New Insights Sidebar on the web app
Today we've launched a beta version of a new Insights sidebar on the web app. It's available in all Bibles.
The idea is to (optionally) bring the most useful content from your datasets and library directly into the Bible panel. At the moment, that's just a study bible and a commentary, but we're working on adding new content, too.
We'd love your feedback on this:
- Is it helpful?
- Can you see yourself or others using it?
- What changes would you make?
- What additional information would you like to see?
- Is this worth bringing to desktop or mobile?
Like experimental search, your feedback will determine whether this feature goes away or gets enhanced!
Comments
-
I hope I'm not being oxymoronic here: I like it and I can see where it would come in handy; but I don't know if I would use it much. For one thing, if I want commentary, I'll pick and choose various commentaries or I would use the passage guide. Also, there are other ways to get a similar behavior with the depth that I normally want (like link sets).
I have one issue as it is: the windows are kind of small to offer much information. Even when I click "More>>", it doesn't give me much text to be helpful.
0 -
I'm like Lew, I guess. Interesting, but kill it.
I'd think the question should be directed to light users, who want their Bible, and some hepful information. When you add datasets, I'd think they'd like that. Bible class especially.
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
0 -
In its current form it is not at all useful to me. However, it may be for others. I get a reference to two bible study commentaries neither of which are ones I would choose.
0 -
I love it! Definitely a keeper - at least for the desktops. Having commentaries that scroll with my reading is a fantastic idea - many thanks!
I don't see the way to add additional commentaries - it would be nice to have 4 to view.
I'm not sure about on mobiles - I'll get back to you.
Thanks again and God Bless,
Matt
0 -
I love it! Definitely a keeper - at least for the desktops. Having commentaries that scroll with my reading is a fantastic idea - many thanks!I don't see the way to add additional commentaries - it would be nice to have 4 to view.
I'm not sure about on mobiles - I'll get back to you.
Thanks again and God Bless,
Matt
0 -
I like this!
Mark Barnes (Logos) said:We'd love your feedback on this:
- Is it helpful?
- Can you see yourself or others using
Yes and yes! When I want to study in-depth, I have my own layout already set up or, as others have suggested, use the passage guide. However, I don't always want or need to do study at that level. Sometimes I'm just curious about a passage and would like to see a few "insights." This looks like a convenient and easy way to do that.
- What changes would you make?
Have a button to send the present passage to the passage guide for more in-depth study.
- What additional information would you like to see?
Additional types of resources I would use for a casual study: cross references, a Bible dictionary like LBD keyed to key terms, something like the Dictionary of Bible Themes, again keyed. I don't know if that's too much to ask or if it could be done without overcluttering the panel.
- Is this worth bringing to desktop or mobile?
Please bring to desktop at least. While I like what all you've done with the web app, I rarely have need to use it. I don't see that changing anytime soon.
0 -
Matt said:
Having commentaries that scroll with my reading is a fantastic idea - many thanks!
You know we already have this with linked set, on the desktop at least.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
0 -
0
-
I really like it. I found myself using it without even realizing it. Just a natural experience to look right there when you want to know more about a passage. Keep it!
0 -
I think I like this addition!
While it costs me some screen "real estate”, It’s well utilized.
Of course, I’d like to be able to change or customize which resources I could use.
Thank you!
0 -
May I ask where your quote come from?
"God will save his fallen angels and their broken wings He'll mend."
0 -
MJ. Smith said:Matt said:
Having commentaries that scroll with my reading is a fantastic idea - many thanks!
You know we already have this with linked set, on the desktop at least.
Thank MJ, as I mentioned here a couple of years ago, this doesn't work in the way you suggest. It is a poor experience if you want the commentary to follow the text, the other way around is fine though!0 -
Mark Barnes (Logos) said:
Insights sidebar
Hi Mark,
When this is all built out (e.g. with the additions suggested above, Bible dictionary, cross references, etc), how is it different than the current Bible Explorer? I can see:
- Insights is part of the window (right sidebar) while BE is a separate skinny window;
- Insights expands and displays just a few resources while BE (like Passage Guide) still lists out many resources and you need to click to see the content;
- Insights will probably still end up having fewer sections than BE.
