Allow admins to post short organizational messages to the dashboard

[AdrianMichaelis]

Situation Description

Sormas has become a singular focal point in our workflow. Everyone working in the department logs into Sormas at least once per workday, usually more than that. Logging in, almost inevitably, means opening the dashboard view. This page is bound to rank among the most (and most regularly) viewed documents in the entire pandemic response department. The information provided here can be interesting, but, at least for us, is not exactly critical in day-to-day operations. Instead, the inordinate number of views the dashboard receives could make it a useful tool for internal communication.

Feature Description

Implement the option to include a customizable message in the dashboard view, allowing administrators to broadcast short announcements and organizational messages to everyone logging into Sormas.

Mock-up 1:

Possible Alternatives

Instead of integrating a text container into the dashboard itself, the message could be displayed in a pop-up text box, much like the DSGVO agreement on German instances.

Mock-up 2:

Additional Information

The second option could be easier to implement and would avoid the issue of having to make room in the existing dashboard view. It would however, at the very least, require an option to display the message again after it has been marked as read. In terms of UX the first version seems preferable. It's very visible, but not too intrusive, and it doesn't interrupt the user's task at hand.

[kwa20]

Suggestion in admin exchange:

• Add a section in Configurations that includes a simple text field editable by admins. When entries are saved, display the pop-up mentioned above with the content of the field. Also, display the change date and time of the saved entry as well as the editing user.
• If the field is empty, no messages should be displayed to any user. An alternative could be to have an active checkbox that determines whether a message is displayed or not so users don't have to rely on actually empty fields.

[bernardsilenou]

I would vote for the option to show this message either:

1. when users log in, like the GDPR,
2. or show a message at login reminding the user to check the about page for the latest information, and put the information in the about page
3. Another option is to set the about page as the default landing page and put the information there. One use of the about page is to inform users about the latest information.
   • The dashboards are mainly to inform the users about statistics. In addition, there may be performance issues when the database has many entities, thus it is not good to add more logic to the dashboard, except they are improving statistics.

[kwa20]

@bernardsilenou In the exchange, the mentioned alternative in the original description or you option 1 seemed to be the generally preferred solution.

[SORMAS-ChristopherMeyer]

I tried to mockup the current discussion.

I will update some mockups in english later.

Like @bernardsilenou and @kwa20 mentioned the dashboard should be for statistics.

Mockup for possible popup at login:

Idea of configuration in the admin section: