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


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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.

 

I second what GeoJaxx said. I use the map to view my Pocket Queries all the time. Sure, I can bookmark www.geocaching.com/map... Or, just restore the link on the dashboard, please. Thanks.

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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.

 

I second what GeoJaxx said. I use the map to view my Pocket Queries all the time. Sure, I can bookmark www.geocaching.com/map... Or, just restore the link on the dashboard, please. Thanks.

 

I totally agree. That was my usual thing I did in this page.

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Someone else mentioned cache type icons in the recent logs section. There actually seems to be some inconsistency as far as which icons are displayed currently. Here's an example:

 

log_icons.png

For finds and DNFs, the displayed icon represents the type of log. However, a "Write note" has an icon representing the cache type. I haven't seen other logs types, so I can't say what happens for those. Based on what I'm seeing, I think there needs to be two different icons: one for the log type, and one for the cache type. Right now they're mixed together, so it isn't easy to get the log or cache type information quickly at-a-glance. For finds and DNFs, you don't get the cache type information at all, whereas for notes (and possibly others), you have to read the text to get the necessary context.

 

What I envision is something like [Log type icon] ["Found"/"Didn't Find"/"Wrote a note"/etc.] [Cache type icon] [Cache name], like this mock-up:

new_recent_log.png

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In the Recent Logs section, for found logs or DNFs, the found or DNF icon is shown, but for other log types, the cache type icon is shown. This is confusing right off the bat, but I'd say that the icon reflecting the log type is even more important for the less common log types. The cache type is an interesting piece of information, so fit it in if you want, but I claim that, in a list of logs, nothing is more important than the log type.

This is exactly how I reformatted the list in my mockup. Thankfully the log types are IMGs and the cache types are SVG. Easy to distinguish. (though they both refer to .svg files laughing.gif)

 

Also the remainder of the log description doesn't distinguish between the log and the cache name, it's just one string of text. Including a link to the relevant cache for each row would be nice. Not essential, but nice.

Edited by thebruce0
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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.

I second what GeoJaxx said. I use the map to view my Pocket Queries all the time. Sure, I can bookmark www.geocaching.com/map... Or, just restore the link on the dashboard, please. Thanks.

I totally agree. That was my usual thing I did in this page.

As someone else already pointed out, you can get to the map by going to the "Play" menu at the top of a page and clicking the third option: "View Geocache Map". It's only two clicks and available from any page on geocaching.com.

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It seems the whole site is going to be changed into some mobile device friendly style, annoying the users of traditional personal computers more and more.

Lots of empty space, big fonts renders the so calles dashboard useless in my opinion.

Looks like it should resemble some kind of social network, keeping in mind the prominent placement of your geofriends acitvities.

 

Well, absolutely not my cup of tea, like the old profile page much better.

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I'm glad this is only a first draft as I find the new pages way way too simplified. There is just too much missing from the page, everything from viewing all my logs to the link to the map from my home location is gone. How do you get to Benchmarks from the new page? How do you see your logs? Seeing the log date requires a lot of scrolling. The typeface is way too big which is wasting screen real estate. It's not even got my find and hide count nor my renewal date or the trackables I have in my possession.

 

Maybe keep an improved version of this new page for tablet and smartphone users but for desktop users the old page is far far superior. The website must be designed for easy access to data. Easy on the eye must come secondary to that.

 

Philip

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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.

I second what GeoJaxx said. I use the map to view my Pocket Queries all the time. Sure, I can bookmark www.geocaching.com/map... Or, just restore the link on the dashboard, please. Thanks.

I totally agree. That was my usual thing I did in this page.

As someone else already pointed out, you can get to the map by going to the "Play" menu at the top of a page and clicking the third option: "View Geocache Map". It's only two clicks and available from any page on geocaching.com.

 

Thanks, but that's kinda beside the point... there are other options on the "Play" menu that have their own links in the Dashboard, e.g. Trackables, Pocket Queries, and Drafts. Just saying I would like the Map on the Dashboard as well.

Edited by sterlingmc
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I prefer not to tell everything I'd like to, I'd be too long and a lot has already been written. And it could not be pleasant... So in short :

- Great update, we now have several watchlistS to play with, thank you !

- In the "GEOCACHES" menu (do you have to shout so that we know GEOCACHES is a section title ? I conceed that it's not clear with the style used.), I really miss the link to show the nearest caches from my home that I haven't found yet. I used it a lot. How am I supposed to do now ? It takes me several clicks instead of 1 to reach the same result using a pocket query, and even more with the brilliant new search. Even looking for caches is made harder. Regression :S

- Responsive design... look into it, really, it's not too late !

 

The old page wasn't really the prettiest, sure. Topping it should have been pretty easy. Well, as you had warned us, it's still a work in progress. And we, paying users, are the beta testers (am I the only one who's shocked by that ?)... And I'm just not confident, with the recent history of functions removal, (javascript) bug additions, bad design... Now everything's below the fold. Really unique. I fear the day the old pages will be removed.

