep the old layout, continue to show the last five viewed caches but add a dropdown tool to show more, and have an option to show recent friend logs.

[+The Leprechauns]

I like the readability of the links, etc. that run down the left side of the new dashboard. Much of what I use frequently, however, is "below the fold" and requires that I scroll down. I wish that the same panel appeared horizontally across the top of the page, so that I only needed to scroll down if I wanted to see my recent logs or my friends' recent activity.

 

Regarding those log lists, if there was a lot less white space, they could fit side by side after the important links are moved up to the top where I think they belong.

 

I could not find how to get to my list of unpublished, archived cache listings from the new dashboard. Where is that link hiding? I use it frequently to access the archived cache page where I upload photos for posting to these forums.

 

The "Logs" link takes me to a full list of every log I've ever written. Jammed up my browser something fierce, with so many thousands of logs. It's better to land on something like the old page and then let the user select which type of log they'd like to view, such as "only DNF's."

Edited May 17, 2017 by The Leprechauns

[+The Snowdog]

Comments on new profile:

 

For starters, same as my comments on the new dashboard - fonts are too large, too much white space = less information on the screen.

 

I would prefer that you continue to default to the "About" (formerly known as "Profile") page. Cachers go to a lot of trouble to make that part of their profile their own and it should be the first thing we see. If I want to look at their caching history or stats or whatever I'll click on the appropriate tab. That said - if you want to re order the tabs a bit let me suggest "About" (default), Geocaches, Statistics, then the rest.

Edited May 17, 2017 by The Snowdog

[+Viajero Perdido]

I would prefer that you continue to default to the "About" (formerly known as "Profile") page. Cachers go to a lot of trouble to make that part of their profile their own and it should be the first thing we see.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Please.

 

Currently the default is a bunch of [iMHO] irrelevant numbers. Yawn.

 

EDIT: ...and bookmarkable, please.

 

On the plus side, nothing has broken or otherwise needs touching up in my custom HTML. Good job on keeping the CSS etc. consistent.

Edited May 17, 2017 by Viajero Perdido

[+8Nuts MotherGoose]

1. I see nothing on any page for "email" or "message."

 

2. My Avatar, designed years ago to be only 68x68 as required, and now "Automatically is reduced to 68x68" has been put on my profile page and blown up to about 200x200. Now it looks like garbage. And the 100x100 on Dashboard is looking scruffy.

 

3. I just discovered where I can see my recent cache logs and recent Trackables logs (Dashbord-GEOCACHES-Logs and Dashboard-TRACKABLES-Trackable logs) That looks great! BUT at the last second while creating the Trackables log list the "View Log" becomes two lines and doubles the white space for everything in the list.

 

4. ABOUT should be the default tab.

 

5. That green square smiley for our feedback is only on the Dashboard page. It says to highlite the area of the comments being made. I don't see anything like that on the new profile page.

6. Remove Friends logs. If I want to see them, I'll go to their profile page.

Edited May 17, 2017 by 8Nuts MotherGoose

[+MotorBug]

Only had a few minutes to play around but I like it. The recently viewed caches and logs could be smaller(in 1 line) like the old profile page. My only complaint.

+1

And some good suggestions now that I have read the whole thread. For a major roll out it is good. I really agree with the 'About" being first. I've put a lot of work into that page over the years as have many others. It's why I would initially go to someone's page-- who is this person?

Edited May 17, 2017 by MotorBug

[+geodarts]

I can only repeat what others have said. Personalization for me does not mean seeing a geocaches tab - default to the about tab or allow users to pick the tab they want shown. Some might want stats. Some might like geocache information. But neither reflect who I am as a cacher.

 

The blown up avatar looks terrible. It was designed for a small image - not to be shown in large format. At least on my iPad I did not find an option to put a photo behind it.

 

I do not want to see a newsfeed of friends logs. I ended up defriending everyone. I am sure they'll understand. I know how to find them in other ways.

 

I will only use the souvenir link on the dashboard to hide them, but I would use a link to my gallery fairly regularly. Groundspeak has acknowledged that people like combining photography with caching, so why is there no link to the gallery?

[+two bison]

I've removed my logs from the dashboard of those in my friends list via the settings ... they can thank me later. Where is the setting so I can remove their logs from my dashboard? Or, is removing them from my friends list the only way to do that?