Have I missed anything? Aren't they conceptually basically the same thing, just a slightly different implementation?
0 -
Paul M said:
as I mentioned here a couple of years ago, this doesn't work in the way you suggest.
I understand what you mean. Because I understand where the milestone tags are placed and what drives "current location" (which I learned recently), the linking works as I expect it to abd I didn't notice any change here ... I'll have to play around with it a bit more.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
0 -
Hallo, liebes Logos Team
Die Informationen sind sicher sehr hilfreich. Jedoch die Oberflächen Anordnung ist eher störend,,,,vor allem bei kleineren Notebooks. Dieses Tool sollte separat in einer Ordner Folge extra angewählt werden können. Liebe Grüße
0 -
PL said:
Aren't they conceptually basically the same thing, just a slightly different implementation?
Conceptually they're similar.
Apart from the fact that Insights is much easier to find and turn on, the most important difference is that Explorer links you to useful content, whereas Insights brings the content (or most of it, at least) directly into the sidebar. It's more glanceable.
We're also planning to bring some new content into Insights that isn't currently available in Explorer.
It's possible that if we bring Insights to desktop, we might deprecate Explorer so there aren't two very similar tools. If we did that, is there anything you'd especially miss or want to see copied across to Insights?
0 -
I don't really use the Explorer; just noticed the similarities
I think Insights should have at least a few key cross-references (listed out in my preferred Bible translation, not just listing the Bible references).
0 -
I prefer having control of my layout rather than having a default feature on the desktop. I don't mind its presence on the app to test its utility and maybe from there moving to mobile as it gains acceptance and proves itself useful.Mark Barnes (Logos) said:It's possible that if we bring Insights to desktop
My overall impression is, meh.
Meanwhile, Jesus kept on growing wiser and more mature, and in favor with God and his fellow man.
International Standard Version. (2011). (Lk 2:52). Yorba Linda, CA: ISV Foundation.
MacBook Pro MacOS Sequoia 15.4 1TB SSD
0 -
I like the option!
- It is optional.
- It does not take up much room.
- As small as it is, several resources can "peek out."
As I am reading Daniel 10, it has proved useful in just the first few minutes. I will use it.
How can I get the Beta version on my Mac?
0 -
Mark Barnes (Logos) said:
we might deprecate Explorer so there aren't two very similar tools.
What am I missing ... I only see one shared section
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
0 -
Beloved Amodeo said:
rather than having a default feature on the desktop
I see it as essential on the desktop as the leader is apt to be working from a laptop and needs to be able to replicate the participants' experience on mobile or phone on a screen... not a duplication but the same information in a similar format. As it is a side panel option (along with translate) I don't see it as having any impact on desktop users who don't need it.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
0 -
J. Gary Ellison said:
How can I get the Beta version on my Mac?
It's only currently available on the web app
0 -
MJ. Smith said:Paul M said:
as I mentioned here a couple of years ago, this doesn't work in the way you suggest.
I understand what you mean. Because I understand where the milestone tags are placed and what drives "current location" (which I learned recently), the linking works as I expect it to abd I didn't notice any change here ... I'll have to play around with it a bit more.
Please do share what you've learnt too!
0 -
A. Harris said:
May I ask where your quote come from?
"God will save his fallen angels and their broken wings He'll mend."
Google is your friend. Literally plug that quote (including the quotation marks) into Google and you'll have your answer.
0 -
I like it!
Have we seen features added to web first before? Besides the new search-experiment? I'd like to see Logos as a desktop or mobile first, performance on the web just isn't there (at all). Please invest most resources on the native apps, and keep the web-client as an aside. Speed is all we need.
