Roses are red, violets are blue, and this month's Centercode release has too much good stuff to feasibly fit into the rest of that rhyming scheme! While the poem might be a bust, Ted AI is going to pick up the slack and deliver a heart-shaped box full of handy new data analysis features that you're sure to enjoy. And that's not all! We've got a new feature bouquet filled to bursting ready for our GoEarly testers this month, with media replay download functionality and a host of new data engine items. Not signed up for our GoEarly program yet? There's no time like the present, sign up now!

 new features

✨ New Features ✨  

Ted AI is ready for your date(a)!

Ted AI's (totally platonic) love language is Acts of Service, and he is here to lend a helping hand with another addition to our premium AI tool suite, AI Data Analysis! This brand-new reporting element style will quickly scan through the data you provide and give you a quick, easy-to-digest summary of your data. Use one of the pre-set options for near-instantaneous data analysis, or provide Ted AI a set of custom instructions for robust analysis tasks like sentiment analysis or trend identification! If AI data analysis strikes your fancy but Ted AI isn’t part of your repertoire, check in with your Centercode success manager to find out how to access our premium AI features!

💡 Centercode GoEarly features 💡 

More GoEarly features than you can shake a long-stemmed rose at!

This month's GoEarly release has a jumbo box of chocolates worth of new features and enhancements for your testing pleasure (and no surprise coconut filling, bleh). First up we've got some brand-new functionality for our media replay toolset to allow you to download your Centercode tester replays to share with outside stakeholders. Additionally, we've got a whole host of new data columns for our reporting engine (many of them sourced from your improvement requests!) that allow you to pull data from the platform in all new ways! Don't miss all the fun, get signed up for GoEarly and check out these new features on a test implementation of your very own!

fixes  

🐞  Bug Fixes 🐞 

Data Engine & Custom Reports

• A scenario where a report element containing a distinct filter could be lost on modify was corrected.

Miscellaneous 

• The community "Access User Details" role will allow associated users to view additional details within projects as internal (non-admin) users.

We're starting the year off with a refreshed design to enhance your testing experience! Centercode's January release focuses on visual and UI changes designed to bring you and your users a cleaner, more modern interface that improves usability, improves the use of screen space, and highlights the features that keep your tests moving. We've revamped the look of multiple areas of the platform, as well as made a few site-wide layout and UI changes that you're sure to love!

improvements

📈  Improvements 📈 

Keep those New Years (screen) resolutions!

The first changes you'll probably notice (especially if you're on a wide monitor!) are the adjustments we've made to the global UI to better use your available screen space. We've tweaked various page widths across the site to improve visual consistency and better utilize existing screen real estate! 

Along those lines, we've made some updates to top headers on many pages. In general, top headers will no longer be sticky, which will save screen space when scrolling around pages at lower resolutions. Additionally, top headers and header buttons will now rest on top of your background and will share visual theme color choices with your existing background text options, so as long as you've got those set up appropriately no adjustments should be necessary.

These changes, in addition to some color and spacing adjustments, are designed to keep your site looking readable and consistent across a much wider range of screen resolutions!

No place like (Project) Home!

Next up we've got some exciting changes coming to your project home pages! We've made a few tweaks to both the look and layout of your project home pages designed to improve test flow, and help you get important information in front of your testers. The first change you'll notice is that now any content you have set to display on the project home will appear at the top of the page, with the feedback buttons now appearing after any custom content, ensuring that the first thing your users see is any important test information you want to get out to them! 

Additionally, we've given our feedback buttons a more compact modern design, while maintaining all the same viewing, submitting, and informative capabilities. 

One last change that is not specific to the project home (but IS in this screenshot!) is the addition of a tester-facing "Highly confidential project" warning in the menu bar for any of your projects set to "Private", to provide testers with a constant reminder of their non-disclosure and to keep project info confidential.

Feedback list changes!

And finally, we've made some big changes to the layout of our feedback list, presenting all of the same handy information rearranged for visual clarity and readability! 

