NatureMapr update: Improved Add Sighting user experience and ID/taxonomy selection

Posted by AaronClausen

 25 Jan 2023

Hi All,
 
Last night we rolled out an important improvement which we've been wanting to do for a very long time.
 
The "Add Sighting" user experience has been improved to make it much easier to find and select a species or category when reporting a new sighting.
  • Your recently reported categories and species are now displayed for easy repeat selection.E.g. if you are on a roll reporting lots of orchids or similar species, it will be now just 1 click to report the same species or category over and over again
  • The 9 year old "triple dropdown list" design was becoming too slow and cumbersome to navigate. You can now quickly select any species by simply typing the species in the Identification quick search box
  • Only the species relevant to the particular region will be available for selection, removing large numbers of "clutter" / irrelevant species from other regions
We are very interested in your feedback and experience with the new design.
 
Once bedded in and if successful, we plan to roll the changes out to other parts of the platform such as the Edit Sighting and Sighting Identification tools.
 
Cheers
 
Aaron.

31 comments

   25 Jan 2023
Thanks Aaron, this concept is unreal and a massive improvement. Awesome work, mate. I think there might just need to be a tweak to the "Identification" input box, as when I was submitting a sighting it was already populated and so I didn't realise that was where I type in the name of the species, and it appears others might be experiencing the same. Does that make sense?
AaronClausen wrote:
   25 Jan 2023
Thanks for the invaluable feedback mate. So do you mean, you clicked one of the quick links to a category (which then populated a value inside the box?) and so it was unclear what to do after that? So your sighting came through with just a category suggestion rather than you typing in a specific species?
RodDeb wrote:
   25 Jan 2023
okay I just saw the note from Matthew Frawley about typing the name into the box so I typed the name in (like Matthew didn't realise could type it in there) but 2 came up with different Latin names with the same common name, some of the names I can remember if I see them, but not all of them. So, when I didn't know and clicked off there it all disappeared which meant after I found the Latin name on another window I had to start from scratch again to do the sighting name. Like Matthew, I do really like the new clickable links but it looks like it still needs some tweeking. Keep up the great work. Thanks for all you do. cheers Deb
AaronClausen wrote:
   25 Jan 2023
Awesome feedback RodDeb - please keep the feedback coming everyone so we can tweak and nail this down.
   25 Jan 2023
To answer your question Aaron, yes, the identification box is populated with the category name, so I didn't realise I should type in the species there. But now I know I do but it is annoying that it is populated because I have to delete it before typing in what I want to identify. This is on the web page that I'm talking about. And, yes the sighting just came through as a category suggestion.

Just a question around that final step, if I am submitting a butterfly sighting that I know is a skipper but I'm a little unsure of which species, when I choose Insects - Butterflies - Skippers - then at the final step is it possible to get a list of the skippers so that I may recognise the species name from the list if I'm unsure?
AaronClausen wrote:
   25 Jan 2023
"then at the final step is it possible to get a list of the skippers so that I may recognise the species name from the list if I'm unsure?"

Yep exactly. I expected this would likely come up as the next logical improvement to this tool and agree we need it. I just have to work out the best way to display the, all in the limited real estate but agree 100% we need this.
   25 Jan 2023
Thanks Aaron, it's a really good improvement. I just noticed that I can simply start at the identification box if I know what it is and just type in the name. This saves a lot of time for all those Common Brown sightings I submit compared to the old drop-down list method. Very cool.
RodDeb wrote:
   25 Jan 2023
Oh thank you just noticed you have fixed the description box already. I have found I can just add the Latin name in the box rather than clicking on all the pretty catergories and this was much faster. Is okay if you are sure what the animal or plant etc. is. Also I have noticed that with each sighting I add my list of recent categories and recent species is growing on the page under the ID box, if it keeps adding them all it may get to be a long way down to adding extra info like size etc. and then click on report this sighting. Is it necessary to have this do you think? Perhaps there could be an option to open and close the info so it takes up less room.
LisaH wrote:
   25 Jan 2023
Thank you for all your work!
AaronClausen wrote:
   25 Jan 2023
Great to hear Matthew and RodDeb. Yep much faster to type latin name directly into the search query box and away you go. You can alternatively type (or simply click) on a category. Hopefully RodDeb you should only get a max of 5 Recent Species and 5 Recent Categories??

