[EPIC] Add Events to Vet Centers

[kmariepat-cityfriends]

Background

Front end and CMS redesign and IA

Use cases

As an editor, I need a way to communicate events and/or observances, which may be recurrent or one-off.

This work is dependent on a publishing capacity that is defined by being able to publish within 60 minutes, directly related to node capacity and drupal stability.

Considerations

• How might we give events/featured content/spotlights an expiration date so that they are unpublished once they are outdated?
• As a Vet Center editor, I need to be able to create events that are routine and recur weekly, biweekly, or monthly.
• As a Vet Center editor, I need to be able to create events that occur once.
• As a Vet Center editor, I need to be able to create events which are available only to a very specific population (i.e. active duty service members on a military base)
• As a Vet Center editor, I need to be able to cohost events with my partners at VA health facilities or VBA locations.
• As a Vet Center editor, I need to be able to create events which can be outreach (available to all) or therapeutic (available to some).
  • i.e., some events are staffed with the Mobile Vet Center and may or may not have a counselor on site
  • i.e., open to the community (all are welcome) vs open to Vet Center eligible attendees only vs open to Vet Center clients with counselor approval
• As a Vet Center editor, I need to be able to create events that need reservations or appointments to attend.
  • i.e., fly-fishing - attendance limited to x number
  • i.e., time slots with onsite VBA representative
• As a Vet Center editor, I want to be able to push event information to an email list of Veterans and/or community partners and/or VA partners i.e., VHA)

Veteran experience Goals

• Designs will be less clinical and more warm and friendly

Decision log

• 2024-03-27: VBA and Vet Center events need to be considered separately, due to the potential for a Vet Center redesign of some kind that may impact events. VBA events now tracked in Initiative - VBA Events #17665
• 2024-04-16: Scope for this epic will be adding existing event functionality to Vet Centers, no additional enhancements

[xiongjaneg]

From 9/13/23 Vet Center Office Hours:

• Be able to note when counselors will be present, especially with mobile events.
• Be able to provide RSVP/sign-up for time slots (e.g., fly fishing, recreation).

[jilladams]

10/17 Q4 discussion:

Events ownership:

• Public Websites currently owns the Events product and should be consulted (PO, DaveC) for planning.
• Product will potentially shift ownership in ~Q4/Q1, tbd.

Priorities

Vet Centers: has no access to PDFs / other means to advertise events til this ships, so urgency is high, and frequently requested in office hours.
VBA: We framed Events as a launch fast follow.

Timeline should keep that in mind.

Requirements gathering / scope

Research: do we need both Editor and Veteran data to support next steps for Events UX?
Do we need to expand what Drupal does today for these editors? We need to do discovery around their needs.

VBA / Vet Center Editors:
For Vet Centers: Michelle could post to the existing Teams channel to get volunteers to discuss Events.

• Helps us develop user stories, but does not promise we will make those requirements.
• Worth pairing VBA & Vet Centers to see if there are overlaps in stories/ requirements

Alexis & Amanda have done generative research work like this, to understand needs of people doing the work to understand the service design aspect. Can be beneficial to interview similar role / scope / environment people to create a safe space for folks to be honest.

• Could use a survey for quick response & might get more insight, but quality of response should be considered in developing the survey

VAMC:
Is it worth talking to them, too, so an iteration resolves some of their pain points? Michelle likes this idea. From Alexis POV, this might work best as a separate project for feedback on the existing product.
Reviewing Helpdesk complaints would be another format to gather data from folks who are vocal. This might miss people who don't bother going to Helpdesk / feel defeated.

Technical / templates

Drupal: expose Regional Offices & Vet Centers as optional VA facilities for Event locations
Vet Centers / VBAs do not have left sidebar, will have different front-ends than VAMCs.

Filters:
Facility Locator filters were designed for reuse in other places, so we may be able to pull those in here.

Known issues

#9438 - SuperEpic for Public Websites that aggregates all the visions for Events that are not prioritized. Includes an epic of UX feedback from VAMC editors.

Next step

• Ticket for generative research - @ALogsdon3 to draft & share with @xiongjaneg

[mmiddaugh]

@davidconlon @aklausmeier two event use cases from Drupal CMS office hours today

• filter by audience for hiring events
• tele-town hall events - these cannot be added because they are not in person so do not have a location and are not online so do not have a URL

[mmiddaugh]

also this: #17529 [CONSIDER] Event reminders and subscriptions

[jilladams]

Closing Events loops as we talk Events in Q2 @davidconlon @mmiddaugh :

• Accelerated Publishing did not hit their hope of March deploy to production, due to delays on the devops end. New date TBD. Thus: Prod events still use content-build for now.
• Design for Vet Center / VBA events is inching forward as we have design capacity.
• Dave is contemplating a full events rewrite as a React app with a corresponding API. This is in the thinking / MVP definition phase for Q2.

So worth noting on Facilities side that before we begin build for VBA / Vet Centers, we should (continue) be(ing) mindful that the whole Events product is in flux and may require revisit of FE builds / design if Events react app shapes up before we get to building.

[jilladams]

From Michelle: we should consider breaking Vet Center / VBA events apart. TODO: @jilladams

[jilladams]

VBA Events epic created: #17665. Added note to ticket body.

[jilladams]

Have added this to #17661 epic for Vet Center 2.0 design, since we expect Events to ride along with that effort, generally, now.