Sharing Engine/TN Project Form Changes

Projects Form fields - date: 5/11/12

New Projects Form: Fields and Section Groupings

1 - Title field -

2 - Findability Grouping – themes, location, benefits etc so others can search easily.

• Location (needs enhancement as is v clunky, or requested by lots of peeps as a drop pin on map possible to discuss with ttechs.) 
• New field – Goals - will be radio's/checkboxes:

1. Energy efficiency and renewables
2. Awareness raising
3. Building community resilience and wellbeing
4. Supporting new community assets and enterprises
5. Behaviour change

• Themes – Checkboxes - TN current themes
• Stages - Checkboxes - Transition stages

3 – People and Contacts Grouping Who are you? Simplified existing fields

• Primary (who receives contact from the contact button)
• Secondary (allowed to edit project profile also?)
• Related Initiatives

4 – About the Project Grouping –

• New field - Summary (Teaser) – restricted length – used as the teaser to summarise and introduce the project in search outputs and highlighting across tn.org. Uses Maxlength to guide user. 300 characters.
• Date started – to replace the current date box with a YEAR ONLY option
• New field - Status - checkbox / select - in planning, active, completed 
• New field - How many people involved in coordinating this project, select – 1. 2-5, 6-10, 11-20, 20+ 
• New field – How many people benefitted from this project , select - 1 – 50, 50 – 100, 100 – 500, 500 - 1000, More than 1000
• Description - What you did/plan to do/what happened – to include Gulag areas (see further notes below of fields being merged into this...)
• This is / is not a Transition Project (field recently added for PSE work)


5 – Further Info Grouping –

• Web-links (to be similar in method like Ini's profiles with weblink and title of link to give context to the link - eg our website, youtube video about the project, our facebook page etc etc)
• Files

• Images


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Further notes from Ed/Laura meet on 5/11/2012

IN (explained at top of page in further detail and grouping order)

• Project title
• Summary (new)
• Project type: T or not T
• Themes
• Transition Stages
• Description (new - aggregate of the gulag fields work)
• Date started (year)
• Related Initaitives
• Location
• Project start date

Other links:

• Web links - including new explano-blurb: Title and link
• Images
• Files

About you?

• Primary Point of Contact (receives email from contact form)
• Secondary Point of Contact
• How many people co-ordinated the project?
• How many people benefitted?
• Project status: IN planning, Active, Completed

OUT (fields going)

• Project aim (Char to empty when editing new summary field)
• Public launch date
• Number of people involved (is currently free text, not searchable, filterable)
• Media point of contact
• Volunteer point of contact
  
  

OUT cont'd ... but being aggregated first...

All these fields to be aggregated into the aggregation with titles if possible: ...into the (new?) description field under existing description entry...

• Aims
• Inspiration
• Outcomes so far
• Unexpected outcomes
• Obstacles, and how we overcame them
• Lessons Learned
• Links and partnerships
• Sources of funding
• Sources of materials
• Further information
  
  

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Critical dates and actions and people

1. 5/11: IA agreed, layout agreed, plan formed
   
2. w/c: 5/11: Tech assessment: by Laura: how (looking at CP site), who (Laura / Jim), when (based on 'who')
   
3. w/c 5/11 onwards: Editing: Charlotte
   
4. 8/11, 19:00: Ttech call inclusion: all Ttechs
   
5. 12/11-19/11: Survey: Ed: community groups for terms for 'benefits/outcomes/intent' field
   
6. w/c 12/11: Emails to project 'owners': brief update on what's going on: Ed
   
7. w/c 12/11 onwards: visual work, views, forms: Laura
   
8. w/c 26/11 (?): Information 'aggregation': Jim
   
9. w/c 3/12: Emails to project 'owners': post-aggregation
   
10. ...

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Things which need changing

1. Project form changes IA
2. Project form presentation style changes - profile and edit pages
3. Views
4. Directory homepage
5. Directory tabbed subpages

See further down for tasks to change form, profile page and directory listings.

Information aggregation work required

AKA the 'gulag' field.