[+niraD]

I just noticed that the email link is a real mailto:... link. Nice! (And thanks for keeping the email links!)

[+two bison]

I, too, want to add my voice to the chorus calling for less white space and one-line per entry in the Recently Viewed list. I recently viewed them so I don't need to know how far away they are, what size they are, the favorite points they have, et cetera.

[+stinger503]

Couple issues I've noticed with the dashboard:

1. On a PC, this picture isn't what one sees. I'm on an average sized monitor right now and this is basically chopped in half.

Here is what I'm seeing on my monitor.

Note the number of features that are remaining from the old dashboard: 6 + 2 from the dropdown bar.

 

Here is what I see when looking at the old dashboard

 

Count the number of features there, 19! That's with extra information being displayed at the top (unpublished and waiting for review caches)

 

I'm using an standard version of Chrome.

 

2. I would say 95% of the time when I'm going to the dashboard I'm going to either my Stats or my Lists. Stats are fine but Lists are way under Trackables and Friends. While Trackables are important, you can access them from the Dropdown bar, for the List page you have to go to the dashboard. Either make a Lists button in the dropdown or move Lists up the page. If the empty space is decreased over the avatar then you could probably see the lists right off the bat under geocaches.

 

3. Recently Viewed is the very first item on the left toolbar yet it's already taking up the majority of the page so it's pretty redundant. Maybe change the header for the Recently Viewed caches into a link?

[+Cachologen]

I like the idea to revise the profile page - at least it's design - but after I saw that beta, I hope I'll never be forced to use it.

 

What I like:

• The design of the new bar on the left
  
• There aren't two menus at the top of the page anymore
  
• More information of caches get displayed in the list in a nice manner
  
• Unpublished caches aren't on the first page anymore
  

 

What I dislike on the first sight (some has already been mentioned here):

• Way too much wasted space (I can see just 6 recent caches on my display) - this may be useful for tablet computer but not for desktop (what's with "responsive design" or "alternative stylesheets" or a setting to choose list-design?)
  
• Ugly new Cachetype-Icons - now my hope is gone that they have been designed for the map only
  
• Useless friend stalking (at least I don't need it) which cannot be turned off (it's just possible turn of that friend see my activity)
  
• My last logs are gone (or is this an error of my computer or browser?)
  
• Fist entries in menu are "Statistics" and "Souvenirs" - they aren't important enough to be the first entries, they arent even important enough to be placed above the fold
  
• Dynamic loading of Content feels slow - although I measured nearly same loading time (~5 seconds with my connection), it feels like the throbber stays there for at least 10 seconds.
  
• Google earth kml has been removed instead of being improved (no inaccuracy anymore )
  

[+hcy]

Not bad, the only issue I have was already mentioned:

 

2. My Avatar, designed years ago to be only 68x68 as required, and now "Automatically is reduced to 68x68" has been put on my profile page and blown up to about 200x200. Now it looks like garbage. And the 100x100 on Dashboard is looking scruffy.

 

What I really like is that the "about" tab comes last and is not open by default. So one would not see all the annoying statistics and banners of the self-promoters at first view.

Edited May 17, 2017 by hcy

[+hcy]

I just noticed that the email link is a real mailto:... link. Nice!

Not nice, this shows my e-mail address to everyone! Please remove this function.

[+Wizard_Speed_Time]

I just noticed that the email link is a real mailto:... link. Nice!

Not nice, this shows my e-mail address to everyone! Please remove this function.

 

I have an email only for geocaching. I suggest you to do the same.

So you can keep you privacy safe.

 

By the way. I like the new desing but I need to work a bit more with the Dashboard in order to give a strong opinion. By now, the screens are a bit bigger that the used to. So you could think in take advantage of the wasted space...

Edited May 17, 2017 by picarax

[+Wizard_Speed_Time]

In the page Dashboard -> Unpublished caches there are no icons.

 

Could we get there information like icons, sent date, etc.?

 

https://www.geocaching.com/account/dashboard/unpublishedcaches

[+lodgebarn]

All phone orientated again, there seems to be no product owner who uses a PC. The white space is overwhelming, I wish to see the maximum useful data without any scrolling or extra clicks and the changes seem to be the opposite.