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Also the remainder of the log description doesn't distinguish between the log and the cache name, it's just one string of text. Including a link to the relevant cache for each row would be nice. Not essential, but nice.

Hmmm, yeah, that is silly. If the icon reliably reflected the log type, there'd no longer be any reason to repeat the information in text. (Well, actually there's one reason: for some reason, in that list, they're using the "found" icon for "attended" instead of the normal "attended" icon, so you can't distinguish "found" from "attended" without the text.)

 

Come to think of it, without the redundant text, there's plenty of room for both the log type icon and the cache type icon.

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I just noticed that in the Recent Logs list, there's a link to the person, and there's a link to the specific log, but there's no link to the cache itself. The link to the cache itself is the one I want. The other 2 links are nice, but I'd almost never use them.

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...

- Great update, we now have several watchlistS to play with, thank you !

...

Ignoring the sarcasm in this post, Gillala does bring up a good point here. Is it planned that there will be multiple watchlists? I can't think of a reason why you'd need more than one, so if that isn't what's planned, you can drop the "s" from that label.

 

Also, can you remove the "db_bgimage.png" image from the top of the sidebar? It bumps down the sidebar content for no apparent gain, so removing it would move more stuff back above the fold.

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New dashboard page freezes my browser (Firefox on Windows)

 

I was wrong. It doesn't permanently freeze the browser; it just takes about 15 seconds to load when I click on "Logs," during which time the browser is unresponsive.

 

It's better in Chrome, which has a process per window.

 

Oh, and the settings do not work, but I suspect that is understood.

 

But I am having a hard time comprehending why this kind of abysmal performance is seen as an "improvement."

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Because of your desire to "improve things " you're just making things worse. First you screw with the old geocaching App by making an inferior one. Now you want to do the same thing to your website. It works just fine. No need to turn it into a clone of your app. I now use another (and far superior) App for caching. It does everything the classic one did and more. Can't stand the new profile page either. The new way you have to post a log is lame. I'll keep going to the old pages as long as its allowed, after that I guess I'll log only from my (superior) App If it ain't broke don't fix it.

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I don't know if someone has mentioned this yet, and frankly, I don't have the time to read through all of the prior comments to find out. I read through "most" of the first page, and didn't see anything mentioned about this:

 

1). One thing I liked about the old profile page was the bio section at the bottom, which allowed members to post "outside code" or whatever it's officially called which allowed users to display stats, maps, etc. (And yes, I know there was a tab for geocaching.com-compiled stats, but I'm talking about the various non-geocaching.com-compiled stats). However, on the new profile, if you want to see this information you have to click on the "About" tab. Personally, I don't like this being on a separate tab. I like it being "immediately seen" on my profile page if another user visits it. (What about making the "About" tab be the default page when someone visits a profile?)

 

2). I understand that "things change" and you guys are making the effort to improve things, and I admit I'm somewhat resistant to change (but am trying to do better), but why did the dashboard/profile changes have to be so *drastic?* Why not just make some tweaks here and there to the old version to improve things users asked for, without *completely revamping* the entire page/feel?

 

Thanks for listening.

John

"Spacemann Spiff"

Edited by Spacemann Spiff
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I like it being "immediately seen" on my profile page if another user visits it.

The reason why they moved the BIO to a separate tab might be that people often encountered (I did many times) profile pages with huge statistics in BIO that were able to freeze the browser for a couple of seconds (I had to wait about half a minute in a few cases).

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I like it being "immediately seen" on my profile page if another user visits it.

The reason why they moved the BIO to a separate tab might be that people often encountered (I did many times) profile pages with huge statistics in BIO that were able to freeze the browser for a couple of seconds (I had to wait about half a minute in a few cases).

 

Interesting.

Can't say that ever occurred for me. (Perhaps it would on my cell phone app (?), but I never visit other people's profiles while using the cell app, only when I'm on my pc browser at home, right next to the wifi modem).

Thanks for the reply!

John

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People who don't want to share their activity with their friends can easily switch it off. One click is all it takes. :) No need to talk about stalking anymore.

 

There still are people - including me - who don't care about being stalked but don't have a use for stalking others (i.e. being flooded with their logs).

 

But if there will be filtering in future, this really wouldn't be a problem anymore.

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Hey everyone -

 

Thanks for sharing all of your thoughts! Our team met today to have a quick feedback meeting and will be addressing most of the big stuff that was mentioned in this thread in the next week or so....white space, friends filtering, performance of page, 'About' section, linking to the profile tabs, identifying owned caches with a badge, displaying the status of caches in their titles (disabled, archived, unpublished), and linking to geocaching.com/my/geocaches.aspx for logs. Whew!