First on the list (and farthest to the left!) is an update to the vote/score widget. Both the admin and tester-facing versions have been given a facelift to improve their visual clarity, and the admin-facing version of this new design places a larger emphasis on the impact score of the ticket.

Next up, we've made some adjustments to the Feedback title area and how that information is presented. Both the "archived" and "blocked" icons will now appear to the left of the title, as well as archived ticket titles now appearing in grey, to help you visually determine which tickets need immediate action (or have already been acted on). Additionally, we've adjusted the styling for how statuses are presented, now giving them a visually distinct foreground color (but no background color), to reduce clutter in the title bar while still presenting all the same visual information you're used to seeing.

Lastly, we've moved the ticket submitter avatar to the right side of the bar, to keep it grouped with the other user-focused information (such as total replies and last reply.)

fixes  

🐞  Bug Fixes 🐞 

Data Engine & Custom Reports

• Charts have been corrected in generated report PDF & PNG files. 

It’s that time of year when twinkling lights go up, cookies are in the oven, and we’re gathering with friends and family to celebrate the joy of the season. And what would the holiday season be without a few new toys to play with? Well, Centercode has you covered! Say hello to Ted AI survey generation, a brand new toy in Ted AI's toolbelt to make creating surveys as easy as pie (or fruitcake, if that’s your thing). This marks the first of Ted AI's premium features (with more to come, read below!), and if you like what you see there's no time like the present to get on board!

And like the industrious little elf that he is, Ted AI has even more surprises in store for our GoEarly participants! Get a sneak peek at the next upcoming Ted AI feature, AI Data Analysis, and let us know what additional features and functionality you'd like to see before release! Click here to sign up now!

 new features

✨ New Features ✨  

Let Ted AI build your surveys while you enjoy(?) the eggnog!

The star on top of this holiday release is Ted AI's brand-new survey creation capability! Let Ted AI do the heavy lifting of creating your survey while you focus on consuming a (frankly unhealthy) amount of festively shaped cookies. Or, if you know what you want to ask but aren’t sure how to ask it, the same functionality can be used to generate that perfect individual question. Similar to AI Test Plan generation, AI survey creation leverages a selection of your basic product info, existing product documentation, and/or a set of custom instructions to create a survey tailored to your needs in an instant! 

Here's an example of generating a full survey:

Navigate to the survey management section (at the community or project level) and start a new survey. Choose the “Help Me” option to unlock Ted AI’s assistance.

Next, pick a survey objective—think of it as writing Ted AI’s wishlist! Objectives help guide the questions he generates to align with your goals. Answer a few prompts to let Ted AI know the sort of data you're looking for, then, sprinkle in some additional details to give Ted more context like project details, product files, and any custom instructions you'd like Ted AI to consider.

Once you hit submit, Ted AI will use a little Christmas (or other seasonally appropriate holiday) magic to whip up a complete survey in just moments!

After that, all that is left is to hit the "Review my survey" button to go over the result, where you can review, edit, and publish the survey!

Ted AI takes the stress out of survey creation.Plus, with expertly crafted questions tailored to your goals, you’ll collect better feedback faster than ever before!

💡 Centercode GoEarly features 💡 

GoEarly AI Data Analysis!

That Naughty or Nice list is getting out of hand, and we thought Santa could use a second set of eyes on it. This month's GoEarly release features another Ted AI feature, AI data analysis, that will make sorting through and summarizing large amounts of data a snap! This brand new reporting element style will quickly scan through the data you provide and give you a quick, easy-to-digest summary of your data! Sign up now to get your hands on this feature early!

GoEarly Interface Updates

Alongside the upcoming AI data analysis feature, we’re also delivering some significant updates to the platform’s interface, which include a new streamlined look for multiple prominent tester-facing areas of the platform, including the project home and simple feedback lists!

It's turkey (or your chosen plant-based substitute!) season again! That means it's time to gather together with friends and family and stuff yourselves silly, and Centercode has a new friend we'd like to introduce you to who has a lot to bring to the (proverbial Thanksgiving) table. 

