I'm doing fieldwork now in Ghana and we're finding that enumerators
are accidentally deleting blank forms when they intend to delete
instances of data collection.
For the short-term, we will probably just try to quickly re-train them
to avoid this. But I have two design suggestions.
In the short-to-medium term, I would recommend adding a check box,
hidden under "change settings" that says something like "Protect Blank
Forms From Deletion". It's easier as a trainer to prevent staff from
messing with the "settings" than it is to stop them from trying to
delete data instances that they've collected and want to delete.
But in the longer term, I think this is a bit of an interface design
problem with ODK Collect. When looking at the two tabs visible after
clicking: "Delete Saved Forms" it can be confusing which of the two
tabs is actually active (in bright sun, the black and white tab has
higher contrast, and looks active, when in fact it's the dark-gray on
lighter gray that is active). I've come close to accidentally
deleting blank forms myself...
(aside to Matt: no one is intentionally deleting forms. they're doing it
accidentally while trying to delete bad data that they've collected)
edwin
···
On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 8:25 PM, Edwin Adkins wrote:
I'm doing fieldwork now in Ghana and we're finding that enumerators
are accidentally deleting blank forms when they intend to delete
instances of data collection.
For the short-term, we will probably just try to quickly re-train them
to avoid this. But I have two design suggestions.
In the short-to-medium term, I would recommend adding a check box,
hidden under "change settings" that says something like "Protect Blank
Forms From Deletion". It's easier as a trainer to prevent staff from
messing with the "settings" than it is to stop them from trying to
delete data instances that they've collected and want to delete.
But in the longer term, I think this is a bit of an interface design
problem with ODK Collect. When looking at the two tabs visible after
clicking: "Delete Saved Forms" it can be confusing which of the two
tabs is actually active (in bright sun, the black and white tab has
higher contrast, and looks active, when in fact it's the dark-gray on
lighter gray that is active). I've come close to accidentally
deleting blank forms myself...
Edwin
--
Edwin Adkins | Research Coordinator | Modi Research Group
Earth Institute, Columbia University, NYC
212-854-7993 | skype: edwinadkins.ei
I filed your request at http://code.google.com/p/opendatakit/issues/detail?id=514. Adding some
kind of admin mode has been a long standing feature request, but we
haven't had the cycles. Perhaps someone else in the community can take
a crack at it.
Yaw
···
On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 12:26, Edwin Adkins, Earth Institute wrote:
> FYI, I just posted this to ODK Community....
>
> (aside to Matt: no one is intentionally deleting forms. they're doing it
> accidentally while trying to delete bad data that they've collected)
>
> edwin
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 8:25 PM, Edwin Adkins wrote:
>>
>> I'm doing fieldwork now in Ghana and we're finding that enumerators
>> are accidentally deleting blank forms when they intend to delete
>> instances of data collection.
>>
>> For the short-term, we will probably just try to quickly re-train them
>> to avoid this. But I have two design suggestions.
>>
>> In the short-to-medium term, I would recommend adding a check box,
>> hidden under "change settings" that says something like "Protect Blank
>> Forms From Deletion". It's easier as a trainer to prevent staff from
>> messing with the "settings" than it is to stop them from trying to
>> delete data instances that they've collected and want to delete.
>>
>> But in the longer term, I think this is a bit of an interface design
>> problem with ODK Collect. When looking at the two tabs visible after
>> clicking: "Delete Saved Forms" it can be confusing which of the two
>> tabs is actually active (in bright sun, the black and white tab has
>> higher contrast, and looks active, when in fact it's the dark-gray on
>> lighter gray that is active). I've come close to accidentally
>> deleting blank forms myself...
>>
>> Edwin
>
>
>
>
> --
> Edwin Adkins | Research Coordinator | Modi Research Group
> Earth Institute, Columbia University, NYC
> 212-854-7993 | skype: edwinadkins.ei
>
> --
> Post: opendatakit@googlegroups.com
> Unsubscribe: opendatakit+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
> Options: http://groups.google.com/group/opendatakit?hl=en
How about changing 'get blank forms' to 'manage blank forms' with 2 tabs,
one to get new/updated forms from the server, the other to delete the blank
forms on the device.
Then 'delete saved forms' could then be just for deleting 'bad' user data.