Workflows

Currently, there are two possible workflows in the web application - anonymous, and logged-in.

Staff workflow

The logged-in workflow is for staff. It allows survey input associated with a member account, for any of the four surveys, comprised of 64 questions, with data types ranging from Likert scales, to multiple answer, to text inputs.

The same survey can be logged for the same member at different times, allowing staff to track change over time for any given metric. These surveys are also editable after submission.

These survey results, through a proprietary algorithm, generate a "Personal Report". This report, which is logged along with the member's profile information, can generate warning and alert flags. The Personal Report is also fully editable so that staff can add or amend their professional recommendations and notes.

Individual data tracking is generated through the HighCharts library (chosen for being on the cutting edge of accessible graphing).

Aggregate community data is generated in the Summary Reports section using the same graphing library.

Anonymized workflow

The ability to submit anonymous surveys, which could later be linked to a member account, was a feature request. Having public, open forms on the internet is a significant security risk, and so we made every effort to secure matters on the back end.

As an additional precaution, to ensure that malignant data did not make its way into the database, we set up a queue system, whereby a staff member must manually approve anonymous survey data before it is incorporated into the community data set.

API

A further feature request was the ability to consume data and generate custom reports and visualizations. We were able to achieve this by leveraging the ability of both Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets to consume a JSON API. Creating an API was part of our design from the beginning, so it was fairly seamless to grant WECCC staff the ability to import, query, and manipulate survey data that is, for all intents and purposes, a "live feed" of the application.