We've hinted at it before, and this month we're finally ready to let Ted AI out into the world to show you what he can do! Ted AI marks Centercode's entry into the intelligent tools space, with a new family of smart agents expanding Ted's reach far beyond tester engagement.

In the first (of many to come) batch of Ted AI agents we've got a brand new way to generate actionable test plans for your project that you're going to love. And if that's not enough to whet your appetite, we've got the usual spread of improvements and bug fixes to make sure you leave satisfied. And if you happen to leave some room for dessert, we've got yet another tantalizing set of upcoming AI features in our GoEarly program that you won't want to miss! Sign up here, and get a slice of the action.

 new features

✨ New Features ✨  

Let Ted AI take care of your test planning!

The main course for this November's release is a whole new way to generate test plans in a flash! You provide the ingredients, and Ted AI will do the cooking! Centercode's AI test plan generation allows you to use your basic product info, existing product documentation, or a set of custom instructions to instantly create a full set of features and phases, a short focused one-week test, or a set of features you can schedule yourself. Generate a fully featured test plan, complete with a balanced set of features and phases, to help get your project off of the ground, or use what Ted AI whips up as a starting point for a more customized test plan!

Once you've enabled test plan AI generation in your Community AI settings (learn more here!), simply navigate to the new AI test plan generation tool via a new button located on your test plan management page!

From here you just need to give Ted a few starting parameters, and then as much information as you would like for him to work with (more is better, but you'll be surprised what he can put together with just a few basic details!), and any custom instructions you'd like incorporated into your test plan. After that, simply select the default team access you'd like for your features and phases, hit submit, and let Ted work his magic!

And, voila, a fully featured test plan ready for testing! Simply follow the new test planning infobox prompts (added with last month's release!) and you'll have your test up and running faster than ever before!

improvements

📈  Improvements 📈 

Making it feel like home

And if all that wasn't exciting enough, we've also got a few additional options and improvements for your project home! A new set of checkboxes in the Feedback properties page of each feedback type lets you individually control which feedback buttons appear at the top of your project home, as well as which feedback buttons are presented on the page shown to testers after they complete an activity. Got a feedback type that doesn't need to be in the limelight, or one you'd particularly like your testers to see after completing an activity? These new checkboxes have got you covered! Additionally, we've removed the percent of activities completed bar from the project home to keep your testers' attention focused on the more information rich list of complete and incomplete features below.

💡 Centercode GoEarly features 💡 

Ted AI is ready for seconds with AI survey generation!

Not one to rest on his laurels (even after a healthy dose of turkey-delivered tryptophan), Ted AI is ready and rarin' to go with his second set of AI tools, this time focused on AI survey generation. Just tell Ted what sort of survey you want to create, and provide a few quick details or specific question you want included and he'll have something ready before you can say "Another slice of pie, please!" Not a member of our GoEarly program yet? There's always room at the table, so sign up now!

fixes  

🐞  Bug Fixes 🐞 

Data Engine & Custom Reports

• Cloning Project Reports was being incorrectly gated by Community access in addition to Project access
• Feedback comments now return from the data engine sorted oldest to newest (instead of alphabetical)

Test Planning

• Test Plan imports will now properly respect the initial Survey selection value

Double, double toil and trouble! Spoooky season is upon us once again, and Centercode has a bubbling cauldron of new features and improvements to serve up in October's release (and don't worry we left out the toil and trouble). It's all treats and no tricks here with a brand new set of first-class video and screen recording tools! And that's not all, we dusted the cobwebs off of (before re-adding them for decorative purposes) our test planning interface and added a load of new functionality and information you're sure to find a treat. Bite a little harder into test planning and you'll find a nougaty center of new feature creation options! And, lurking just out of sight, we have some truly frightening(ly useful!) GoEarly features waiting for those brave enough to seek them out. Click here to sign up now!

✨ New Features ✨  

Video and screen recording (no jumpscares please!)