 

Some of you may not have been a part of the previous thread about these pages, so I'm going to do a mini-repost here:

As an FYI about our release process with these projects you should know that thoughtful, grounded feedback about the problems you are having is what speaks the loudest to us (akin to the tone of the User Insights forums). It loses impact and focus for us when the feedback turns to a general dislike of anything changing. We know that change can be tough, especially when you have been seeing the same pages for many years. Please know that we aren't just changing things for the sake of change. We have technology concerns, we have usability concerns, and we have had requests to bring in new ideas and features from the geocaching community. You should know that even though we geocache, we aren't making decisions based off hunches or the way 'we' like to geocache (believe me, as I was a geocacher before I was a Lackey, that would be awesome!). Everyone plays the game differently and we try to allow for that kind of flexibility when we design features for the site. It is our responsibility to find a good balance between all these things. We will be listening to you all summer long, as we continue to add features and functionality to these two pages. When we hear grounded feedback about the problems you are having we will look for good solutions for them - it won't necessarily mean that the loudest feedback wins or that the solution you have proposed will be implemented, as there are LOTS of factors to consider. When new solutions are implemented we look at analytics and data to see how/if folks are using the features and combine it with the qualitative feedback that we hear here, in usability tests, and in interviews with geocachers to make our decisions.

 

Also, quick note - if you don't see Dave or I as active in a thread on a particular day, we aren't ignoring you. It means that we are reading all the information, recording it, and meeting with the team to prioritize the work that needs to happen. That was me today. Stories have been entered into the backlog and the team will review them tomorrow. It is our goal this summer to review what we are hearing and move in quick iteration cycles to make changes to and build out the pages. We released them unfinished for a reason, because we wanted to build them with you. This is definitely a different development style than you have seen from us, but we wanted to try something new and see how it works.

 

I'll be out of the office on Friday, Monday, and Tuesday - so if you don't see me as involved for a few days it's because I'm out grabbing a few new states.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to explain what you are seeing and feeling with the new pages. It is helpful!

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Here's my entry for a slightly reworked mockup (right) contrasted against OLD (left) - though this is, for me, an ACTIVE webpage, thanks to Greasemonkey scripting (though the new sections don't populate (currently?))

 

[...]

 

 

I really like your mockup - I would be very glad if you provide a "stable" version of your Greasemonkey script for download (at least at the moment GS forces the use of "the new experience") :) .

 

thebruce0 should be employed by GS to rework the whole site ;)

Edited by Cachologen
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We released them unfinished for a reason, because we wanted to build them with you. This is definitely a different development style than you have seen from us, but we wanted to try something new and see how it works.

 

I like this new wind in the development. :) Great to hear that and thanks for staying in contact, Jayme!

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Although the one click map icon is now gone I can now see that on a website it is possible to go to play and then click the third option to get the map but that is not user friendly or obvious and surely is part of the old 'look' by using the top banner. However when I open the dashboard on my tablet I do not get the 'learn play community shop' banner at the top of the page so can't get to the link to view geocache map link without opening up a side menu.

Having an easily found one click link to a geocaching map on the first page of the dashboard I feel is very important.

Edited by GeoJaxx
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It is our goal this summer to review what we are hearing and move in quick iteration cycles to make changes to and build out the pages. We released them unfinished for a reason, because we wanted to build them with you. This is definitely a different development style than you have seen from us, but we wanted to try something new and see how it works.

 

Thumbs up for this statement!

 

If this had previously been communicated open and clearly visible (for example in the first paragraph on the new dashboard), there would have been less reason to worry. There are many issues with the old dashboard and reworking it is a good idea, but presenting a beta version without clearly communicating that work is still going on, implies fear that one will be forced to use this unfinished version at will.

 

To be forced to use something that brings (nearly) no benefits, but works worse than before and breaks familiar workflows is what many people angers - good examples are Windows 8/10 and Ubuntu Unity. There are still many people who don't care, but especially "power users" like to have working and well known interfaces. A user will never improve if he regularly looses part of his tools and is thrown back to a former level of learning.

 

This is indeed a different development style than before - think of barely working message center, abandoned Waymarking and Wherigo, feedback forum where highest voted wishes had been ignored, ... - and if GS really cares about the users from now on, maybe there'll be hope again for real improvements.

 

Thank you for this feedback!

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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)

When looking at your Profile, the only Bookmark Lists shown in the Lists tab are the ones you've chosen to be "public". That is what other cachers will be able to see when your profile is viewed.

To see all of your lists, whether private/shared/public, then you need to go to the Lists section on the Dashboard - or go directly to your lists page.

 

Yes I see now that on a website it is possible to go to play and then click the third option to get the map but that is not user friendly or obvious and surely is part of the old 'look' by using the top banner. However when I open the dashboard on my tablet I do not get the 'learn play community shop' banner at the top of the page so can't get to the link to view geocache map link without opening up a side menu.

Having an easily found link to a geocaching map on the first page of the dashboard I feel is very important.

It's been explained that one goal of the re-design is to remove links that are already elsewhere on the page.

On a mobile/tablet, you should have access to the top 'banner' links by clicking on the 3 horizontal lines in the upper-right. Do you have that menu icon when viewing your Dashboard page on the tablet?

 

I would love to know how many users actually make frequent use of the Dashboard page on a smartphone, and not the desktop. I can't imagine that being a ratio anywhere close to usable as reason to optimize it for mobile... But I'm just guessing here.

I think that having the dashboard and profile pages more mobile-friendly will help address the app users that want more functionality. For example, app users have clamored for souvenirs and statistics (among other functionaliy) in the app. They can now be pointed to a mobile-friendly webpage.

 

The reason why they moved the BIO to a separate tab might be that people often encountered (I did many times) profile pages with huge statistics in BIO that were able to freeze the browser for a couple of seconds (I had to wait about half a minute in a few cases).

Interesting.

Can't say that ever occurred for me. (Perhaps it would on my cell phone app (?), but I never visit other people's profiles while using the cell app, only when I'm on my pc browser at home, right next to the wifi modem).

Yep, I've also encountered issues with other cachers' custom content delaying the page load. It could take quite a while before I could click on something else on their profile, and usually that 'something else' was the 'Geocaches' tab.

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This, exactly.

 

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

 

f34007b2-c7cb-4bb7-bd4a-30152df0e4b7.jpg

 

6d0fe601-c80b-41b5-9598-fc5466827577.jpg

 

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.

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When in the new Dashboard, there is a link to go to your Profile. But when you are in your Profile, there is no link to go to the Dashboard. I know you can click on your user name in green title bar and this will bring you back to the Dashboard, but a link in the new profile section would unify the navigation layout.

Edited by igator210
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I also just noticed that trackables I visited to a cache today are showing up in the Recent Logs section. I'm not sure I like this feature. It is not something I'm interested in seeing. I would be okay with trackable drop and retrieve logs, but don't think it's necessary to have visit logs show up.

I'm puzzled. I see the reverse: in the old page, visits are now and have always showed up in the "your logs" section, but on the new page's "recent logs" section, I don't see them.

Ah, yes. You are correct that they do show up in the old "dashboard" under "Your Logs." I just never seemed to notice them that much because they are smaller and less in your face so to speak. So much white space makes it really weird looking. But I do see trackables I visited in the new Dashboard. See photo below. Also the two trackables I visited at the cache I found are a few entries below my log for said cache. I don't know if it's always been this way or if I'm just noticing it more now that the spacing is so wonky.

 

855cb342-256f-4647-8791-0e581642bad0.png?rnd=0.852749

 

My main question would be since my own logs are now combined into a section along with my friends' logs, will I see trackables that my friends visit to caches in this section? I haven't seen that yet, so I'm guessing now.

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Both sections:

- Browser shall adjust ot screen size and resolution, so no fixed design

 

Profile:

- Header section is huge and empty, just wasting of space

- Big profile photo, lot of empty space above and around.

- Header part is taking 50% of the screen, why not move "nickname, finds/hides/../joined/visited" to the right from the profile picture? Also decrease size of the photo and font

- Doesn't matter which menu item I choose and see nearly nothing and I have to scroll and scroll and PgDn :-(

 

Dashboard:

- Much less data visible - Recently viewed - only 7 caches

- Recently viewed - something wrong with shown data for each caches, third line seems wrongly rendered

- Why are shown data so narrow? big part of screen o right is just empty, I would prefer to see more caches

- Decrease font, icons to present more data

- Recently viewed vs. Recent logs - I can see few of my activities compare to huge report for logs from my friends. I want to see my data not someone else. If I want to see it I can go to search for it.

- Add setting where I can configure what and how I want to see (it will solve previous issues as well).

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- Lots of wasted space. On the right and on the left. And too many lines for the same information in the old design. Everyone has a 21"+ monitor, why don't you use that space?

- Get rid of these friend logs. I want to see my recent logs, not from other people.

 

I will use the old design, which has obviously more information and is clearly arranged.

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People who don't want to share their activity with their friends can easily switch it off. One click is all it takes. :) No need to talk about stalking anymore.

 

There still are people - including me - who don't care about being stalked but don't have a use for stalking others (i.e. being flooded with their logs).

 

But if there will be filtering in future, this really wouldn't be a problem anymore.

 

You're missing a way more important issue! It's not about MY logs to be seen by others... It's about OTHER logs that I'm now required to see INSTEAD of my log! The actual new dashboard shows me a huge block with recent views of what I don't need or care at all. And it just shows 3 recent logs, no more space for more on the first screen (and it's a big screen, for others it might be even worse!). I so often use the option to see MY logs from the last 30 days and now I can only see logs from the last 2 days? Are you serious, Groundspeak? ;)

 

And even with the latest changes, waste of space is still so f***ing bad. I'm not that blind yet and I still like the old style way more than this "fancy" new one.

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I decided a picture is worth any number of words. This is definitely a new experience - the only difference in the view at any one time is the amount of circle shown. Edited to note that my Android tablet has a similar appearance, only without anything in the gray area. These are the primary tools I use to interact with this site.

