Lots of Changes, Big and Small
There are a lot of changes in this release. Allow us to give you a walkthrough of the application highlighting the changes as we go along. If you’re in a hurry, you can find a complete bulleted list of the changes at the end.
Login Page
The first thing you’ll notice when you visit the new YouthCenter is our newly designed login page. It’s much cleaner and includes links to “Forgot Username/Password”. It’ll also remember your username to make logging in a little easier.
Note: If you don’t know the url to your beta site, contact [email protected] and we’ll help you out. Typically it follows a template though: https://[county]beta-mi.youthcenter.net (for example https://ottawabeta-mi.youthcenter.net)
Password Policies/Security
As a sidenote here, we’ve added password policies you can enable that force your users to choose more secure passwords and change them on a regular basis.
Dashboard
The first page you’ll see upon logging in is the dashboard. We’ve added a search box at the top to make getting to a client easier. A new widget has been added with our first graph, “Census Over Time”. This graph shows the average census each month for the last 12 months compared to the same averages for the 12 months prior. Just a quick example of things to come for the dashboard widgets.
In addition to the new widget, we’ve cleaned up and sped up all the existing widgets. Remember you can click on each widget to sort the data and get where you want to go.
For now, let’s use the new search box at the top and find a client…
Search
Upon searching for a client you’ll notice the new search results. We wanted to give you as much useful information possible in one compact view to make choosing the right client easier. You can see their name, picture, birthdate, address, case information, detention placement information, caseworker, and the last time you viewed the client. We’ve also added a small search box at the top of the app so you can search for a client no matter where you are. Another sidenote here… if you were to actually click on Case Manager > Search from the main menu, we’ve added a list of your recent clients, so you might not have to search to find what you’re looking for at all.
Client Summary and Activity Log
Choosing a client brings you to their Summary page. This has been cleaned up, sped up, and jam-packed with information. Some highlights include color-coded tags in the header, court case information including the number of open petitions in the “Case Summary” panel, information about the current detention placement if one exists, and an enhanced Activity Log. We’ve added some filters at the top of the activity log that allow you to filter by objects and date as well as a text box that allows you to search for nearly anything displayed in the log. Also, all of the objects are clickable, bringing you to the object in either the new or old system.
Another thing you’ll notice is that, if a user doesn’t have an avatar picked out, we’re giving them a default avatar using the first letter of their first name. A little more helpful than just a generic grey silhouette.
Demographics
We’ve moved the demographics portion of the existing General Profile tab to the new YouthCenter. This just includes fields like gender, height, weight, etc.
Notes!
Case Notes and Contact Logs have been combined and redesigned. They now exist as “Notes” in the new YouthCenter. We’ve added some new features that we hope to make commonplace in future apps if they’re well received and helpful. For instance, you can “star” a note which will keep it at the top of the list (depending on how you choose to sort the list of course). You can also see who has been notified about a note and when from the view page.
Note: Since Notes combines the old Case Notes and Contact Log, we’ve migrated all existing data into the Notes app. We’ve also added a new report data source that will take advantage of the new fields we’ve added. Don’t worry about your existing report though. The old Case Note/Contact Log data sources have been retrofitted to still work with the new structure. At some point, you’ll want to recreate those reports in the new data source however.
Links Between Apps
We’re constantly aware of the fact that we’re moving you between two separate apps and that it’s annoying. We want that process to be as smooth as possible. As part of that effort, we’ve added more links to get back and forth to where you want to be. Also, as apps are moved from the old system to the new, you’ll see more YouthCenter icons around, letting you know that app exists in the new system. Likewise, in the new system, you’ll notice grey and orange links in the main menu. A grey menu item means the item exists in the old system.
Full Listing of changes
New Application
- New: Notes App
- New: Demographics App
- New: Widget – Census Over Time
- New: Search from the Dashboard and Page Header
- Modified: Login Page
- Modified: Search Page – Recent Clients
- Modified: Search Results
- Modified: Activity Log Filters
- Modified: Client Summary
- Modified: More links back to old app
- Modified: Default user avatars
Legacy Application
- New: Detention Intake – Delivered By Title field
- New: Detention Release – Released To Title field
- Modified: More links to new app
General Changes
- New: Password Policies
As always, if you find anything that you don’t like, or could be better, or if you have ideas for how to make the application even better we want to hear about it! Email us at [email protected]. Don’t keep it to yourself! This is your application, let’s make it amazing together!