First up, we've got an amazing new first-class suite of media tools that will redefine how you can interact and engage with your testers. These new tools enable you to natively record and share video or screen recordings with your testers in any resource (features, content, and releases). Now you can give precise, in-depth instructions or product descriptions to your testers without ever leaving the Centercode interface.

Once you've recorded these videos, Centercode now includes a powerful suite of video editing and review tools to enrich the functionality of your recorded videos, including automatic video transcription, and built-in video annotation options!

📈  Improvements 📈 

Trick-or-treat! We've got new Test Planning features!

Hope you brought the BIG plastic pumpkin bucket, we've got a lot of Test Planning treats for you! We've revamped the Test Planning page to guide you from importing a test plan to finalizing your phases and features in advance, to approve and publish them when you're ready. Additionally, the new "Quick modify" feature allows you to make changes to aspects of features, such as feature names, descriptions, instructions, and value straight from the Test Planning page. We’ve also added helpful new infoboxes to keep you informed about the status of your test and highlight any items that need your attention.

Add intent to your features!

We're excited to introduce a major overhaul of the feature creation process. The new, intuitive splash page simplifies feature creation, and a brand-new feature intent selection section guides you through defining the purpose of your activity and testing process. After selecting your intended feature intent, the platform will automatically populate the appropriate fields, including some helpful infoboxes to give you an idea of the sort of instructions you could provide to optimize testers’ engagement with your activities. These intents also include three options that are directly tied to the new media tools, allowing you to collect video interviews, screen recordings, or live experiences via webcams or mobile phone cameras from your testers, all from within the platform!

Nuanced control over conditional features!

We've also included several user-requested features, such as the option to make feature availability conditional on the completion of other features (to make sure your users complete features in a certain order) and following activity completion with bespoke custom surveys!

This also includes more detailed post-activity feedback collection options, such as the ability to collect star ratings independent of the full FSAT system, as well as the ability to tie a custom survey directly to an activity.

💡 Centercode GoEarly features 💡 

Something wicked this way comes!

This month's GoEarly release introduces something we here at Centercode have all been excited about for a very long time: Our first super rad AI feature (of many to come)! We don't want to say too much before you're able to get your hands on it, but trust me folks, you don't want to miss this one. In addition, we've got a few other exciting features we're continuing to improve! Want to learn more? Sign up now!

It's September, and Fall is (or soon will be) upon us! That means cooler weather, falling leaves, and the smell of warm apple pie on the breeze (or more likely out of a scented candle for those of us too lazy to bake). And boy, does Centercode have some delicious new features crisping up in the oven! But all good things require patience, and they're not quite ready to be served yet. Given how big of a deal GoEarly is this month, we’ve included a candid note from Centercode CEO, Luke Freiler down below! 

Not participating in our GoEarly program? Click here to sign up now, and get your hands on these features as soon as possible!

announcements 

💡 Centercode GoEarly Features 💡 

Hi all,

Our new preview release is being handled a bit differently than usual, as we're focusing on not only new features and enhancements, but also a brand new Centercode product, which we're not quite ready to announce publicly just yet.

If you're a member of our GoEarly community you will have received an email with further details, inviting you to participate as usual. If you're not, but are curious - feel free to sign up here, and we'd be happy to add you to the test team!

Thanks,

Luke Freiler
CEO @ Centercode

new features 

✨ New Production Features ✨  

A new option to tune your engagement bot

The engagement bot (Ted by default) leverages multiple means of engagement to ensure you and your testers are well aware of what's happening in your tests. This month, we've added the ability to turn off SMS messaging from the bot. It's uncommon for the bot to resort to texting — typically only in "emergencies" — but this option will make sure that Ted sticks to email correspondence.

🐞  Bug Fixes 🐞 

Localization & Strings

• A number of project-level strings that are shown on sign-in pages were updated to ensure they appear correctly during the recruitment process

The sun is beating down, things are heating up, and here at Centercode, we thought a set of cool enhancements might be just the breath of fresh air you need! The August release contains a new feature designed to help you get your project off of the ground, as well as a few pesky bugs zapped!

 new features

✨ New Features ✨  

Don't forget your NDA (and sunscreen)!

