Relatives at RootsTech

Connects people to living relatives from all over the world using their family trees.

Project Overview

Finding how people are related to others in small groups has been a popular feature on the Family Tree app. We have applied this idea to larger groups and found the same success. This year has been our biggest. Over four days, more than four hundred thousand people opted to find out how they are related to each other and over eight million cousin connections were made. The company's key metrics increased by people using this feature.

Requirements

• Before the conference starts people can opt in and see interesting facts about what to expect from Relatives at RootsTech.

• Tie the feature to virtual conference for the web.

• Adapt audience to include new people to family history.

• Allow for social sharing.

Testing the Flow

THE PLAN
First, we mapped out the entire flow for how users will be invited, opt in, add details, see facts, and share. We also wanted to get a feel for how and what people might share this with others. Second, we established a design pattern. Third we tested our best guess with users.

TESTING ROUND 1
From the user testing we learned there was some confusion around how relationships were calculated.  Most people thought it was based off a DNA test or their last name. There was lots of confusion around RootsTech conference, Relatives at RootsTech, and FamilySearch. People didn't know how all of those were connected. We also learned that most people were very interested to find their cousins and invite their friends to see how they are related.

QUOTES  
"I'm not sure how the connections are made and and if it is only through last name don't want this."
"Oooo! So many people have connected to this website so I'm more interested."

Focusing on Social Sharing

THE PLAN
We expected that most people will be invited from a social media post so we swapped an email invitation for a social media post.  We also expected that most people who come here through social media will not have family trees added so we updated part of the flow as well. We added a video, text, and illustration explanation for how relatives are found. We created content to inform people more about RootsTech and how Relatives at RootsTech was connected. 

TESTING ROUND 2
Most people were still confused by the connect between these three things: RootsTech, Relatives at RootsTech, and FamilySearch. The text explanation of how Relatives at RootsTech cleared up how relatives are found. The video was long but helpful. Users were ready to add their tree but we put too many impedances in the way.

QUOTES
"(Relatives at RootsTech)  is combining my tree and someone else's tree to see if we are related."

Meeting Expectations

THE PLAN
We kept the flow from before but focused more on knowing if people were willing to wait to see how they are related to friends. We also realize that there is inherent complexity of understanding RootsTech, Relatives at RootsTech, and FamilySearch. We purposefully decided not to focus on that issue for this project. We did everything we felt we could do with the constraints we were given. (It had to be during the conference and required a family tree.)

TESTING ROUND 3
Most people were frustrated with having to wait to see how they are related to friends. Most people expected to see their list of relatives right away. This is something we couldn't change about the project so we needed to inform them why we are doing this. 

Most were still confused with RootsTech and Relatives at RootsTech (no going to solve for this project.)

QUOTES
"This is disappointing to have to wait to see results."
"No, this is not what I expected. It's not telling me who they are. I don't like that. I like the number but I want to see them."
"I am very interested to learn how I'm related to people all over the world."

Testing Live Data

THE PLAN
The conference is close and we are ready to see how this product is received by people. We left a feedback button. We also did interviews with people who aren't interested in family history. We wanted to learn and break points in the flow from opting into Relatives at RootsTech to adding the ancestors to the Family Tree to seeing their relatives.

TESTING ROUND 4
We talked to twenty individuals with no previous family history experience. We learned the people would likely click on a social media post if it were from a close friend and it had comments because they would be very interested to see if they are related to close friends.  We learned that connecting ancestors to the Family Tree is a tricky process and only about 2/3 of the people were able to do it with lots of help from the interviewer.  In some cases participants had relatives at the conference and we checked our relationships to them and there was a match. This was magic on both sides.

QUOTES
"It's really interesting to see all of the cousins that we actually have I'm kinda surprised."
"We are cousins! That is so funny. this is incredible. This is amazing. I didn't think this kind of thing would happen. Wow!"

The Future

PINOCCHIO
The reactions and key metrics this product increased impressed upper management so much that they are willing to work through legal issues to have this become a permanent feature rather than a limited event. It's going to become a "real boy".