Avoiding Duplication Whilst Maintaining Performance and Accessibility
Jan 10, 2019
Hi all,
I am in the process of creating a copyright decision tree tool in Storyline that allows each user to check whether it's safe to use the resource they have without breaching copyright law.
An example of how this works is as follows:
- User selects Image from a range of possible resources.
- They're then asked if they created it (Yes or No).
- If user selects No, they're taken to a page asking them where they got it from.
- If user selects Google Images for instance, they're asked if the image was labelled for reuse e.g. under a Creative Commons license.
- The user is asked how they intend on using the image and whether access is open or closed.
- Eventually the user is presented with a decision as to whether it's safe to use the image or not.
For this resource the users often end up on the same slide, but the content that is presented to them changes based upon previous choices they've made. This is achieved using a combination of triggers, variables and slide layers.
For example, I have a slide that asks 'where did you get resource from' and if the users resource is an image it would show a layer containing choices such as Google images, a Library book, etc… Whereas if the users' resource is an image it would take them to the same 'Where did you get it' slide, but this time show a layer of choices for video e.g. YouTube, a DVD, etc…
In this process I've discovered that having lots of layers on one slide causes problems when trying to set the Tab Order. I can't control the slide order for each layer, just the whole slide. I'm trying to make the project as accessible as possible.
To get around this issues I can change the project to have a separate slide for every variation of content that needs to be presented to the user, but this would result in a much larger resource that I feel may be unnecessary. If possible I'd like to make use of layers and variables to store reusable content and keep the project as lightweight as possible.
Also, I currently have all of this content contained within one Scene. Would making use of Scenes offer any advantages in terms of speed, accessibility or user experience?
Can anyone offer any advice?
I'm not sure if this makes sense, so I can provide a link to the resource if it helps.
3 Replies
Hi Claire,
Sounds like a neat course you're setting up - I love how it walks your learners through all the different options!
Setting this up as layers sounds like the right (or easiest) design to me, as you could control what layer is shown through variables as you mentioned. If accessibility and Tab order within those layers is crucial for you, it does present a bit more work. Luckily, all objects for the slide will appear in the Tab Order window, including objects from layers. The objects on layers should be at the top of the Tab Order list. Once a tab is open, the tab order should allow you to cycle through those layer elements too.
If you were to split each area out into their own scene that would allow you to branch according to what the learner chooses. Here are some examples to help you see what that could look like:
If you're stuck at any point, sharing a copy of your .story file or even a link to the resource would help others in the community take a look under the hood and offer their expertise. You can share it publicly here, or send it to our team privately by uploading it here. We'll delete it when done troubleshooting.
Let me know if you need anything else!
Hi Ashley,
Thank you for your response. The branching examples are useful, but looking at those projects I'm not sure whether branching would actually help in my case as there's a lot of overlap in the pathways through this resource.
The key part of this resource is to be able to customise the content shown on a given slide based upon the users' previous choices. So a user who has chosen Image may follow the same pathway through the project as a user who's selected Video, but the content displayed on certain slides may be a little different.
I've realised through experimentation that Storyline offers various ways of showing/hiding content that is related.
You can:
Based upon the choices listed above, is there any recommendations as to the best approach to take? Option 2 (layers) is what I'm doing now, but it just comes with the issue of Tab Order. Would one of the other options offer a better workflow in this scenario?
For ease, I've attached the the .story file if it helps? Note - this is still a work in progress so not everything is working as it should.
Thanks
Hi Claire!
Tell me more about the issues you're having with Tab Order. You can add or remove items from the tab order list, and you should only be able to tab the items from the displayed layer.
I agree that using layers is likely the most "lightweight" method for designing this kind of interaction, so I think you're off to a really strong start.
If you get to a point where layers are no longer an option, I'd say your best bet would be to create separate slides for each scenario. That will mean you'll have to manage more slides from the back end, but learners won't see a slowdown in performance.
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