Release Notes - v2024.03.07

This update delivers on many improvements that will not affect the average user very much. There has been ongoing work to improve User Access Management, and Placecast Dashboard data stabilization within the application. Below are the application updates that will be most noticeable for daily users. 

Regions as Places 

Regions previously used only for context and filtering within the layers are being promoted to offer all of the same features as places.  This includes inclusion as places to explore and examine the details of in the Placecast Library, analysis in user's scenarios in Workspace, and exploration in the Placecast Dashboard.

• In Placecast Dashboard and Placecast Scenario, under MW places tab, place search widget under the option of “Search By PlaceType”, County, CBSA, DMA, Postal Code and State become valid option.
• The Search Result of Places with PlaceType that is County, CBSA, DMA, Postal Code or State are available for all data-available Regions (same list as the region in popcast).
• Most of those places have the same placecast measurement data report available
• Those places can be used to create placeset by themselves or together with other type of places (treated the same as any other place) and visualize in aggregation in either placecast dashboard or placecast scenario.

IMXDEV-3786

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Additional Colors to Chart By Year in Placecast Dashboard Table View

The Placecast Dashboard Table View charts have been updated to improve visual differentiation by year. Each year now will now show its own color designation making the chart easier to analyze. In addition, this color update delivers consistency and alignment with the visualizations with each individual place insight report. It is important to note that this change is only applicable when viewing chart details as weekly results.

IMXDEV-4210

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Removing of Places with Place Type = Face from Select Places Widget and Placecast Insight Applications

In Placecast Dashboard you would sometimes see places that looked a little odd. These were typically places that were Faces. A face means a billboard face. This place type isn’t a Place and is governed by different measurement methodology. Because of these differences we will no longer be displaying Faces in “Place” Applications. 

Faces as a Place Type option has been removed from displaying in the Places applications. The definition of a face is the front facing square footage of a billboard ad. Including faces in the Placecast Dashboard would often deliver data anomalies that didn’t quite look right to users. Given that billboard faces are governed by different measurement methodologies than points-of-interest, we have removed them from displaying in the dashboard.

IMXDEV-4187

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Added Ability to toggle to Index Values in Placecast Dashboard

Based on numerous user feedback and popular requests, we have added the ability to view national index values on places. Users will find this as a fourth data toggle at the top of the Placecast Dashboard reports. Index data will be displayed as bar charts within the dashboard application.

It is important to note that cohort data is not always available for each place measurement therefore, this update does come with certain limitations:

• Indexes will not show a value in the report unless there is data for that cohort across each place selected for the report. If this occurs, consumer profile cohorts will not have an index value shown.
• If all cohorts within the places selection do not return a cohort index then the entire graph will be removed.
• Demographic profile indexes are the ideal index analyzation approach

IMXDEV-4094

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Improvements to Layers in Popcast

Layers in popcast now display above the selected geography polygons. What this means in practice is that they are easier to see not being behind the translucent layer and that they now have a basic hover over popup modal that display with the layers point of interest name in it. This should make it easier to indentify which point of interest in your layer is which.

This improvement delivers ease of use in Popcast when viewing multiple layers of POIs. Layers will now be displayed above the selected geography polygons. Users will find that they are now easier to differentiate with a new hover over pop-up infogrpahic that will display with the layers named POI in it.

IMXDEV-3505

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Release of Places Library V2 for Internal Users

We are finally releasing Places Library V2 in a late Alpha/Early Beta state for internal (Motionworks) users. This new module currently has an icon on the far left navigation to get to it and is license locked to only be avaliable to the Motionworks account at this time. There is active development ongoing in the module but we’d like to start collecting a wider range of internal feedback and testing of the application.

This map based module leverages the Select Places Widget for selecting places and place sets to view on the map. You can also hover over a selected place on the map and click on it to open the Individual Place Insight report. 

With this rollout there are a couple of enhancements included to the universal Select Places Widget. This includes the Places Details column and a rename of MW PLACES to ALL PLACES in the top left navigation. Places Details provides a dropper that users can click on to open the place's detail information in a modal. To most users MW Places doesn’t mean anything so updating this language to All Places should convey to them that it is where they can search all available places to select places that they care about for viewing information or building Place Sets. This improvement is being rolled out to all places where the Select Places Widget is used (Placecast Dashboard, Placecast Scenarios, and now Places Library V2).