1. Work out how to, then write code to:
a. scrape the field title and text from the following fields which are then to be removed from the projects form
b. aggregate the field title and texts from the fields into one long field
c. copy the aggregate text into the new 'Description' field
d. save the resulting projects forms

All these existing project form fields to be taken out of, then aggregated into the new 'Decription' field. If possible, grab the fields' text and title, then re-lay out.
~~
Inspiration
Outcomes so far
Unexpected outcomes
Obstacles, and how we overcame them
Lessons Learned
Links and partnerships
Sources of funding
Sources of materials

Editing work required

Using the Transition Network website projects directory and the project editing mastersheet spreadsheet, update the project profiles with the method outlined below.

Project editing mastersheet link here

This work is paid the equivalent of £xxx per day based on a working day of 8 hours. This will come from the Project Sharing Engine budget and will be inviocable at the end of the work. We have also identified that you have done some work already which will be invoiced with the bulk of this work. We have agreed that you will do a trial hour or two in order to work out how long the work is estimated to take, and that you will keep your hours recorded. We have also agreed that you will work in two hour-ish bursts. This will give us approximately 3 working days in November. Our deadline is the end of the month.

1. I suggest using several tabs:

a. The management spreadsheet open in a tab for links and mgt info
b. The project 'profile' page open in another tab to see the page before and after the edit
c. The project 'edit' page open in another tab to do the editing

2. Opening the projects and edits you should usually have three tabs open:

a. Using the management spreadsheet, find the column with the project link URLs.
b. Open the link to the project 'profile' page you are going to edit in a new tab
c. Open the link to the 'edit' page for that project in another new tab with a right click

3. Read the project profile, get a feel for it

4. In the 'edit' page, editing the the 'Aim field' text and placing it into the 'Summary' field:

a. Edit the text from the 'Aim' field into a 300 character summary text
c. copy the edited text into the 'Summary' field. Leave the Aim' field empty

5. In the 'edit' page, identify the project as a Transition project or not a Transition project using the radio button:
a. Transition project
b. Other project

6. In the 'edit' page, if it is obvious, select the 'Project Status' option most suitable to the project:
a. In planning
b. Active
c. Finished

7. In the 'edit' page, submit the project in order to save your changes
a. VERY IMPORANT: please select the 'do not send notifications for this update' option before you save

8. In the 'profile' page, refresh to see your handywork

9. Update the management spreadsheet (1=fine, 2=needs moderation)
a. When you are done, if the project is fine, add a '1' into the 'status' field. If it needs moderation, add a '2' into the 'status' field.
b. When you are done, add the time in hours that you have done to the 'times' tab of the spreadsheet too.

16:31, 5 November 2012 (UTC)16:31, 5 November 2012 (UTC)~~

Surveying work to define the 'benefits' terms

16:43, 5 November 2012 (UTC)16:43, 5 November 2012 (UTC)~~

Survey question for community projects:
a. for us to work out how to handle outcomes/intentions/purpose/benefits/point of project field
aii. for people searching for inspiration
aiii. for people adding their own projects

Online survey: 1 minute
Recipients: short list of community projects Ed knows of

<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/project-goals-words">Link here</a>

Text

Please can you help? Transition Network is upgrading its projects directory to make it easier and quicker to add projects and find projects; on the main website and across the web using the new 'widget'.

We are working on some relevant and useful terms about the benefits arising from a project for:
a. general users to search with
b. project 'adders' to identify their projects with

Naturally we already have some easy ones like 'location', 'theme' (e.g. food, transport), 'date started' etc. You can read our wiki page about this HERE (link)

We do not want to sound too 'quango-y', too 'research-y' too 'Transition-y', or too dumbed down, so this is not an exact science. We are down to a short list made up of other research projects' analysis and our own observations.

Please identify which of the following terms pertaining to the 'benefits' of a community project are useful to you as someone who might put your community project onto the Transition Network projects directory, or someone looking for inspiration.

Imagine you are a user, looking for inspirational project ideas for your group, which of these terms might you think was interesting… And imagine you are a project person, wanting to raise your project's profile by adding it to the directory…

Please select from 1=not useful term, 2=neutral, 3=very useful term. There is also a field for you to add one or two others that we may have missed.

Benefits:
What benefits will your project do/provide?