0 -
MJ. Smith said:
What am I missing ... I only see one shared section
One shared section at the moment. If there are other useful sections in Explorer (cross-references has been mentioned a few times), we might bring those across too.
0 -
DS said:
Have we seen features added to web first before? Besides the new search-experiment? I'd like to see Logos as a desktop or mobile first, performance on the web just isn't there (at all). Please invest most resources on the native apps, and keep the web-client as an aside. Speed is all we need.
Most new features we plan to bring to all three platforms. In the past, we've started with desktop, before bringing them to the web later. At the moment, we're sometimes going to switch that order. That's because:
- We can develop faster on the web than we can on desktop, because desktop is bigger and more complex.
- We can iterate and improve much more quickly on the web app. We deploy improvements to the web app every day, but no one wants their desktop app updating every day, so on desktop, there's usually about a six-week delay between writing code and having it used by our customers.
- Users can beta test features on the web app without formally joining a beta program, or without taking risks with their main Logos install. We love our desktop beta testers, but they're not representative of our whole user base. So if we want "ordinary" users to test something for us, we need to put it on the web app.
So where we're exploring a new space, it's likely that it will come to the web app first, so you all can test it out as we're building it and let us know what you think. Your input will make a significant difference to the eventual shape of the feature (and even whether we release it at all). In the past, there have been times when we've received great feedback from desktop beta users, but it's been too late to act on, and the improvement hasn't been made.
Of course, there will be other times when improvements come to desktop or mobile first, especially when it's clear to everyone what needs to improve, and we don't need to test it.
In this new world, there may also be times when we remove beta features from the web app after testing. Once we've learned all we can, we may take the feature down to rebuild parts of it before formally re-launching it later.
0 -
Very Good!! Thanks
0 -
My take on this is that the presenter would most likely be working from an iPad or some other tablet this is why I urge that this feature be adapted for mobile devices first. Reading Mark's comments I understand that Logos is leaning towards a universal approach. I believe that the desktop is where most do their personal research and therefore this should be kept in mind when envisioning the GUI for this platform.MJ. Smith said:Beloved Amodeo said:rather than having a default feature on the desktop
I see it as essential on the desktop as the leader is apt to be working from a laptop
Edit:BTW I really appreciate this recent move towards making beta more accessible. I hope it's paying dividends in participation.
Meanwhile, Jesus kept on growing wiser and more mature, and in favor with God and his fellow man.
International Standard Version. (2011). (Lk 2:52). Yorba Linda, CA: ISV Foundation.
MacBook Pro MacOS Sequoia 15.4 1TB SSD
0 -
A. Harris said:
I’d like to be able to change
I originally missed that as well - you can already do that from the change bar on the card.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
0 -
I don’t like it. It’s something that I have to turn off every time. Takes up space.
0 -
"If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.
0 -
Thank you for the insights feature - while it's similar to linking, it makes the process seem "easier" to glance while reading. I would definitely use this feature and would ask that you add sections for cross references and Lexicon if you are considering future adaptations. I think it's worth bringing to desktop, but i'm not sure about mobile.
0 -
Hi- I'm sure it's useful but personally I'd suggest that it be truly optional. As it is, it occupies space on my reading screen every time I launch a Bible passage and it's obstructive to me. I would like to have the whole screen be for the passage, as it was, and be able to pull up these study references in my own time. It's actually getting in my way now because it takes up half the screen. I guess others would use it, I have looked at it and don't find it helpful. If it must stay, please let it just be a tab that shows up, not something that automatically loads and takes up half of what I'm trying to read. I love this app! Thanks.
0 -
I'm with J.Green- I have to turn it off every time.
0 -
Hi! It's much practice to study
0 -
I like it alot. When I need a quick insight from one of my commonly used resources, I don't have to link the resource to my Bible and have it scroll with me. It's not big, it's not in the way, and it provides quick hits from two of my most commonly used resources. Great tool. Can't wait to see it built out!
