Isn’t it satisfying when you’ve got the right tool for the job, and it makes the whole thing easier?
With this in mind, we have been working hard in the background to update the sMApp – the Soil Food Web Microscopy App – and make it as helpful as possible for all SFW practitioners. We’ve drawn on feedback collected over several years to develop an app that’s overall smarter and more intuitive.
After lots of testing and tweaking, we are proud to announce a slew of new features and improvements that make sMApp more dynamic, more stable, and more effective in helping all of our students who want to understand their own soils, and supporting SFW professionals in their interactions with clients.
The biggest new features:
- “Helpful tooltips” – Click the information icons now included on the Assessment and Results pages for quick explanations of the different categories and data-entry fields.
- Mathematical formulas REVEALED! The exact formulas used in calculating microbial populations are now visible to users. Do you like putting pencil to paper and double-checking the math? Now you can!
- Your new Portfolio page – A helpful dashboard overview of clients and recent activity.
- The Amendments page – Log amendments applied to a project site, and track them alongside biological development.
- The Comparisons page – Compare multiple assessments side-by-side for an easy look at biological development over time.
- The messages/notes section of the client report is now editable! The client report is a means of communicating with clients – now, your own voice can come through in the explanation of results.
- Improved filtering and searching – it’s now easier to quickly bring up assessments by client, project, location, and other criteria.
- Lots of additional tweaks to the interface and screen layout improve the user experience.
sMApp, of course, will continue to improve. As many of us at the Soil Food Web Foundation are both educators and practitioners, some exciting ideas for new features are swirling, including ways to take the data-entry experience to the next level.
To stay up-to-date on these and all future changes, you can check out our new list of updates, accessible from the “What’s new” button.
The long-term vision for sMApp is to provide the best soil biology assessment and reporting tool for soil regenerists and farmers who want to track the progress of their efforts over time. This vision needs more than just us working within the SFW Foundation. A small group of dedicated individuals can accomplish a lot, but it can’t match the breadth of passion and knowledge our students display every day! We welcome constructive feedback and suggestions at all times, for all things – for sMApp in particular, students can now send feedback, suggestions, and bug reports from the sign-in screen, including any log-in issues. After logging in, you’ll see the Feedback button at the bottom-right.
It’s a true journey, taking a project from vision to construction to a useful tool. Like all true journeys, there are obstacles, trials, exhilarations, and triumphs. The process for our new sMApp has been no different.
We thank you for your dedication and patience, as we all continue this quest to make the world’s soils healthier, one assessment at a time.