Options:

Awareness raising
Behaviour change
Energy Efficiency
Increasing Community Resilience
Promoting Renewable Energy
Increased Equality
Happiness
Impact policy
Carbon reduction
Economy
Environment

16:43, 5 November 2012 (UTC)16:43, 5 November 2012 (UTC)16:43, 5 November 2012 (UTC)

Project form and directory display - Design and development notes

(added to wiki by LW - 8/11 to be split into 1, 2 and 3 and added into TRAC for development recording and notes.)

Web Producer task notes:

1 - Entry Form:

• Set up new fields and permissions and groupings
• Enhance ‘helper’ texts and any links to other parts of TN listed on form to enhance usability and context.
• CSS and potential of custom templating/panels if needed for style and layouts
  

Notes on updates/work completed:

13/12/12 - LW - Further form enhancements created via CSS - to be added to LIVE in coming days.

14/11/12 - LW - Tested a variety of options for styling form - resulted in simple grey boxes around fields using '.form-item' class rather than a fieldset or fieldset wrapper class (due to some cck areas being part of core eg 'body/description', therefore ineffective in ability moving into a grouping for some core fields currently ). Some field elements will have no grey background colouring - such as the main admin featuresPop-up helpers unlikely to be needed, as clarity of what the user will complete in any given field will be created via the helper texts. Currently many of these are fairly sufficient but each fields helper text will be revised and enhanced for usablity. New fields and rearrangement of existing fields into new grouping to be added to Live site on 22 November along with a sample panel page display set up for projected projects profile pages.

2 – Project Profile individual page display

• Panels to re-arrange layout.
• Summary on left upper brick, findability on right upper brick with map under (will be a case of working on mockups via LW’s virtual machine, map may need to go further down, but a listing of town, country still to appear in top part). Description to become an expanding box and other data underneath - full width.
• Tidy up image display to be more attractive for users. Enable ‘contact’ button for project contact to be more visible.
• Panels, views, and CSS theming for frontend enhanced display.
  

Notes on updates/work completed: 13/12/12 - LW - Custom styling awaiting upload to LIVE server, and LW to then 'uncover' the new layout display which consists of a clearer viewing of the project profile. Example shown below.

3 - Projects Directory (frontend of website)

• Create new tabbed views for a variety of outputs. New views result listings to be mainly in display format of:

Title (heading)
City/Country (bold, slightly larger and possible on right)
New summary field and ‘read more about this project’ link
Similar to the ‘full’ PSE widget output list (except not showing distance but town or city and Country)
Tabs:

Tab One (default)
Projects Home –
Introduction short paragraph text and link to adding projects.
Lists featured projects
Pagination

Tab Two
Find by theme –
Introduction brief sentence.
Search functionality (exposed view filter) for selection of projects by theme.
Default view: random

Tab Three
Find by location -
Introduction brief sentence.
Search functionality (exposed view filter) for selection of projects by location to use Names rather than miles.
Default view: random or London?

Tab Four
Find by benefits –
** note this may need to be set up ready but hidden initially until a substantial number of projects have updated their profiles with inclusion of the benefits/outcomes field **
Introduction brief sentence.
Search functionality (exposed view filter) for selection of projects by outcome/benefits
Default view: all by date added.

Tab five
[Similar to existing projects home page]
Find by title with exposed search as is present.
and tabular layout with a-z

• Custom CSS may be needed

Longer term: (possible January?)
Enhance projects map page to show attached view of latest projects with relational popups on hover for easy browsing, and / or map filters by theme or benefit to enable a more usable feature of the map ability.

Notes on updates/work completed: 13/12/12 - LW - Awaiting upload of CSS alterations, and during week of 17/12/12 adding of new tabbed view displays (initially one new one until projects forms have received updates by owners) will begin to be configured which will offer an enhanced list with summary of project and more usable layout to benefit users/searchers for relevant projects rather than existing table display as present.

History of development and discussions - Projects Form Notes:

Projects Form ‘re-shuffle’ – Transition Network

Previous explorations and incarnations of the form below - 

Some of the changes in the form could help with making projects more searchable with better findability, but also help with measuring more effectively the distribution of projects that initiatives are undertaking.
The current projects form although is completed by many initiatives, struggles in places where users end up duplicating data, or unsure of what to provide.
Key questions to think about:

• What is the value of the data and its purpose? How can it be of more value, and what or who is it for?
• How does it help other initiatives? If not, can it become more ‘pro-active’ in its’ being to inspire and connect?
• What do people look for when they search in the initiatives directory – are they seeking inspiration for their own work or potential projects, publicising what they’ve done or something else?