Agree with Matthew's suggestion that ideally child species should show up *somewhere* once a bottom level category is selected...
AlisonMilton wrote:
   25 Jan 2023
Hi Aaron and co, this is all great for those that have memorised the Latin names, but in most cases I don't know them so rely on the drop down lists. Lazy perhaps I know but at my age not willing to go to these lengths to memorise all the Latin names. As Mathew suggested, we need the next level available to choose from - with the Common name as well as the Latin name. As I make a lot of contributions the current system adds a lot more work for me as I then need to have a separate Species look-up page for reference. May influence me to just give reporting.
Sorry, I know there is often a great compromise to fit all options but just my two cents worth.
RodDeb wrote:
   25 Jan 2023
Thanks Aaron yep you are correct only the max of 5 Recent Species and 5 Recent Categories have come up so no problems at all with that. Really appreciate all of your ongoing hard work, thank you.
AaronClausen wrote:
   25 Jan 2023
Great feedback @AlisonMilton thank you. I am the same, I don't know a lot of latin names and like the system to prompt me which species are available within a particular category etc. We will look to add this into the new design very soon. Thanks guys for helping me bed this in.
AaronClausen wrote:
   25 Jan 2023
Great @RodDeb good stuff.
AlisonMilton wrote:
   25 Jan 2023
Thanks Aaron, Now that I have begun adding a few records I can see the advantages but would like access to the next child levels.
Great work.
   25 Jan 2023
Common name (if it has one) also works if you can't remember the scientific name.
AaronClausen wrote:
   25 Jan 2023
Yep common names work in the search query box. child species selection coming soon...
AlisonMilton wrote:
   25 Jan 2023
I tried that but it didn't work. Will try again. Thanks
KylieWaldon wrote:
   26 Jan 2023
I rather enjoyed the new upload process - tested it out this morning. However, some latin/common name strings may need to be edited. For example - the Common Brown Butterfly doesn't show up if you type in Butterfly because its not in its latin/common name. The Dragonflies ditto. If I type in Common Brown it appears, but not Common Brown Butterfly. Not a sticking point for me, but may be for others. I usually open a second window anyway and look back if I've had something before to work out what to select this time! (uploading from a computer)
KylieWaldon wrote:
   26 Jan 2023
ps and when I edit my post it goes back to the old way. yay!
AaronClausen wrote:
   26 Jan 2023
Ok give that a go now please guys @RodDeb @MatthewFrawley @AlisonMilton @KylieWaldon
JimL wrote:
   27 Jan 2023
Love it!
Thanks for the efforts in bringing this update in.
Did get caught out and bumbled my way through. Realising it was an update instead of a hack or webpage loading issue, I tried different ways to drop in today’s records.
I’m a huge fan!
AaronClausen wrote:
   27 Jan 2023
That's awesome to hear @Jiml thanks for the feedback!
AaronClausen wrote:
   27 Jan 2023
Thanks for your support @LisaH
HelenCross wrote:
   28 Jan 2023
Excellent development!
AaronClausen wrote:
   28 Jan 2023
Glad you like it @HelenCross
SimoneC wrote:
   31 Jan 2023
Great work I like being able to type the Latin name as a shortcut but I couldn’t see how to suggest a new species, it seems only existing species can be used now
AaronClausen wrote:
   1 Feb 2023
Great feedback @SimoneC thanks. You're correct that suggest a new species is not currently there in the new search/ID tool. But for now, you can still suggest a new species from the main Sighting page or the Edit Sighting page..
AaronClausen wrote:
   6 Feb 2023
Ok @michaelb @MatthewFrawley planning to apply the new category/species selector design to the Edit Sighting page today.
AaronClausen wrote:
   7 Feb 2023
Hi all - this new tool has now also been applied to the Edit Sighting page - bye bye old 3 dropdown lists.
GlossyGal wrote:
   12 Feb 2023
Hi Aaron - I'm having a challenge on Southern Highlands NM. It's a bit difficult to describe, so please bear with me. Maybe if I use a recent example. I just put up a fly. I think it's Austalis copiosa. When I put that in the Identification box up pops Insects/TrueFlies/Hover flies. But the original term "Austalis copiosa" drops out. I then try to select a species from the drop down menu but Austalis copiosa is not offered as an option. As a consequence my entry comes up as "unidentified". This problem has only emerged recently. What am I missing? Any hints?

Please Login or Register to comment.

2,148,794 sightings of 19,882 species in 6,407 locations from 11,276 contributors
CCA 3.0 | privacy
We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of this land and acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present.