Yes, please!!

We'd love to see something like this too. We're currently instructing our reviewers to first look at the the print packet before doing their evaluation. I understand there's some complexity with resizing the various file types, but even if at a minimum we could embed image files and maybe link to a PDF of other types? Additionally shared read-only questions for inline forms should have a more significant contrast in the evaluation form. While I do see the "grey" around the form fields is barely noticeable and should be darker or another color with higher contrast.

Big caveat: we have often worked outside of the evaluation system, due to the fact that scores and comments for some grant programs are finalized in a meeting and not entered into the system, so don't make any decisions just based on us!

We don't want evaluators to see the whole application - to save them time and avoid confusion - so for now, we're sticking with merge templates to customize what they're able to see (we send a folder of PDFs to the evaluators via Dropbox). I was excited about the possibilities for in-line evaluation with the new ability to add application elements, until I realized that documents were not included... I feel like allowing questions to be added and not documents is only going halfway, since it still makes the panelist go hunt for the rest of the information. The PDF side by side with evaluation form would work well for us IF the PDF was a merge template, not the full application.

I would restrict the evaluator's view even more. In the list of evaluations accessed from the dashboard, I would rather give the evaluators just a link to the PDF of the application (merge template) and a link to the evaluation form (with side by side view, this could be just one link) - removing the link to the organization summary, and removing the link to the request summary. I wonder if other Foundant users find those summary links useful for their evaluators? I think the extra links invite confusion.

Hi Kim,

Thanks for taking the time to submit this idea. We have focused a lot on making GLM more user-friendly for administrators, and to some extent applicants, and we definitely want to continue improving the user experience for evaluators.

We are working on making some significant architectural changes to GLM - changes that users won't notice, but that will position us to build a more robust user interface. One of my longer-term goals as part of this work is to support a more flexible reviewer experience

That said, there are some technical - and user experience - challenges to what you're suggesting. First, if we try to do something in-line and display the contents of uploaded documents, it's likely that users will lose their place as they are scrolling through document content (some uploaded documents are pages long). Second, not all uploaded documents can be displayed easily in the browser, and trying to resize them on the fly could negatively impact the reviewer's opinion of the application.

One thing we are tentatively looking at is trying to display the application and the evaluation forms side-by-side. Now, this is a longer-term goal - I'll be happy if we can do some version of this in the next 12 months. And by itself, it does not address how best to display all types of documents. Another option is to display a PDF version of the request on one side, and the evaluation form on the other side. However, we're not yet at a point we can evaluate how doable this is.

So ... to sum things up - we're looking at better options, but there is nothing short-term that I can say we'll be able to do. I understand that's probably not what you're wanting to hear, but I want to make sure we set realistic expectations. And I also want to make sure, to the extent possible, that you understand some of the options we are considering, as well as why.

I hope this helps; I'll be interested in what others might have to say. Thanks!
-chris