As we revealed yesterday, the Fellowship Tech Development team has put in an incredible amount of work to give our church partners not only an updated interface, but a more dynamic and efficient experience. Today, we're exploring some of the new enhancements in this important update.
First, here's a side-by-side comparison of the old Portal interface with the new one:
Perhaps the biggest change is the removal of the side navigation bar, which has been replaced by a new drop-down drawer navigation at the top of the screen. This new dynamic drawer menu slides down over the page content, revealing every link in the Portal.
Another intuitive navigation addition is a simple "back tab", which maintains the current state of the session, eliminating the need to use the browser's back button. So, if you're looking at an individual's details, you can always use the new back tab to go up one level to the family view without navigating through the menu.
When you need actionable items, but don’t want to clutter the interface, gear menus can help. They contain a list of collapsible actions at the top-right of the page, so you can have quick access to common steps, eliminating unnecessary mouse clicks. By that same token, the actions sidebar can help keep actionable items visible, without making them a focal point of the page. You can focus on the task at hand with secondary actions nearby on the sidebar.
A new convenience feature allows you to view more details about a person, without leaving the page. This will show a picture (if available) and pertinent details that are most commonly needed when trying to find contact information. Included in this view is a map link that pulls from Google Maps to show you exactly where a person lives.
Tomorrow, we'll look into even more new aspects of the new Portal interface and share some of the cool, new ways to maximize Fellowship One.