Edited May 17, 2017 by lodgebarn

[+gasbottle]

The whirligigs of doom rotate eternally under 'Recently viewed' and 'Recently Logs'

 

If they ever stop and display useful information I'll be sure to report back my impressions.

 

[Edit, 10 minutes later] Still waiting...

Edited May 17, 2017 by gasbottle

[+lodgebarn]

I just noticed that the email link is a real mailto:... link. Nice!

Not nice, this shows my e-mail address to everyone! Please remove this function.

Account Settings/ email address allows you to hide the real address so that communication is via GS. Maybe you have it checked to show? Still seems to work for me.

[+Pontiac_CZ]

To the new Dashboard:

 

1) the new "Recently viewed" section is too large, takes up more than the height of my 24" screen. It displays 10 items now instead of 5 in the old dashboard. I have to scroll down to get to the beginning of the news feed which I consider more important. Make the number of items to be displayed in "Recently viewed" list an option in Preferences (with 0 switching it off).

2) the individual items take up too much vertical space

3) I am probably not the only one who has two types of friends:

a ) the majority is OK and they write interesting logs worth reading. No problem with watching their activity if they agree so. I appreciate that I can be notified about all their log types now, not only the finds (I have just noticed a note my friend posted to an event I didn't know about...)

b ) the other friends are "number hounds", they produce copy&paste logs and I am not interested in reading those. Actually I am not interested in seeing their activity on my dashboard at all as they would flood it. But I'd like to keep them in friends to keep track of them and to have comfortable access to their profile for instance to find out about their new hidden caches.

So some "per-user" setting that would help us regulate populating our dashboard feed would be useful here.

4) I can only see 4 days back in the "Recent logs" section (the feed). Is it limited by days or number of logs shown? How about make it user-customizable in Preferences?

5) I wanted to see the logs I have posted in the last 30 days as I am used to. I saw the link "Logs" in the left column - that must be it! But it took me to the "Your geocaching logs (All)" page and loaded all my logs (in 24 seconds!). And it was "only" 2750 logs, many will wait much longer. Could it be somehow limited, like the last 30 days or so?

Edited May 17, 2017 by Pontiac_CZ

[+arisoft]

My comment to this new streamlined dashboard is easiest to demonstrate with two images.

 

 

 

I think these two versions are intended for two different purposes. The first one shows many interesting details at a glance. The second just looks nice.

 

I understand the need for simplified desing for simplified users. This problem has been addressed in many professional products by user selectable novice/advanced filter. At Geocacing.com one could expect the choice to be based on paid membership. The new one is good for basic members and the old one for premium members.

Edited May 17, 2017 by arisoft

[+Malmis]

[+schsch13]

Please make an Option, that I can block my friends logs.

Nobody wants this feature in "Recent Logs"!

And i don't want to ask all my friends to switch it off.

[+Toba78&Mapulu]

1) Dashboard

+Looks good at desktop and mobile

+I like the Recent Logs feature

-The avatars at the Recent Logs are to big (filesize!) - you use there the full size image and not the smaller compressed version.

-Loading time is to slow

-Wasted space on left and right side

-Mobile does not show Recent Logs (maybe instead of hide it maybe showed beneath)

-The german translation is not that good "Du werden teilnehmen" for you will attend

-Dislike Ads as a premium member

 

2) Profile

+I like that the avatars are shown bigger

+Add as friend

-Not mobile friendly

-Dislike Ads as a premium member

-To much wasted space

-Would like to see the DNF count

[+GeoJaxx]

I like the way the links are now together on the left and the page is in general tidied up however the features I do not like and feel need further improvement are as follows -

 

1. There is far too much white space meaning that you have to scroll to see anything else. On the new dashboard the whole initial screen is taken up with recently viewed caches and although I like to see this it does not need to take up this amount of space, I would ideally like to see the font decreased and white space reduced or alternatively only 5 to view and a link to view all.

 

2. The link to the map/list of caches near your home location has gone (also with filter out finds option) - I use this constantly and usually my first option when opening the website to view. As far as I can see now the only option to view the same unfiltered map without this link is with 5 separate clicks (each one with a slow lag to open) The process to get this map now is - Play/find geocache/click search icon/click map icon/clear search filters and finally the map is available - this was previously available in one click. Please put this link back on the main dashboard.

