CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

I'm not sure if this is the kind of feedback you are looking for- but, I've been working hard at trying to make CiviCRM dance for me- and it's a mighty steep learning curve- thanks to what I consider some basic UX issues-

It's been a few years since you deployed CiviCampaign- and as a pretty saavy person, I'm finding a recurring issue within CiviCRM- and it comes down to taxonomy- and terminology.

You have 3 types of campaigns- yet, you don't clearly define the differences.

Why is there a campaign at all? Sounds like a stupid question- but, isn't it an overall container for a bunch of activities? Why do you provide three? Why not 6? Or better yet- none, since it's just a naming convention as far as I can tell.

As to activities that fall under a "Campaign"- some are different modules- ie. CiviContribute, CiviEvent, CiviMailing etc.

Which means that Campaign is at a "higher level" than the other activities- since it's all encompassing.

Under campaign- you have: Survey, canvass, petition, Walk lists, phone banks, GOTV yet- again- you don't really define these anywhere. What is the difference between a survey, canvas, walk list?
This is absolutely making it impossible to figure out what to do as an end user.

A Walk list to me- is a list of homes separated by street, with house numbers in order, split even/odd. You know where you are going from a pre-existing data set.

A canvass- is when you go out and randomly run into people somewhere and ask questions. You would probably have to gather more information than a walk list- since you don't already have existing data- or you'd have to be able to quickly look someone up (and freak them out that you know that much about them).

A survey- is something you do while using a walk list- to ask questions. It could also be what you do on a canvas or with a phone bank. It's  a set of questions, with either specific answers- or open ended data collection.

A petition- is someone signing a statement of support. Since most boards of elections want you to verify the voter- you may just be checking a box that person X has signed and is more than likely a good signature.

NONE OF THIS IS CLEAR IN THE DOCUMENTATION, HELP, OR WORKFLOW- making it very hard to make this work.

I'm also finding that the menus are changing- and the documentation isn't up to date- making it even more difficult.

Next Wave - I think this is forking from what Brian was originally proposing which was to do with the interface available to configure Reports.
Perhaps take your comments on to their own thread?

Hi,

I split this discussion off from the Report UI topic as I think Pete is right that it is a fork

Is it the default manual? Why are there more than one? Having more than one means you have potential duplication- and update issues.

can you point to the more than one manuals? i can then let you know

Hey there,

Have a look at this page https://civicrm.org/participate/documentation which explains how the relate.

Would be great if you wanted to help us out along the way to a single comprehensive source of documentation - that is our goal but we do need more help getting there.

Let me know if you want some help getting started...