As Sharon briefly mentioned in her previous post on the V3 user experience, it’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve pushed a new beta release. The V3 team committed to two-week release cycles and we want to let the community know why we’ve delayed the past two scheduled releases.
We’ve recently been focused on three major areas: 1) post-type editor, 2) data visualizations, and 3) hiring.
1) Post-type editor
The core of V3 is post-types. Each has its own form fields and workflows. The post-type editor is how you, as a deployer, define all of these: add new fields, group them into workflow stages, and define who can complete each stage. There’s a lot of complexity in this. We’ve completed the first components but there’s still a bit of work to bring them together, find all the edge cases, and make sure its all working smoothly.
2) Data visualizations
A defining feature of V3 is the ability to visualize data not only in a map, but charts and graphs as well. We want our users to be able to gain as much valuable insight into their data as possible, and data visualization has been a widely-requested feature. No more exporting into excel or other software — just a simple, streamlined tool accessible within the V3 platform. Before we deploy code for this feature, we’ve been working to scope and design these visualizations both internally and alongside our partners.
[caption id="attachment_17129" align="alignleft" width="880"] Data visualization sneak peek[/caption]
3) Hiring
The most important task for V3 right now has been hiring. We recently started recruiting for two developer positions focused on the core platform to help bring V3 to a full public launch. We are confident that once we have the right people in place, V3 will be even better positioned for success.
So, instead of releasing incomplete features, we’ve decided to hold off on the past two deployments until we are able to push a more valuable release worthy of user testing and community feedback. Thank you for your patience through this - we’ll be sure to keep you regularly updated and encourage you to follow our beta releases on Github.