0 -
I like it! I think if we could train this to look at commentaries or other resources that we do use that would be great. Almost like a filter to say, Hey can you only show these 3 commentaries and 2 word study resources as I hover?
0 -
I didn't really know how I felt about this feature at first especially considering it cost me some screen real-estate (before I realized it can be closed out and re-expanded quite easily), however, I've found it to be more and more useful to me and I actually utilize regularly and love it now! I don't always know what resources to pull for my reading so I love the suggestions it presents to me and I appreciate the drop down menu to select other commentaries & study guides from my library if I'm not exactly happy with the ones it suggests. Although I do have my favorites, this feature has helped me discover other resources that I benefit from just as much as my favorites... if not more! It's these types of thoughtful features that keeps me as a faithful Logos subscribed customer.
My strong advice/feedback would be to keep this feature. The 'insights' tab is small enough and out of the way as to not clutter the the reading panel or desktop view at all whatsoever. Please don't kill a good and useful feature.
Thanks in advance!
0 -
I think it's a nice feature.
0 -
I don't really see the value in it. I open the resources that I want to use and this just takes up space for the resources I am using.
0 -
What would be really nice is a setting to just turn it off, rather than having to turn it off each time my page refreshes.
0 -
I love this idea! "Insight" has tremendous potential, but let's focus on its development. As a long-time user of Logos products, I believe we should avoid making it like an ordinary commentary or study bible that scrolls with your bible. Instead, let's harness the power of AI to revolutionize the experience.
Currently, with thousands of resources in our libraries, it's challenging to access and utilize all of them when preparing a message. Prioritizing resources may leave some underutilized, limiting our exploration of diverse perspectives. Here's the game-changing solution: let's power "Insight" with AI.
When working on a topic, we can input key details like the main purpose of the series and relevant scriptures and select a message category (teaching, preaching, counselling, personal devotion, etc.). "Insight" will intelligently curate the most relevant resources from our library into at least three categories: commentary, monograph, and preaching resources. By doing so, it ensures that every resource is maximized and we discover more than just what we already know.
With AI-driven curation, we'll uncover valuable insights we might have otherwise missed. This will elevate the potential of "Insight" to a whole new level. I am eager to engage in further discussions to make our beloved bible study tool even better. Let's keep and enhance "Insight" – it can be a game changer!
Feel free to contact me to explore this further. Together, we can make our bible study experience richer and more meaningful.
0 -
Good day Mark can you say on what platform the passage guide will be quicker to get new feature, like the cross reference using the treasury of scripture, biblical people and places and systematic theology, as I am limited to mobile and tablet only don’t have laptop or desktop. So can only use web app also. So we on mobile cant make use of logos like desktop. So example the systematic theology we cant make use in passage guide so I don’t see a need to get it on logos if it only works as normal reading book. So for me it’s the same to get in a physical book instead of logos.
0 -
Thank you all for your feedback on the feature so far.
Today we've added two new cards:
- New Testament Use of the Old Testament
- Parallel Passages
Both cards require a licensed dataset or resource, so if you don't have a base package, you may not see both of the cards. They look like this:
We do have plans for other types of cross-references in the future.
0 -
Mark, would it be possible to reorder the different sections through drag and drop? We want might different information up top depending on our needs at that moment.
0 -
I loved it. Please keep it.
0 -
Good day Mark will the logos 10 starter be fine for this feature as I dont see any of the cards on my side
0 -
I like the Beta Insights, I usually have the BKC open and linked when going through the Bible, and this just saves me one extra step and I can now have several commentaries tracking with me in a convenient sidebar versus a whole panel, very thoughtful. [:)]
0 -
Lukas said:
Good day Mark will the logos 10 starter be fine for this feature as I dont see any of the cards on my side
Where are you looking?
This is only currently available on the beta webapp site
0