 

image.png

Edited by geodarts
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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)

When looking at your Profile, the only Bookmark Lists shown in the Lists tab are the ones you've chosen to be "public". That is what other cachers will be able to see when your profile is viewed.

To see all of your lists, whether private/shared/public, then you need to go to the Lists section on the Dashboard - or go directly to your lists page.

 

Thanks that for. Just wondered a bit as I never ever used that tab and thought it might be an issue ;)

 

I would love to know how many users actually make frequent use of the Dashboard page on a smartphone, and not the desktop. I can't imagine that being a ratio anywhere close to usable as reason to optimize it for mobile... But I'm just guessing here.

I think that having the dashboard and profile pages more mobile-friendly will help address the app users that want more functionality. For example, app users have clamored for souvenirs and statistics (among other functionaliy) in the app. They can now be pointed to a mobile-friendly webpage.

 

We can't you have 2 completely different sets of pages like many other sites have? I don't care at all what a mobile user wants to see (or HOW they want to see it. I way more care about how it looks and feels on a standard wide screen display. And the new look THERE simply is weird, space wasting and there are still some old features/infos missing.

 

The reason why they moved the BIO to a separate tab might be that people often encountered (I did many times) profile pages with huge statistics in BIO that were able to freeze the browser for a couple of seconds (I had to wait about half a minute in a few cases).

Interesting.

Can't say that ever occurred for me. (Perhaps it would on my cell phone app (?), but I never visit other people's profiles while using the cell app, only when I'm on my pc browser at home, right next to the wifi modem).

Yep, I've also encountered issues with other cachers' custom content delaying the page load. It could take quite a while before I could click on something else on their profile, and usually that 'something else' was the 'Geocaches' tab.

 

I would simply prefer to be able to chose what I would like to see as the default tab. If I watch a profile I mainly don't care about the Geocaches tab, but the old profile tab. And I know that it takes ages from time to time, but as this exactly is what I'm looking for AND expecting I don't care at all. I have time, I'm not on the run ;)

Edited by monsterbox
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My main concern is that the "profile" tab is no more the default view, so that all stories and specific stats that we have created to tell something about us is now hidden in a rather invisible "about" tab. Specific stats and storytelling is part of the game. It could be that only a little percentage of all players have customised their profile, but what is this percentage among the serious geocachers (the ones with more than 1000 finds, eg.) ?

 

I'm really disappointed by the new "profile" and hope that a customised profile will find his place back as the default tab.

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When typing my logs, I have no way now of adding a hyperlink, rather, using Markdown. I often link other caches or something relevant and cute to my logs and feel the writing experience will be lessened if am unable to do so.

 

In the release announcement, photos of the new dashboard were shown, and the blue face next to DNFs were listed along with other categories in each profile. Where did that DNF stat go?

 

Needs maintenance and/or archived should come back as a log type. The generic "a cacher has reported this..." doesn't speak to the issue, and there should be freedom to write a log reporting the specific problem

 

Adding coordinates to a log needs to be enabled again. That is an extremely helpful feature when you're looking for a cache that is away from the posted coords.

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What is worse:

1) I have seen on my profile page all logs from last month. Now I dont see it and for bigger mess I have there logs of my friends. Why? OK, good idea to see it, but somewhere else. Only worse overwiev.

2) To see listing of cache, which I recently logged, i must do 2 steps. In old version only one.

3) BIGGEST MINUS: I dont see unpublished caches on main site of my profile?? What is it? And OK, when I click on unpublished hides, there I cant see, which are and wchich are not submited for publications.

4) All the lists (unpublished caches, logs, recently viewed caches) are terribe big, so I see much smaller number of caches in concrete list.

What is better:

Nothing. Unfortunately.

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Ah, yes. You are correct that they do show up in the old "dashboard" under "Your Logs." I just never seemed to notice them that much because they are smaller and less in your face so to speak. So much white space makes it really weird looking. But I do see trackables I visited in the new Dashboard. See photo below. Also the two trackables I visited at the cache I found are a few entries below my log for said cache. I don't know if it's always been this way or if I'm just noticing it more now that the spacing is so wonky.

Thanks for the screenshot. That clears it up for me, and reveals a very serious flaw in the new list. You see, I did in fact visit a TB the day before this came up, but it wasn't on my list. It turns out that the reason it wasn't on my list was because it had scrolled off the bottom already. OK, fine, and mainly that's because of all the friend listings that I don't want to see anyway.

 

But what I realize looking at your screen shot is that the most important reason it scrolled off the list is that TB visits are listed last. Before, they were listed chronologically, so the TB visit log was always next to the found log that created it. I could see those found logs, so when the TB logs weren't next to them, I assumed it was because TB visits are listed at all.

 

Anyway, long story, short bug report: the "recent logs" should be ordered chronologically so that TB logs are right next to the found log that generated them.

 

(I don't know whether my friends' TB visits will be listed, but it would be very annoying if they were and I had friends that carry around a bunch of TBs that they visit to every cache. Fortunately, I don't have any friends like that, which is why I can't tell you whether they'd all be listed.)

