Recent updates: Config menu redesign

What's new?

As the result of some feedback sessions organized to test the usability of our Cloud (want to be involved? drop us an email at info@ignitenet.com!), we received valuable intel that it wasn't exactly clear to the participating users that they could change settings on multiple config pages without having to save and apply on each page as well.

And depending on the particular config page, it's possible that the action of saving and applying config changes can cause the networking services on your devices to restart, resulting in an interruption in service.

This is something you definitely don't want happening more than once during the initial configuration process.

Another aspect of the configuration system that wasn't too clear to our participants was the relationship between the settings on the 'Express Setup' site-level config page (shown in Item 1. below) and the settings on the rest of the config pages (shown in Item 2. below).

In response to this feedback, we've pretty drastically changed the navigation model for the config menu and settings pages. Let's take a look at what's different...

• Simplified menu options:

Here's the new site-level configuration sub-menu. There are now only two options, instead of listing out each config page. The device-level menu no longer has a sub-menu at all.

• Easier to understand Express Setup:

The Express Setup option exists to greatly simplify the initial setup process for users who don't care so much about the technical details of wifi and network management. As it turns out, we may have oversimplified this process a bit. We hid too much of what was going on behind the scenes from the user.

This was a mistake, as we were constantly bombarded with questions like:

• What does 'Guest Network' really mean?
• Do I need a DHCP server?
• Is this Wireless Network bridged or routed?

• New design for the advanced config pages:

The config page options now have their own tabs, so it's more obvious that you can switch between them, without having to save your changes in between.

We also modernized the design a bit in the process.

What's next?

• We plan on releasing the next firmware version (1.1.2) for our standard wifi products early this March. We'll include a full change log at release, but you can expect some new features, bug fixes, and a major UI re-design.

• We're currently in the QA phase of testing the next big thing for the cloud: the Ignite Add-on Marketplace! What does this mean? You'll just have to wait and see!