Protecting your project privacy is important (almost as important as protecting your skin!), and this brand new feature coming out of our GoEarly program adds an extra layer of protection to your program. We've added a combo of warning banners and infoboxes to let you know if you don't have a project-level NDA set up in your notice process in any project marked as private. 

A new button will take the place of your "Invite to project" button, letting you know that you're missing an NDA for your participant teams. Clicking it will take you right where you need to go to get one set up! Warning infoboxes will also show up anywhere you might add testers, such as the Invite to project interface, recruiting pages (shown below), and invite type pages. Not setting up an NDA for your project (or already have one configured at the community level), or simply don't need the reminder? No problem! Dismissing the button in the menu will return it to the "Invite to project" button, and you'll never see these warnings again in that project.

fixes  

🐞  Bug Fixes 🐞 

Data Engine & Custom Reporting

• Corrected an issue preventing the creation of label elements in custom reporting.

July always starts with a bang, and the explosive new features in Centercode's July release will make sure it ends with one as well! We've got two huge reporting-related crowd-pleasers this month guaranteed to spark some oohs and aahs, as well as some exciting new GoEarly features and bug fixes.  So get your sparklers ready, and enjoy the show! 💥

 new features

✨ New Features ✨  

Starting things off with a bang!

BOOM! Exploding out of the gate is our first new feature this month, report-level filters!  This handy new tool, available at the "Modify this report" level view, allows you to set filters that apply to every report element using a specific data source (ie. user data, specific feedback types, etc.) Instead of setting up a filter on each element in a report with multiple elements, you can ensure you're seeing the same set of filtered data in each element by setting up a report-level filter!

After configuring your report-level filter, every report element using the same data source will automatically use the report-level filter that you created, both saving you time and ensuring that you're viewing the same subset of data in each of your report elements!

The showstopper!

And now, the one you've all been clamoring for (one of our most frequently requested new features!), report cloning! This brand-new feature gives you the ability to generate a clone of a report at the click of a button! Got an in-depth complicated report set up just the way you want, but need a version that applies to a different subset of users? Simply hit "Clone" in the report management screen and you'll have an exact copy of your existing report ready for tweaking! Combine this with our new report-level filters and you'll have that data on that new set of users in your hands in minutes!

💡 Centercode GoEarly features 💡 

NDA Reminders!

Not sure if your testers have signed everything they need to before getting their hands on your test product? No problem! Our GoEarly feature for this month is a new NDA reminder system designed to notify project managers if their tests set to "Private" exposure have tester-facing project-level NDAs. Get some peace of mind before you hit that invite to project button!

If you’re not already participating in our GoEarly program, sign up here to get your hands on these new updates before they go live!

What is that delicious smell? That's right, it's summer, and that means cook-out season! Centercode is serving up a few grilled-to-perfection new features and improvements to help get your summer started off right! A sleek and condensed new way to view your community home project list (for if your backyard cookout has escalated into a full-on block party!), as well as a few tasty new items for the Centercode Data Engine to help you get your data customized just the way you want! And that's not all—we've got a few big improvements coming down the line for your Centercode reports. If you're a member of our GoEarly program, you can get their hands on them now!

improvements

📈  Improvements 📈 

A new way to display!

Hold out those plates! First up, we've got a brand-new way to view your Centercode community home: a condensed project list into a series of more manageable and easy-to-read buttons. Simply click the new "Toggle display mode" button located in the upper right corner of your community home project list to swap between the standard and condensed view on the fly, giving both admins and testers an easy new way to scan through long project lists!

A heaping helping of new CDE fixins'!

Next on our list we've got a whole host of new CDE items for the Centercode Data Eengine. Available for both filters and views, the focus of these new data items is on providing new insights on overall project timelines and participation.

Click here for a full list of the new data items and the data types and groups they are listed under!

💡 Centercode GoEarly features 💡 

Report cloning and report-level filters!