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Anyway, long story, short bug report: the "recent logs" should be ordered chronologically so that TB logs are right next to the found log that generated them.

 

 

Agree 100%, I always review my logs on the dashboard at the end of the day, and it's obvious if I forgot to log a TB drop, when I see there's no drop log beside the cache I found and there have been several occasions when this has reminded me to log a TB drop that I had skipped. If the TB logs are separated from the cache logs that will be less obvious that a TB drop has been missed.

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From the FAQ:

I liked having all my custom profile information prominently displayed. Why did you change the default display?

 

We learned through data that only 2.4% of active geocachers have anything entered in their custom profile information tab. It makes for an inconsistent experience if most people land on an empty page. The ‘geocaches’ tab is relevant to everyone who plays the game. We could add an “empty state” (a bit of information that tells you what you are missing out on and how to add content, if you currently have none) on the page for those who don’t have any content, but all of that code is part of our legacy (aka: spaghetti) code base and we run the risk of breaking the custom content for the people who do have it on their profile. So we end up playing the balance game of keep the content available, but shift location or build something that is relevant to everyone and risk breaking it. We’ll look at community feedback and use of the page after this release to help us determine next steps.

Is the "inconsistent experience" really the only issue? Or are you interested in a better experience? Because I think displaying the personal information in the "About" tab is going to be a much better experience whenever the user has taken the time to enter this information.

 

If you don't want to display a blank "About" tab (and I agree that a placeholder "About" tab is really no better than a blank one), then perhaps you could make the "About" tab optional. If the user has taken the time to enter this information, then the "About" tab would display as the first tab on the left, and it would display as the default tab. But if the user hasn't entered anything, or if the user has removed the personal information, then the "About" tab would not display, and the "Geocaches" tab would be the leftmost (and default) tab.

 

Others have mentioned performance issues, usually related to users who have gone to extremes with their custom statistics/souvenirs, and/or who are using slow third-party servers for their custom statistics/souvenirs. Perhaps another optional tab could be created for "Personal Statistics" or "Trophies" or whatever. Then the "About" tab could be used for general personal information, and the other tab could be used for detailed statistical analysis of the user's entire geocaching career.

 

I don't know how the idea of optional tabs would play with your legacy/spaghetti code. But I would think that a binary toggle wouldn't be any more trouble than rearranging tabs and changing which tab is the default.

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As some of you are painfully aware, if you tried to view the Dashboard on a tablet you would see the loading spinners for eternity. This was a bug that got introduced just before launch and was overlooked, but has now been fixed. I am sorry that bug wasn't caught sooner and thank you all for your understanding. For those of you who are familiar with software process you know that it is not uncommon for bugs to find their way into a system. We do our best to bring the number as close to zero as possible before anything is released and fix the remaining bugs as quickly as possible.

 

This has been mentioned several times, but I know that not everyone reads an entire thread so:

* Unpublished caches will be returning more prominently in a future version

* There are plans in place for updates to the Recent Logs section so you can view only your logs (with the option of viewing your friend's logs)

* The new profile and dashboard are intended as a work in progress to allow community feedback along the way and while we would love hearing from the community about the new pages we are not forcing anyone to use the new pages. In fact a lot of work went into a new system to make sure your preferences are "sticky". If you choose to view an old page then that is what you will see.

 

The development process for this project is going to be different than in the past. We know that in the past some projects have been released and then it is perceived that we have abandoned them, leaving the community to use (or not) something that they didn't want. With that in mind I understand why so many people would be weary of these changes that seem so drastic and "unpolished". We are trying to communicate our intentions as often and in as many places as possible. Jayme and I plan on being transparent and open about changes so everyone is aware of what is coming up.

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Thanks again HiddenGnome for keeping us updated!

 

This has been mentioned several times, but I know that not everyone reads an entire thread so:

* Unpublished caches will be returning more prominently in a future version

* There are plans in place for updates to the Recent Logs section so you can view only your logs (with the option of viewing your friend's logs)

Awesome! Thank you :)

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I'd really like to see a direct link to the map on the dashboard. The dashboard is my landing page for GC.com, and the map icon is the thing I use most, so I'd like to see a link on the page rather than having to go via the drop down menus - after all there's enough empty space to fit it in.

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This has been mentioned several times, but I know that not everyone reads an entire thread so:

* Unpublished caches will be returning more prominently in a future version

* There are plans in place for updates to the Recent Logs section so you can view only your logs (with the option of viewing your friend's logs)

* The new profile and dashboard are intended as a work in progress to allow community feedback along the way and while we would love hearing from the community about the new pages we are not forcing anyone to use the new pages. In fact a lot of work went into a new system to make sure your preferences are "sticky". If you choose to view an old page then that is what you will see.

