✨Avicenna March Update: Spring Has Begun. Productivity's On the Run!

Hey Avicenna Community,

What can I say? Even I, someone known for minimal daily body movement, feel the call of the outdoors this spring. Can you believe it?

This irresistible charm of the season is partly why our March updates are fewer; many of our team members took some well-deserved time off to enjoy this lovely time of year.

We weren't totally off though. We finalized some promised features (e.g., the Geofencing triggering logic) and they're going through their final testing phase. They took a bit longer than we expected. Meanwhile, we're improving the codebase for our participant web app, a process unlocked after the automated testing we completed last month.

Here's the short list of what we've achieved (or fixed, to be more precise) in March.

🐞 Bug Fixes

• Record date mismatch for Fitbit data sources
  We fixed an issue where the record dates displayed on Kibana for Fitbit data sources did not match the dates on the Fitbit app. This discrepancy was due to a time-zone issue.
• Adding researchers to a study
  We resolved an issue that prevented adding registered researchers to a study and showed an empty error.
• Image hyperlinks in survey question content
  We fixed an issue where image hyperlinks embedded in survey question contents were not clickable on the participant Android app.
• Wearable authorization process
  We addressed an issue in the participant Android app where the authorization page for accessing wearable data (e.g., Garmin) would reset if participants switched apps and returned, disrupting the process.
• Registration QR code for duplicated studies
  We resolved an issue where registration QR codes were not being generated for duplicated studies.
• Incomplete display of activities list
  We resolved an issue in the participant web app where some activity buttons under the “Participant Triggered Activities” section of the study homepage were not fully displayed if the number of such buttons exceeded a certain threshold.
• Video and audio response handling in surveys
  We fixed an issue with uploading and recording video/audio responses in surveys on the participant web app. Participants can now upload videos and audios (whether recorded or from their device) up to 200 MB as expected.
• Previous button navigation in surveys
  We resolved an issue with the “Previous” button on the participant web app, where it did not correctly display the last shown question when navigating backward. Now, it reliably returns participants to the previously viewed question, regardless of its current criteria or state, ensuring a consistent survey experience.

🔍 Reflecting on the Impact

Your experience with Avicenna is crucial to our growth. Each update aims to streamline your research, focusing on usability and efficiency. We strive to support your research effectively.

📣 We Value Your Feedback – And Your Stories

Have the updates improved your research? We encourage sharing your experiences on our Community Forum or via email. Your feedback helps shape our future updates and motivates the Avicenna community.

⭐ What's Next?

We remain dedicated to improving Avicenna. New features and improvements are in the pipeline, aiming to further enhance your research workflow. To name a few, we're working on:

• Reset Participation: As a next step to the Test Participants feature we introduced before, test participants will be able to reset their participation and start as new participants in the study right within the app.
• Hexoskin: Expand your wearable data collection with direct integration with Hexoskin, bringing in valuable physiological data for your studies.
• Apple's HealthKit: Leverage the HealthKit platform to incorporate diverse health data from iOS devices, making your research even more comprehensive.
• Geofencing Triggering Logic: You will be able to define triggering logics for your activities based on the participant's interaction with some geofences.
• Automated Testing for the Participant Web App: We are working towards achieving complete (or near complete) automation in testing the participant web app.
• Matrix Question Type: You asked. We responded. You will be able to ask Matrix questions in your surveys to better capture nuanced answers and improve the depth of data collected from participants.
• And more: Stay tuned for additional features and improvements as we continue our mission to optimize your research experience.

Avicenna is getting even better, and we're excited to reveal all the improvements to you.

Let's keep pushing the boundaries of research together.