Exciting news this month for our GoEarly members! We've got two brand new time-saving features coming to reports. First up, we've got one you've all been clamoring for and one of our MOST requested improvements: report cloning! Create a clone of an existing report that you can tweak to your heart's content while leaving the original untouched! And that's not all— we've also got a brand new report-level filter system, allowing you to create a single filter at the report level that you can choose to apply to all elements within the report.

If you’re not already participating in our GoEarly program, sign up here to get your hands on these new updates before they go live!

Spring is in full swing with Centercode’s garden of new features and improvements! Last month in our GoEarly program, we planted the seeds for our new embedding system for content within resources, and now those features are ready to bloom. And that’s not all! This month’s GoEarly release includes the results of our second DevJam, bringing you a bouquet of nearly one hundred small improvements, bug fixes, and quality-of-life features!

 new features  

✨ New Features ✨  

Help your resources bloom with embeds!

This month’s main feature is the full release of our brand-new content embedding system, adding even more functionality to our recently updated resource creation system! These new embedding features bring you a more feature-rich, streamlined, and intuitive new way to embed a wide range of custom and preset embed options. It's never been easier to add external video, social media, and scheduling tools (with many more to come!) into your Centercode resources (content, releases, and activities). 

When creating a resource, you’ll now find the “External embed” option listed in the “Include” portion of the resource. Selecting that will present you with a drop-down menu that allows you to select the type of embed you’d like to include. We've expanded the capabilities of Centercode’s embedding system to include inline JavaScript and link assets via the “Custom embedded script” option, and you'll also get a number of pre-built embed selections.

Selecting any of the pre-built embed types will present you with a helpful infobox (and accompanying linked help article), telling you how to acquire the embed code from the external source (YouTube, Loom, Figma, etc) and which field to embed the code in.

If you don't see the option you are looking for on the list, we also have a custom embedded script option that now includes the ability to include inline JavaScript and linked file assets. This custom embedding option will cover the vast majority (if not all) of proper embeds - we haven’t met one we couldn’t support!

These powerful new embed tools give you a new degree of freedom in presenting vital testing material, visual aids, and scheduling tools to your testers—and we can’t wait to see what you do with them! For more detailed information on these tools and how to use them, see our helpful knowledge base article here!

Updated Data Column Names
(Updated 30 April 2024)

This release also includes some long-overdue data column updates that bring the Centercode Data Engine (CDE) in line with the copy and formatting changes we've made throughout the site. Generally speaking, most changes are capitalization changes - adjusting from title casing to sentence casing. For example: Email Address is changing to Email address. In some cases, however, we're adjusting the terminology: EA Integration ID is changing to SSO integration ID, and Engagement Score is changing to simply Points.

This change impacts data elements throughout the platform including User Management, Feedback Management, and Custom Reporting. While generally not something an in-site user would need to worry much about -- Single Sign-On, Webhook, and Jira integrations won't be affected -- the data column name change will likely affect reporting integrations. For example, data being ingested by external analysis tools like Power BI, Tableau, Splunk, or Excel may be looking for data that is being renamed. In this case, the data won't be found until those systems are updated with the new data column names -- so they know which columns are which.

I've linked a spreadsheet that shows all the copy changes below. 

Centercode Data Engine updates - Column name changes (April 2024)

💡 Centercode GoEarly features 💡 

DevJam 2: Electric Boogaloo

Coming soon to a GoEarly implementation near you are the results of Centercode’s second DevJam - back by popular demand! We gathered another huge batch of small but impactful bugs and improvements that spanned all aspects of the platform and set our dev team loose on them. The result? Nearly a hundred bug fixes, UI tweaks, and string clarifications! Check out that DevJam hand-off board!

If you’re not already participating in our GoEarly program, sign up here to get your hands on these new updates before they go live!

fixes  

🐞  Bug Fixes 🐞 

Macros & Automation

• An order of operations adjustment was made to macros that email users while also removing them (removal is now last, with some protections to prevent access during execution time).

Performance

• Removed a data point calculation from User Summary pages that was not used which should improve performance of the User Summary page
• Additional work on jQuery refactoring/depreciation was performed.