Homepage and Vanpool Module Enhancements Implemented in Production Environment

[AnneBruskland]

Thank you to everyone who took the time to review the updated homepage and vanpool module on the training server the week of August 8th. We received a number of clarifying questions regarding how the Home page content works and suggested improvements for the page. No functionality issues that would prevent us from moving the upgrades into the production environment were identified. Given that, we upgraded the production server over the weekend.

I will post an updated log with feedback and responses on Smart Transportation later this week, however, given some of the questions surrounded how the home page works, I wanted to take time to highlight some of the functionality changes. Please note in particular the first bullet, given you may want to update information for your Primary Contact information immediately.

Important - The section "Have questions? We're here to help." at the bottom of the Home page presents contact information that the user can use for assistance. The list is restricted to the networks that have configured the primary contact information (appearing under the Settings menu in the administration application). To ensure you do not end up receiving customer calls on private lines, in the live RideshareOnline-iCarpool site, please review/update Primary Contact Details under Settings menu in the Administration Application to ensure the information is correct for support. This will ensure the relevant information will display on the homepage.

Network administrators who manage domain content may want to update domain content they have in the live RideshareOnline-iCarpool site to suit the new features on the home page.

The user experience for new users in the system is different from the user experience for existing users:

New User - If you haven’t had a chance to do so yet, consider signing up on the test server (https://rsotraining.icarpool.us/en/Login.aspx) using a new account to review the directional features such as the Get Started prompts which guide the user to the next step. The Get Started prompts are shown based on the user - for example, in the post-registration screen the user selects what they are visiting the site for: ridematching, logging trips and receiving rewards, event matching or schoolpool. The Get Started continues to show on the home page until the user has taken the next step or there are Achievements to display.

Existing User – Log in on an existing user account which has trips logged in the calendar to view the Achievements section, which replaces the Get Started section that displays for new Users.

The News Feed is a collection of short Twitter style notifications and longer posts with images. Administrators can add to the short Twitter style notifications using the "Edit/View notification" and longer posts with images using the "Edit/View user home page content" under the Users menu in the Administration application.

The Did You Know section is designed to show random content when a user visits the page.

If you have any questions about these features or the upgrade, please let me know.

[Stan Suchan]

I encourage everyone to check out the experience for new users when they first log on to the system. They're encouraged to make a carpool or vanpool ride request, log trips in the calendar, etc. As Anne recommends, you can use the training server to check it out. And - again - thanks to everyone who provided feedback and influenced the upgrades.