Branching and custom menus

May 17, 2016

Hello heroes,

I have a course for learners to get started with our app. At the beginning, learners indicate whether they will be using the app on a personal device or on a device that they share with others e.g. nurses at a hospital who are on different shifts share a device. Based on their choice, they will see different content.

I created a variable that changed to TRUE when learners indicated they'd be using a shared device. Then, I created a custom Personal Device menu slide in its own scene and a custom Shared Device menu slide in it's own scene. I also created a MENU button on the slide master.

The idea is that if it's TRUE that they are using a shared device, then they would click the MENU button and it would show them the Shared Device menu as a lightbox slide, and if it's FALSE, they would see the Personal Device menu.

Well...apparently that functionality is not there, unless I missed something. Any ideas? What ways would you suggest for handling branching and also giving them access to a menu (the default menu would show everything, as you probably know)?

thanks,

Ed

7 Replies
David Jordan

You would have to create the T/F variable (in my example: "SharedUser"), then create two triggers for your menu button ("MenuButton"). Like the ones below:

edit: I just reread and saw you wanted a lightbox slide, this trigger works for that as well. Just use "show lightbox slide" instead of "Jump to scene"

Edward Crane

Hi folks,

To follow up on this, I have been asked to set up the lightbox slide so that when you click MENU to bring up the lightbox slide with the menu entries on it, you will also see an indication of what slide you were on when you clicked the MENU button. 

Because the MENU button is on the Master Slide, not sure how to make this work, if possible. I would have to add a variable to each slide the turns "TRUE" up entering the slide and "FALSE" upon exiting?

So for example, in Scene 1 you choose either personal device (PD) or shared device (SD) on slide 1.3. If you choose SD, the SD variable is "TRUE," so that subsequently, when you are on the slide 16 entitled "What is Vocera Collaboration Suite?" and click the MENU button, the SD Menu will come up and would also indicate (via a shape, for example) that you are currently on the "What is Vocera Collaboration Suite?" slide. I've attached the file if it makes it easier. 

Greg Damron

Hi Edward,
There may be an easier way to handle tracking the active slide to indicate for the learner where they are in the course. Instead of using a separate variable for each slide, you may be able to use a single variable with a trigger on each slide to set/reset its value to the current slide being viewed. Based on this value, you can then change the state of the appropriate menu button to display in a different color when the menu screen loads.


Depending on your project requirements, here’s also a few more suggestions that you may find helpful:
- If you need to have the transcript panel available, but don’t need to display it 100% of the time, you can change the player settings to have it displayed alongside the resources tab at the top right corner of the player (so the transcript only displays if the learner accesses it).

transcript option shown on top right of player

If you are able to do this, when your lightbox displays it will be able to center directly over the slide itself instead of over the combined larger area of the slide and left panel. This can help with keeping the menu feeling more in context by being directly over what the was just viewed.

 

- As way of handling the lightbox and menu display a little differently, you might consider placing the two menu slides as layers stored on your master slide and creating somewhat of a custom lightbox effect. This will give more flexibility on where the menu displays and will also keep the menu button and menu slides (now layers) all together on the master slide. As a bonus, having everything on the master slide will also make it very easy to re-purpose your menu system to use for other courses or similar projects.


I’ve made a few tweaks to your sample file to show how this could be done (SD device menu only and a few slide triggers). Here’s also a look at what this might look like with the transcript moved to the top of the player and the more custom lightbox display in place (the lightbox effect is adjusted to be much lighter, so the contents/context of the slide are more easily seen in the background).

sample screenshot

There are also a few more ideas in this thread https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/drop-down-menu-storyline if you may want to include more variables to track slides once completed and progress through the module.

Best of luck in your project!

 

Edward Crane

Greg -- thanks much! I had actually designed it exactly as you have with regards to the the Transcript menu, but then was asked by a stakeholder if the transcript could appear "outside the window" so I changed it in order to show what that would look like. 

I like the solution of having the menus as layers. Thanks again! I will check out the other thread as well.

Greg Damron

Hi Edward,
Great, glad you found it useful! I’d thought perhaps your project requirements might include a few stakeholder requests.
I was working pretty quickly over the weekend and in hindsight would have named the variable varActiveSlide, showing the connection to the ‘Active Slide’ state name for the menu items (similar name, but also easier to tell them apart when looking at triggers). From what you had described you would like to do, I thought keeping it to one variable that had its value set/reset at each slide load would be easiest way to go.
For the varActiveSlide value that updates with each slide load, you could also consider something like M1.1, M1.2, M1.3, M2.1, M2.2, M2.3…, as a numbering/naming system to match the slide and menu system up (and then name each menu object on the master slide in a similar way). This may be of help if you re-purpose the menu system later or add more slides to your project.

 

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