 

If this would just stick forever... ;)

 

Ok, seriously now: I still don't see a single part within the new dashboard that would work better for me up to now. I only see less info in addition with simply more that I'm not interested in at all. Sorry to say that. I also don't care at all about a specfic mobile view as I always prefer the standard desktop view and always set desktop view within my browser on the mobile phones and tablets. Just hate this waste of space and kiddie-ish bonbon style. Might be I'm just too old that for. But I prefer information vs. "style"

 

Now to some further comments to the new dashboard:

 

My statistics are shown within my personal profile, that's why I'm using GSAK/FindStatGen and I know many people using this or similar stuff. So I wouldn't use the Statistics link to the left at all. Roughly the same with Souvenirs. Even if I collected quite some of them they aren't important for me so the placement is way too prominent for my personal like.

 

Recently Viewed: Still way too prominent. As I recently viewed the recently viewed caches I'm most of the time no longer interested in these and they just waste space. I would prefer an option to complete disable this part.

 

Recent Logs: Not interest at all in seeing the logs from my friends. The old style simply was close to be perfect for me. The only "issue" I had with the old style was the order of the logs. Not all of them really have been shown in the order of entering them (I think Discover and NM/NA-Logs seemed to be in a special order). But everything there was way better than the actual view with just 2 days. Now I need to check for these logs in 2 different places: Geocaches->Logs and Trackables->Trackables Log. I simply would like to stay with the old style!

 

What also is missing in the new list is the link to the cache itself. Now I need to click for the log and then click the cache. Why not 2 links? Cachename linked to the cache and "Found/Didn't Find/etc" linked to the log?

 

Consistency: At Recently Viewed you show D/T/S and at Recent Logs you don't.

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Ok, seriously now: I still don't see a single part within the new dashboard that would work better for me up to now. I only see less info in addition with simply more that I'm not interested in at all. Sorry to say that. I also don't care at all about a specfic mobile view as I always prefer the standard desktop view and always set desktop view within my browser on the mobile phones and tablets. Just hate this waste of space and kiddie-ish bonbon style. Might be I'm just too old that for. But I prefer information vs. "style"

 

Now to some further comments to the new dashboard:

 

My statistics are shown within my personal profile, that's why I'm using GSAK/FindStatGen and I know many people using this or similar stuff. So I wouldn't use the Statistics link to the left at all. Roughly the same with Souvenirs. Even if I collected quite some of them they aren't important for me so the placement is way too prominent for my personal like.

 

Recently Viewed: Still way too prominent. As I recently viewed the recently viewed caches I'm most of the time no longer interested in these and they just waste space. I would prefer an option to complete disable this part.

 

Recent Logs: Not interest at all in seeing the logs from my friends. The old style simply was close to be perfect for me. The only "issue" I had with the old style was the order of the logs. Not all of them really have been shown in the order of entering them (I think Discover and NM/NA-Logs seemed to be in a special order). But everything there was way better than the actual view with just 2 days. Now I need to check for these logs in 2 different places: Geocaches->Logs and Trackables->Trackables Log. I simply would like to stay with the old style!

 

What also is missing in the new list is the link to the cache itself. Now I need to click for the log and then click the cache. Why not 2 links? Cachename linked to the cache and "Found/Didn't Find/etc" linked to the log?

 

Consistency: At Recently Viewed you show D/T/S and at Recent Logs you don't.

 

The current iteration of the dashboard does not add much in terms of additional functionality. However, the goal of this current version was to create a base that new features could be added to. We are working on plans for additional features that will bring a lot of additional value to the page.

 

We are continuing to evaluate the styling based on feedback from users. While some people are not in love with the new design there are a lot of people who we have heard from that really like it (and this includes existing geocachers).

 

Recently Viewed: We are looking into options for allowing certain sections, like Recently Viewed, to be collapsible.

Recent Logs: As I mentioned earlier, we will be updating this feed to toggle only your logs.

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As some of you are painfully aware, if you tried to view the Dashboard on a tablet you would see the loading spinners for eternity. This was a bug that got introduced just before launch and was overlooked, but has now been fixed. I am sorry that bug wasn't caught sooner and thank you all for your understanding. For those of you who are familiar with software process you know that it is not uncommon for bugs to find their way into a system. We do our best to bring the number as close to zero as possible before anything is released and fix the remaining bugs as quickly as possible.

 

This has been mentioned several times, but I know that not everyone reads an entire thread so:

* Unpublished caches will be returning more prominently in a future version

* There are plans in place for updates to the Recent Logs section so you can view only your logs (with the option of viewing your friend's logs)

* The new profile and dashboard are intended as a work in progress to allow community feedback along the way and while we would love hearing from the community about the new pages we are not forcing anyone to use the new pages. In fact a lot of work went into a new system to make sure your preferences are "sticky". If you choose to view an old page then that is what you will see.

 

The development process for this project is going to be different than in the past. We know that in the past some projects have been released and then it is perceived that we have abandoned them, leaving the community to use (or not) something that they didn't want. With that in mind I understand why so many people would be weary of these changes that seem so drastic and "unpolished". We are trying to communicate our intentions as often and in as many places as possible. Jayme and I plan on being transparent and open about changes so everyone is aware of what is coming up.

