What is the Project Overview?

The Project Overview is the hub of OutNav. As the name suggests, it provides an overview of your project including a project progress bar and list of recent activity, while a series of links affords direct access to whichever part of the project you wish to view or work on next. 

This resource describes each of the sections of the Project Overview in turn. 

Top (Header) Section 

In the top section of the Project Overview, clicking on the arrow to the right of the project name takes you to your Outcome Map. 

Administrators also have the option to change the colour theme for the Project Overview from a drop-down colour palette. 

On the top right you’ll see the initials or icons for up to 8 team members working on the project. For larger teams, click on the ‘See all’ link to display all icons and team member names on a separate page.  

Main Section 

The main section of the Project Overview has a tabular design. You can switch between the tabs simply by clicking on them.

Overview

The first tab you see within the Project Overview is the Overview page. The Overview provides a summary of project progress.

A progress bar is located underneath the top menu, broken down by the three key project phases of your OutNav journey: Mapping, Tracking and Reporting. 

Click on the down arrow icon next to each phase to see a drop-down list of tasks to be completed, together with a visual representation of your progress.  

Once you have plotted one or more pathways, a summary for each pathway will be listed beneath the progress bar, detailing the number of stepping stones analysed and the date of the last analysis. Click on the icons to the right of a given pathway name to access the Evaluation Manager or Tracking page for the pathway respectively.

The menu bar across the top left of the main section allows you to access the Overview (as above), Reports, Sources, Library, Background and Image Manager pages by clicking on the corresponding text label:

Reports

This tab opens a page showing the most recent reports generated in the project. 

Live Reports are listed first. These reports are designed to be viewed online in OutNav and include several interactive features to aid readability. The report title, date created, the name of the person who created the report and the expiry date are displayed for each of the 5 most recent reports, together with a count of the number of times the report has been viewed.

You can collapse or expand the list of Live reports using the up or down arrow icon next to the count of the total number of Live reports that have been created, displayed at the top of the list. 

If more than 5 Live reports have been created for the project, the option to ‘See All’ will appear at the bottom of the list.

For any Live report, you can:

• Click on the Settings ‘cog’ icon to see who the report has been shared with and/or to expire the report immediately.
• Click on the View icon to display the report content in a new window.

Archived Reports are listed beneath the Live Reports. An Archived Report is a snapshot report of project activity that you have saved as a Word document. The report title, date created and the name of the person who created the report are displayed for the 5 most recent Archived Reports.

Again, you can collapse or expand the list using the up or down arrow icon next to the count of the total number of Archived Reports displayed at the top of the list. If more than 5 Archived Reports have been created for the project, the option to ‘See All’ will appear at the bottom of the list.

Subject to your permissions, you will have the option to download or delete each Archived Report. You also have the option to upload a new report.

Sources

This page lists all sources of data and information that you are using or plan to use to demonstrate progress for the project as a whole (e.g. participant survey). The sources are listed alphabetically, alongside any plans for collection. Click on the Edit icon against any source to change the source name, plans for collection or to add a particular piece of evidence that relates to the source (e.g. completed questionnaire).

At the bottom of the list, click ‘Add new source‘ to add a description of another source, plus any plans for collection and/or supporting piece(s) of evidence if appropriate.

Library

This page lists all documents stored in the project library. (The library is a central place for storing all relevant documents that are not sources of evidence of progress, such as your background documents, standards of evidence, strategies, key policy texts or data collection tools.) Subject to permissions, you can download, delete or add documents to the library from this page.

Background

This page displays the project background information and includes the following headings:

About this work - This describes why you are doing the work in OutNav, where the work has come from, who it is funded by, what is important about your approach, and the purpose and set-up of the outcome map. This is a good place to introduce your pathways.
Aims and objectives - This details any formal aims and objectives or describes how the process of outcome evaluation contributes to your strategic objectives.
Context for delivery - This details the work you do and why, which can include the geographical location, population served, political, economic or policy drivers for the work and the organisational context. It may also detail specific factors helping and hindering your work.
Methodological approach - This details the approach undertaken for this work including the timeframe and the specific methods used. (The Matter of Focus team have provided a description of the approach which can be used by all organisations. If this description is not already included here, please get in touch and we will be happy to share it with you.)

Subject to permissions you can also edit the Background information by clicking on the Edit icon.

Note: The project background information appears in most types of report, so it is worth spending time adding this information.

Image Manager

Click here to learn about the Image Manager.

Settings

Administrators will also see the Settings icon and can click on this to open the Project Settings page, from which all administrative functions for the project can be completed. More about these functions can be found in the article 'Adding or editing your project settings'.

Right-Hand Sidebar Section

The right-hand sidebar displays a feed of recent project activity. You will see which users have been working on this project and any updates they have made, grouped by day. You can choose to see more details for any given activity by clicking on the '+' sign that sits alongside it, or to see ‘more’ (or ‘less’) details for all entries for a particular day.

Need some extra help?

Why not pop into one of our drop-in help sessions, running twice weekly on Tuesdays and Thursdays? A member of the Matter of Focus team will be on hand to answer questions and help with your evaluation in any way they can.

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 Home page.