Idea Wall Documentation
Instructions for Participants, Wall Managers, and Site Administrators
Idea Wall Basics
Idea Wall is a simple tool for open online brainstorming. Idea Wall consists of web pages called walls. A wall has a question or theme for brainstorming.
Participants add, like, and comment on ideas. The ideas are anonymous and become visible at once after a participant has submitted them.
The ideas of the wall are organized in columns (=categories) as idea cards.
There are three user roles in Idea Wall:
- Participant – A user taking part in online brainstorming
- Wall Manager – A user with credentials to manage and moderate a specific wall
- Site Administrator – A user who manages all the walls of the organization
Choose the documentation that corresponds with your user role:
Participant: How to Brainstorm
1. Open the wall link
You’ve received a link to a wall. Open it with a desktop or mobile web browser. If the wall has a password, submit it. Read the question of the wall front page and continue to the wall.
2. Add Your Idea(s)
Add your ideas or answers to the wall’s question by clicking on the top left button. It opens an idea submission form. Add a short title and describe your idea with a few words. Choose the category of the idea. Save the idea to the wall or continue adding more ideas. The submitted ideas become visible at once on the wall.
NOTE: You can not upload images or add links to your idea for security reasons. Also, note that some walls may not have the description field enabled.
3. Like and Comment
Like ideas and add short comments. On some walls, liking and commenting may be disabled.
4. Sort and Filter
You can use the dropdown menus of the wall to filter ideas based on their status (the Wall Manager has to set the statuses) and sort them using one of the three criteria.
5. Exit the Wall
To exit the wall, close the corresponding browser window. There’s no need to log out.
Wall Manager: How to Manage a Wall
1. Log in with Wall Manager Credentials
In the top-right menu of the wall, click on the wrench icon and log in with the credentials you’ve received from the Site Administrator.
The wall opens in edit mode.
The menu functions:
2. Configure
Both the Site Administrator and Wall Manager can configure a wall. It is advisable to do this before making the wall public. If the wall already has ideas, a new configuration may erase some or all of them.
Read the configuration instructions.
3. Edit and Remove Ideas
Use the pencil icon in an idea box to open it for editing. You can edit the text contents and change the category (column) of the idea. Save the idea when you’re done.
Use the trashcan icon to remove the idea from the wall. This cannot be undone.
4. Move Ideas
Each idea box has an up and down arrow. Use them to reposition an idea in the column.
To move ideas between columns, open the idea for editing and change its category, i.e. column.
NOTE: Save the wall idea order by clicking on the rightmost icon in the menu. The saved order becomes the default.
5. Categorize Ideas
An idea can have one of the three statuses that you can choose from the dropdown menu of the idea card. They are helpful in filtering the ideas, e.g. based on their priority.
6. Save the Wall
If you have changed the order of the ideas and want the new order to become the default, save the wall with the righ-most icon in the menu.
7. Download
Use the download icon in the menu to download the contents of the wall as an Excel file.
Site Administrator: How to Manage a Site
1. Log in with Site Administrator Credentials
Login on the site login page.
The Wall list initially shows walls with “Active” status. To see walls with “On Hold” status, use the dropdown menu in the Search Wall panel.
3. Add New Sites
Use the Add Wall button to add a new wall. You can also duplicate an existing wall using the duplicate icon of the existing walls. Duplication does not copy the submitted ideas of the wall.
NOTE: New walls are in On Hold state by default. Change the status to Active (=visible) on the configuration form.
3. Configure, Remove or View Walls
With the respective icons, you can configure a wall, delete it, duplicate it, or view it (in edit mode). Deleletion can’t be undone.
Wall Configuration
The configuration form lets Wall Managers and Site Administrators change the user interface properties and Wall Manager credentials of a wall. Here are listed all the configuration options in the order they appear on the form.
Basic Settings
- Wall URL – Automatically generated unique URL of the wall (share this with the participants)
- Wall Manager Email – The user ID of the Wall Manager
- Wall Manager Password – The password of the Wall Manager
- Wall Visitor Password(optional) – Add this if you want to protect the wall with a password
- Idea commenting – If disabled, no Comment link will be visible on the idea cards of the wall
- Idea liking – If disabled, participants can’t like the ideas
- Wall Language – Select the language that is used for the hyphenation of the ideas
Wall Title Area
- Wall Title – The question/theme of the wall
- Wall Sub Title – The subtitle of the wall
- Wall Info – Text, including hyperlinks, that appears when a user clicks on the info icon in the wall’s top-right menu
- Add Idea Button Label – The label of the top-left button of the wall
- Disable Add Idea Button – If checked, participants can only view the wall and not add new ideas
- Wall Logo – A jpeg/png/gif file that shows on the wall entry page
Wall Columns
You can add as many columns (=categories) as you like. Each column has a title, a background color, and a description that will be visible on the idea entry form.
NOTE: You can change the title of an existing column even if there are ideas in that column. However, if you delete a column, the respective ideas will be lost permanently.
Idea Status List Values
Each idea has a status. You can use statuses to filter ideas on the wall.
An idea can have up to three statuses that you can label freely. The first one is obligatory.
Wall Status
The wall can be Active (=visible) or On Hold (=invisible). All new walls are On Hold by default.
+ Advanced Configuration
Advanced Configuration fields allow you to change the labels of forms and buttons. If you don’t do any modifications, the labels are in their default (English) form.
Advanced Configuration lets you create user interfaces in different languages.
Wall Labels
- Sort Order Title – The title of the sort order dropdown
- Default Order – The default sort order label
- Date – The Order by Date label
- Alphabetical – The Order Alphabetically label
- Likes – The Order by Likes label
- Label for “Load More Ideas” – The label that appears at the bottom of the wall if the number of ideas is high and more ideas need to be shown
- “Show” Title Label – The status dropdown menu title
- “Show All” Text – The “Show All” text in the status dropdown menu
Idea Form Interface
- Idea Form Title – The title that appears on top of the idea submission form
- Idea Form Subtitle/Question – The subtitle
- Idea Form Label for Title – The label of the title field
- Idea Form Label for Description – The label of the description field
- Column Selection Title – The label for the “Select category” radio button list
- Submit Button Label – The button label
- Back To Wall Button Label – The button label
- “Add Another?” Button Label – The button label
- Help File URL – You can provide the participants with a custom help/instructions page
- Disable Description Field – Check this if you want to hide the Description field of the idea submission form
Comment Form Interface
- Comment Form Title – The title of the comment form
Idea Card Interface Elements
- Comment Link Label – The label of the comment link on an idea card
Idea status list values
- Idea statuses (all but first optional). Use these statuses to filter out ideas on the wall. Only the Wall Manager can change the status of an idea.
- Wall status: Active = visible, On Hold = invisible. NOTE! If you change the value to On Hold as a Wall Manager, you will no longer be able to log on to the wall unless the Site Administrator changes the wall status back to Active.