Help is now always at hand: guidance comes into Pronoia's views
Every facilitator view in Pronoia now has its own guidance. It opens beside your work rather than on top of it, and it starts with a short note on what you need to know in that particular view.
Feedback that was easy to understand
Facilitators gave us feedback with a clear core: the guidance exists, but it cannot be found when it is needed, in the middle of designing a study or running a round. Panelists managed well; facilitators found it harder.
The feedback is understandable, and much of it comes from the fact that the user interfaces of eDelphi and Pronoia rest on entirely different thinking. Many Pronoia facilitators come from eDelphi, and familiar habits shape what people expect.
Pronoia is flown like an aircraft
Pronoia is a cockpit. There are many instruments and controls, and you can do several things at the same time. A round is open, the Situation view shows who has answered, a reminder is waiting to be sent, and material for the next round's theses is already building up. This is deliberate: a Delphi study is alive all the time, and the facilitator has to see it as a whole.
No cockpit makes sense on the first flight, though. A pilot learns the instruments gradually, with the checklist always at hand. The idea behind this update is the same: when help is always close by, the instruments become familiar through use.
What is new
- Guidance in every view. Next to the view's heading there is a ? Help button. It opens the guidance in a panel at the edge of the screen, so you see the guidance and the screen it describes at the same time.
- "In this view" first. The panel starts with a summary of three to five points: what the view is for and what to keep in mind. The full article and related articles are in the same panel.
- Help travels with you. When you move to another view, the panel switches to that view's guidance. The same help is also available at every step of the wizard.
- Ask Pronoia knows where you are. Your question is answered from the guidance for the view you are working in.
Five new articles
At the same time we mapped which views had no guidance at all and wrote new articles for them: "Phenomenon description", "Communicating with the panel", "The Situation view during a round", "The dialogue phase" and "The closing letter". Twelve existing articles also received a summary for their view. The new articles draw on the published literature on the Delphi method, and their sources are listed. All guidance is available in Finnish, English and Swedish.
Tell us what is still missing
This update grew out of your feedback, and it will continue the same way. If a view leaves a question open, tell us with the Share an observation button. Every observation is read, and the guidance is extended on the basis of them.