user-definable criteria weighting

[danbjoseph]

(EDIT: added another option)
feedback from Peter and Arturo asking for:

An Indication of selection criteria importance - Allow NSs to indicate which selection criteria are more important than others for them i.e. a weighting mechanism that is applied when calculating the most suitable DM system(s).

Options:

• allow user to define a weighting for each criteria to be used for the recommendation
• allow user to toggle criteria off to remove them from use in the recommendation
• allow user to flag X top criteria and then add extra weight to those
• leave as is (any weighting is predefined in the backend)

Also need to consider if:

• weighting carries over from session to session for a given user
• weighting can be shared with a link to specific weighting outcome
• weighting persists only for a given instance of filling it out

Will the added complexity in the code and user experience be of enough value to the intended audience for this change to be worth it?

[tom-jordan23]

I could see two ways to approach this, depending on whether we want the custom weighting to carry over from session to session:

• If persistence between sessions is not important, give the user the option to flag their top three concerns and then add extra weight for that session, or
• If persistence is required, add a data structure that tracks custom weight by user (or by NS, but then we need to tie users to NS) and then applies whenever the user uses the tool picker.

First option feels like the easiest way to pilot an MVP version of the feature and get feedback.

[danbjoseph]

i am personally not sure letting the user custom weight each category introduces too much complexity given our target audience. i want to avoid the page being an overwhelming amount of toggles, sliders, and options. but we'll see what user feedback surfaces, and then test any options before pushing changes. would also be nice if in the migration to IFRC we figure out having both a production and testing instance on their infrastructure.

i've made some edits to the top post to include more details.

also, noting that it currently does let you save the results of a survey. would be good to know how that's saved and any implications of it?