Update analysis

The Update Analysis page is where most users will spend the majority of their time on OutNav. From this page you can view, add or edit all of the data relating to a stepping stone.

It is important to note that the analysis and progress/confidence ratings you enter for a stepping stone are unique to the pathway it is in. If a stepping stone appears in multiple pathways, any analysis you carry out on it in one pathway will NOT carry over to that stepping stone in other pathways. This gives you more flexibility in how you analyse your progress, and allows for possibilities such as creating a 'case study' pathway to map the journey of a single individual or group through your service. If you want to use the same analysis text in multiple pathways, you will need to copy and paste it manually.

You access Update Analysis from the Track Progress page in the Tracking section of OutNav. If necessary click on the pathway name to expand the pathway you want to work on, and then click on the stepping stone you want to update the analysis for.

The Update Analysis page includes the following sections:

Sources, Evidence and Success Criteria

At the top of the Update Analysis page you will see a list of sources and associated evidence, followed by a list of any success criteria. Find out more about how to add sources, success criteria and evidence to your analysis.

Analysis

The Analysis text box provides space for you to provide a narrative account of what the evidence is telling you about your progress for this stepping stone in your pathway.

Click within this box and a cursor will appear, allowing you to type your analysis. The formatting tools along the top of the text box allow you to format your text in various ways.

(Please note: due to an issue with the current version of the software we use for text formatting, the indentation tool can sometimes have unwanted effects on the formatting of surrounding text. We are looking into fixes for this, but in the meantime you may want to avoid using the indentation tool if you experience any problems with it.)

Here are some quick tips to help you with data analysis.

For more in-depth guidance on making sense of your data, take a look at our insight post 'Track and visualise the difference you make'.

If you are using the Matter of Focus headings and are not sure how best to report on your progress in the "What we do" and "Who with" columns, our insight post 'How to report well on your activities and engagement' has some helpful suggestions.

Adding links to your analysis

Adding a link to your analysis can be helpful when referring to a source on a website or online resource. You can add a link to make it easy for someone reading your report to view this reference.

1. From the text box on the Update Analysis page, click on the chain link icon. The pop-up below should appear:

2. Select or add the text you would like to display. It is good practice to choose something meaningful such as the name of the article rather than 'click here'.

3. In the box above, add the URL of the page you would like to link to.

4. Click 'Insert'.

The text should now hyperlink to the URL you chose.

NOTE: If you are copying and pasting text from another document into the Analysis text box you will need to recreate any links. This is to preserve the integrity of links when it comes to generating reports and will make sure you don't have any dead links.

Adding images to your analysis

Images can be added in a similar way to links.

1. From the text box on the Update Analysis page, click on the image icon.

2. In the pop-up that appears, drag and drop an image file into the box, or click on the box to open the file browser to locate an image on your computer.

3. The image will appear within the text:

4. This image will now be saved in the project and can be used in other stepping stones by clicking the image manager (browse) from the insert image pop-up. This will bring up an image 'tray' containing all images used throughout the project:

5. Once added, the image can be scaled, edited, text-wrapped, captioned, aligned or deleted by clicking onto the image within the text and choosing an option from the floating toolbox.

Any images you add into your analysis will be also shown in the reports you generate, including live reports. This will allow you to create and publish attractive visual reports to share with stakeholders outside your organisation.

A note on image size:

In order to upload an image to OutNav, it must not be greater than 5000 kilobytes. 

This is because uploading a number of large images can significantly increase the time taken to generate online reports and download reports. Therefore, we encourage you to optimise image size where possible.

Here is some more information on how to do this in Microsoft Office: Reduce the size of a picture

Alternatively, we recommend using one of these free websites which allow you to upload and compress graphics:

• https://tinypng.com/ 
• https://www.reduceimages.com/ 

Progress/Confidence Ratings

The final section of the Update Analysis page, displayed to the right of the analysis text box, invites you to you assess the progress you have made and your confidence in your evidence.

Rating involves looking at your evidence, judging the quality of that evidence, including its completeness, reliability or trustworthiness and reach. and assessing your progress. You may find it helpful to refer to your evidence standards when making these ratings until you become familiar with them. Clicking the magnifying glass icon beside your progress and confidence ratings will allow you to quickly refer to your evidence standards without leaving the page. You will also want to give consideration to any success criteria defined for your stepping stone.

• Rate your progress using the three-point scale. How good is your progress towards the outcome you have defined for this stepping stone?
• Rate your confidence in the evidence you are using for judging your progress. How strong is the evidence - does it meet your evidence standards?
• Click the purple button labelled 'Save and return to pathway'. This will then colour your stepping stone to show progress, with the depth of the colour indicating your confidence.

When completed for all stepping stones, this process will result in the pathway being colour coded to help visualise where progress is better or worse, and where evidence is stronger or weaker.

For more information on visualising your progress, read our insight post, 'Track and visualise the difference you make'.

Note: OutNav will now let you know when you are trying to edit a piece of text that another member of your team is currently working on. Find out more about how this works.

Need some extra help?

We offer bookable online help sessions, with a range of times for you to choose from. If you need help with any aspect of your work in OutNav, you can book a 15-minute one-to-one help session with one of our evaluation and OutNav experts. We’re here to help you with anything from specific OutNav queries to more theoretical and evaluation-focused questions about your OutNav project.

We also run regular community meetings where you can share with and learn from other members of the OutNav community.

Free access to all of these sessions is included with your OutNav subscription. More information and links can be found on your organisation's Dashboard.