 

3. My recent logs need to be separately from my friends logs and appear on the dashboard either as the first section or after recently viewed and they also need to have the link to 'view all' in the same way as recently viewed has.

 

4. Friends logs need to be filterable as may not want to see everybody and if somebody has just done a series of 50 caches the feed will just show multiple similar posts which are of no interest.

 

5 Each section needs to have a collapse/open option so it can be reduced on the page if desired.

 

6. It would be great if cachers could choose the order the features appeared on the dashboard so they could set their favourite to the top and move sections up or down as required i.e recently viewed, own logs, friends logs. (own and friends log NEED to be separate items)

 

7 In the profile section I don't like the order the tabs appear - I would like mine to show the about section first (ideally open on this page) and this is the information I also like to view on other cachers profile - cachers could then be encouraged to add some individual info if it is currently not used to make their page personal.

However Trackables Souvenirs and List should move to the end of the tab list as these are unlikely to be sections others would like to view as much. i.e my preferred order would be ABOUT - GEOCACHES - GALLERY - STATISTICS - TRACKABLES - SOUVENIRS - LISTS.

 

8. It would be nice to allow two profile pictures - one for the large icon on profile page and another for the smaller avatar on logs.

 

In general I think the changes are moving in the right direction and I was very pleased to see that feedback was listened to prior to the release and the email link is still included (please leave this permanently) I hope feedback will continue to be looked and quickly acted upon and most importantly the link to the map/list of caches from home as centre point can be reinstated.

 

I will continue to use the old page for now as the new dashboard does not suit my needs in the current format but look forward to seeing updates which may encourage me to move over.

[+speakers-corner]

 

2. The link to the map/list of caches near your home location has gone (also with filter out finds option) - I use this constantly and usually my first option when opening the website to view. As far as I can see now the only option to view the same unfiltered map without this link is with 5 separate clicks (each one with a slow lag to open) The process to get this map now is - Play/find geocache/click search icon/click map icon/clear search filters and finally the map is available - this was previously available in one click. Please put this link back on the main dashboard.

 

This is also my "pet toy", I use it all the time, then I found you can click "Play" (on the main page) and then "View Geocache Map" (third from top) which I shall continue to do.

 

As to the other changes that have been made - nah, not sure, will watch what happens before I decide one way or the other.

[+monsterbox]

Hi!

 

I don't really find anything on the new dashboard of profile that works BETTER now to be honest.

 

Dashboard:

 

Top menu missing with "Lists" and all the other quick links. Now I need to scroll down even on my large 1920*1200 display.

 

Hello "cacher" part: This now has less info than before using WAY more space on the screen with a huge and completely unneeded gray tile on top of the avatar. And instead of the "View profile" button I'd simply like to get back the stats bar. It was showing some quick info!

 

Different menu items on the left, all grey on white and the single topics too close in style to the menu items itself. Trackable inventory is missing, just exists as a further link!

 

Recently viewed way too prominent, way too big, way too many. And waste of space anyways. Once cache now needs double the space than before. I can't suit 30" display on my desk And I don't need to see these caches. I didn't mind having them on the old dashboard as they didn't need too much space but now!?

 

Recent logs: I'm not a stalker so I don't want to see these friend logs at all. They don't help me especially as quite some of my geocaching friends live so far away from me that I hardly ever will visit one of these caches. I only want to see MY logs and with at least all the info that has been on the old dashboard. I would even add more info and not remove some. I would like to directly see the GC code, too And I still also want to see the trackable logs as this was what I was using most on the dashboard.

 

In total there's not a single reason why I would prefer the new version as the old one works way better for me!

 

Profile:

 

The new profile is wasting so much space for nothing! My wide screen will just be used for about 40% of its width. The remains is either white or contains adds (Ok, understand, that these will pay the site, too). The interesting info is been showed in the lower 40% of my 1920*1200 screen. That makes it even worse for people with a lower resolution.

 

Worst of all is that my PROFILE first seemed to be gone and now I've found it as "About". This what I want to see if I access my profile and not the Geocaches.

 

Lists: Favorites will be shown but just 2 of my bookmark lists are in there. Where are all the others? (btw: same issue on the old page, as I've seen)

 

Again: I don't like the new version as it again is a backdraw for my needs and usage model.

 

Bye,

Christian