Notes about the current format

Some of the ‘help’ texts for some of the fields aren’t helpful enough

• Recommend - increasing help for each field and area with storytelling to guide users through their project submission, and using icons with pop-ups to help users easily.
• There are elements of repetition in some of the field areas and it’s not clear in places how much or how little information to add to an area.
• Recommend – Using modules such as ‘Maxlength’ (http://drupal.org/project/maxlength) on some of the fields that have a defined amount of characters available which provide a ‘ No. * characters left’ countdown on some of the fields available. This guides the user in deciding how much or how little they need to compose for each area.
• ED: I would also suggest a cull in fields and blend (goal/aim)

The form is long and disjointed. It doesn’t flow through the story of a project for sharing.

• Recommend – Grouping of the form elements into related areas with explanations to guide the user more effectively. Aim to use horizontal tabbed grouped sections (which is built in for D7 but not for D6, Laura to investigate modules available that work well and could assist with making tabbed groupings) for users to quickly navigate through for each grouping bundle. And to create some custom styling to make the form more attractive to fill in.
• Some groups contact to ask if their project can be removed from TN.org as it’s no longer active.
• Recommend – help the user by showing that projects that are in any state (*recommendation of addition of a new field for ‘status’) have value to others even if not fully active any longer. Old projects can help inspire new ones and share experience.
• Are all the fields relevant and are there new ones we need?
• Ed loves the idea of the 'status' field
• Ed knows that there is lots of repetition in the various aims/goals etc. which are fuff and waddle - best used in an interview situation when the interviewer is using such a form and can guide the documentation - NOT suitable on the web when we have a time pressed community activist volunteer who doesn't really like the web...

Respecting the roots of the form and why it needs to change

We've inherited the project form from a traditional knowledge manager who kindly advised us in the pre-web pilot. She had worked in highly resourced oil companies (time and money and tech) and this form would be best used in an interview between a knowledge manager and the person they wanted to get knowledge out of. The form is too long and detailed for the web, and we can't cross reference most of it. We know it's putting people off; it needs to be shorter, semantically segmented and prettier. And we've learned loads since setting up.

Time to say ciao baby and force it into adolescence.

Therefore we see the time we can buy Laura with as a Ttech on the PSE budget as a heaven sent opportunity to CULL the project form once, and CULL it firmly, not unlike an eager bush in the garden that looks a bit over-pruned for a bit but then grows back like mad.

We don't do half measures; we do it once and we do it hard.

The changes need to be administration AND Front end - ie any tabs on the back need to go on the front.

How we do it

Some users will wriggle and howl whatever we do, but in my experience it's only ever a small minority who we can handle individually, so we need to be utilitarian and firm with:

1. advance warning to primary points of contact telling them what we're going to do and why (a good opportunity to market the PSE generally)
2. a complete back up of the data beforehand for later hand-tweaking if neccesary
3. a brisk and thorough merge (think country doctor saying 'this might hurt a bit')
4. an update to the interface back and front with new fields, affordances, old fields gone etc.
5. a mail out to all primary points of contact celebrating the beautiful new interface and asking them to update their profiles

Things Ed thinks can be merged, removed, replaced etc.

Merge: Aim and Description (I bet you most community projects don't get this sophisticated if they get that far)

Merge: Outcomes and unexpected outcomes (no need for both, explain with good help text)

Merge: Soures of funding, sources of materials, links and partnerships (they're all the same really, explain with good help text)

Merge: Date started with date launched (far too sophisticated having too, I say)

Remove: Inspiration (it's just naff, why would a browser care?)

Replace with single option: multiple fields for website, images, files, initiative

Replace with drop down: number of people involved (make it better for filtering later)

Remove: web and media point of contact

Not sure if you can pre-can outcomes really - I'd shorten and merge

Laura's comments following on from Ed's Merge / Remove/ Replace etc

Aim field to stay - it's the short summary 'teaser' that can be used in views and search outputs to pull in the reader. Description (how you did it/what did you do) has useful helper text to guide user into inputting the right sort of data (the story of the project, include rough dates of when it ran/started/ended etc)

Agree - fields merged for additional data (website, images, files etc)