 

It is quite refreshing to hear this. I have often felt in the past that HQ has made a bunch of changes and then not said anything else about it, even though people are providing feedback and talking about the things they don't like. Thank you for being open and honest with us and for keeping us updated.

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The dashboard now works on my tablet and looks fair to middling when the tablet is in portrait mode. A bit too much white space and too much information in the logs section

 

It looks awful on a 20" horizontal monitor - far too much space and I have to scroll to see anything.

 

The biggest single issue I have is with my friends logs. I gather that this will be configurable, so may I request that each friend has an on/off switch and that each category of log has an on/off switch. So, I can specify that I don't want to see any logs from some friends and just cache logs from other friends. No trackable logs from any friends.

 

The other bug(?) is the "Log this cache" link doesn't take me to the "Log this cache" page - it takes me to the cache description page, just like clicking the cache name.

 

Three lines of information for my recently viewed caches is unnecessary. If I've looked at them recently I know what they are. The number of favorites, the distance, the D/T values and cache size are redundant. One line (cache type and name) at 1 1/2 spaced text would be better.

 

Similarly, why two lines of data for friends logs. Move cache type and name beside the friends name and make it 1 1/2 spaced as well. Even better, segregate each friend's logs into their own (collapsible) area, so their name only needs to appear once.

 

The dates from my friend's logs - are they local time to me, local time to where my friend logged the cache or Seattle time?

 

Having the settings link beside the Logs header is bizarre. It should be in the left panel along with Souvenirs and statistics.

 

Taliking of the left panel, it would be great if the links below the Geocaches and Trackables headings simply collapsed and expanded the relevant section to the right. Remembering the collapsed/expanded state between runs would also be good. Or, default them all to collapsed at the start of each run.

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The dashboard now works on my tablet and looks fair to middling when the tablet is in portrait mode.

Hmm. It's no different for me. Still just a band of grey space on the right.

bc64c5a8-1c06-470d-9be9-4a25b487edb7.jpg

 

BTW, This might be a time to mention that the TripAdvisor app is really insistent about you rotating the device to landscape mode. I'm boss of my devices; I uninstalled the app.

 

EDIT: It got more interesting:

Warning: Unresponsive script

yadda yadda

https yadda googlesyndication yadda dynamic_utils/5/utils_min.js 33

EDIT: Guess I should mention, this is a Nexus 7 (2013) with the current Firefox. The script error was on the screen after I wrote up this post, then went back to the tablet a few minutes later.

Edited by Viajero Perdido
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I've looked at the profile now and I have to say that I don't like it. Far too much wasted space.

 

Suggestions for improvement:

 

For my profile, move the finds, hides, trackables, "View forum posts" and the settings up to the right of the picture, centre the name and member status below the picture and move the "Joined" and "Last visited" bits to the right, immediately below the hides, etc. For other people's profiles, move the box containing friends, send message, send e-mail and View Forum posts up to the right of their picture as well.

 

I don't want to see peoples geocaches by default - I want to see their "about" tab. Other folk will have different preferences, so please allow us to specify which tab is our default view (or to allow us to select that no tab should be shown).

 

When I add my picture, it is square. Why do you crop it to a round shape. If I wanted round (or oval or star-shaped or whatever), i would have uploaded it that way. Please let our picture reflect what we want.

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We are continuing to evaluate the styling based on feedback from users. While some people are not in love with the new design there are a lot of people who we have heard from that really like it (and this includes existing geocachers).

Another thing to keep in mind - how attached are they to a new design? That is, will they like most anything? If so, then their opinion has less weight than opinions of those (with good reasons) who have some validc criticisms. If 90% of viewers like a design, and 10% offer an alternate suggestion than 80% of the other others would also like, then the alternate is actually a pretty good thing to consider, even though only 10% are suggesting it ;)

 

I'd wager that a vast majority of general users of the site are responding "nice, neat! I like it!" but without a whole lot of criticial analysis or consideration of other features or changes that could be different and better. So mere numbers comparison of good/bad responses isn't necessarily a great basis for decision-making...

 

(another reason why for example in logo design, you always present many options and design variations, instead of just one or two you as a designer like the most - your client may not realize what else could be done that they may like better until they see them all. It's certainly not as easy when you're working on one live presentation and taking in loads of feedback from across the community spectrum)

 

Recently Viewed: We are looking into options for allowing certain sections, like Recently Viewed, to be collapsible.

Recent Logs: As I mentioned earlier, we will be updating this feed to toggle only your logs.

These are both great things! :)

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We are continuing to evaluate the styling based on feedback from users. While some people are not in love with the new design there are a lot of people who we have heard from that really like it (and this includes existing geocachers).

Just wondering if this implies that some, perhaps many, perhaps even most, of the people providing feedback aren't existing geocachers?

 

Visual appeal is one thing, but providing the functionality that's needed and used by the broad spectrum of geocachers, particularly the more experienced ones, is what's fundamentally important.

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