Idea Exchange Search and Guidelines

[lmurrayADOT]

To submit a new idea, I currently have to search through 89 different idea exchanges to find the right one.  Having some sort of search or filter option that narrows the list down would help me locate an appropriate exchange faster.

Also, it's sometime difficult to figure out which exchange I should post my idea to.  For example, let's say I have an idea for Arcade improvements.  Do I post the idea to the ArcGIS Online Ideas exchange, the ArcGIS Pro Ideas exchange, something else?  This problem would be even greater for someone unfamiliar with Esri's suite of products.  Providing some sort of guidance, either a document or interactive tool, to help people narrow down which exchanges are appropriate for their idea would clear up some confusion and may even help sort these ideas into more appropriate exchanges.

[DaraBurlo]

Hi @ImurrayADOT,

Thanks for your feedback.  

In terms of functionality that covers multiple products, place the idea in the product for which you use the most or for which it seems to fit the best. For the example of Arcade above. If you use Arcade with ArcGIS Online the most, post the idea in the ArcGIS Online Ideas Exchange. 

[PeterKnoop]

It would be very helpful to have a way to quickly find the Idea place for a product, as @lmurrayADOT notes. When I go to the Browse All Idea Exchanges page, I would like to have a search option to type in a product name, such as "StoryMaps" to find its Idea Exchange. 

Alternatively, since there are currently only 94 Idea Exchanges, display them all on one page, so I can use my browser's built-in search capability to find the right place in the text of the page.

[Bud]

I agree with @lmurrayADOT and @PeterKnoop. Searching for an ideas exchange or a single page list would help.

[JesseCloutier]

@PeterKnoop and @Bud, thanks for bringing up these thoughts. There is currently another way to search for Ideas Exchanges (or any other Place or Board) that I think you'll find quite a bit simpler and faster than browsing through the whole ArcGIS Ideas Exchange list. This involves entering the product you're trying to find in a Community-wide search. The results default to posts containing your search term, but you can change that to instead look at Places. When you do that, a list of all the Boards associated with that Place should show, including an associated Ideas Board. I've taken a quick video of that process. 

 

[lmurrayADOT]

@JesseCloutier That does make things easier.  Is this posted somewhere to help others understand how to search like this?

[JesseCloutier]

I'm glad to hear this helps, @lmurrayADOT. There is a reference to being able to search for Places in our Help Document How to search and apply filters, but I see how some additional focus could be given to how that can be used to quickly identify Boards of interest, including Ideas Exchanges. This may be a good addition to our relatively new Esri Community Tools & Tips series, so I'll be keeping this in mind as a promising upcoming inclusion. 

[PeterKnoop]

@JesseCloutier in terms of temporary workarounds what I currently do is google, e.g., "arcgis online ideas storymaps". Usually the top link returned will take you directly to the product's Ideas place.

In some scenarios, however, both googling and your workaround are not helpful. For example, if I'm not exactly sure of what a product name is, or if I'm looking for a product that is unexpectedly lumped under another product. Seeing the complete list would help me sort that out easily and quickly.

For example, using your approach, if I enter "Map Viewer" in the overall search and then click on Places, I get 0 results. For "FieldMaps" you get 0 results, but for "Field Maps" you can get to the right place.

It is hard to infer what the correct thing is by searching, as no results doesn't mean you're wrong. Looking through a complete list, however, is a fully constrained exercise. If I don't see Map Viewer itself listed, then I know I should look under another product. If I'm looking for Field Maps, then I will find it in the list, regardless of whether it is listed as FieldMaps or Field Maps.

[JesseCloutier]

Thanks for pointing our where my workaround can fall short, @PeterKnoop. Those are good points. I'm looping @DaraBurlo into this conversation as our Community Manager focused on ArcGIS Ideas so she has visibility on what you're asking for and why.