How can I prevent a lightbox from appearing when the slider bar is moved?

May 13, 2019

By Kevin Pearce

Here's the situation:

Users select a topic, audio plays with text and graphics on a screen.
When the audio file ends, a video plays.
When the user closes the video, the timeline resumes.

Here are the details:

There are 3 audio files in the timeline and 2 lightbox videos.

Here are the stakeholders' expectations:

Users have pacing and sequence control over the course, meaning that the base layer and the lightbox each have slider bars.
The slider bar for the video must be independent of the base layer slider bar; this is preventing us from showing the videos as slide layers, as the expectation is that the user cannot slide through the base layer audio while the video is playing.
Our UX specialist wants the lightbox videos to autoplay, since the user has already engaged in multiple clicks to get to this content and the videos are not optional.

Here's the issue:

We do not want the lightboxes to appear just because the user scrubs the slider bar on the base layer past the point where the lightbox is otherwise triggered to play.

Here's the question:

Is it possible to prevent the lightbox from appearing simply by the user scrubbing the slider bar along the timeline?

I can share the .story file if needed, but it's a bit large. It also contains some media that has not yet been cleared by content licensing, so I am hesitant to put this out there publicly, but I can share privately if that's a possibility.

I've been struggling with this problem for weeks, now, so I will be a very happy person if there is a solution to this that meets all the stakeholder requirements.

Thanks!

5 Replies

Crystal Horn
Staff

almost 5 years ago05/14/19 at 3:14 pm (UTC)

Hi there, Kevin! Would the conditional seekbar work for you? It prevents learners from using the seekbar to scrub ahead the first time through a slide. Once the timeline is completed, learners can scrub the seekbar to review the slide content.

Kevin Pearce
Author

almost 5 years ago05/14/19 at 5:24 pm (UTC)

Hi Crystal. Thanks for your response. Unfortunately, I don't believe the conditional seekbar will solve the issue, primarily because the issue is that if the user allows the slide to play through, but decides to scrub back to the beginning to hear the audio again, one of the two videos still pops up unexpectedly and plays concurrently with the audio.

As it exists, the first audio file plays, and the first video lightbox is triggered by the completion of that first audio file. Then, when the user closes the lightbox, the timeline resumes and the second audio file plays; when it ends, the second video lightbox is triggered, etc.

Because the timeline isn't technically paused when the audio file ends, the user is able to scrub to a point where the audio and video are playing simultaneously. We're hoping to prevent this from happening.

Our first attempt to trigger the timeline to pause when an audio file completed didn't work because closing the lightbox didn't resume the timeline, forcing the user to first close the lightbox, then click Play again.

If there is a way to "trick" the lightbox Close button to resume the timeline, that would work, too, but I don't believe that's an option.

Also, I am working in Storyline 3, so some of the 360 features are not available to me.

almost 5 years ago05/15/19 at 5:13 pm (UTC)

Thanks for clarifying, Kevin. It sounds like you are likely hitting a limitation in your compromise between learner control and slide timing. To be sure, you can share your file privately with us for a look! We'll delete it when we're done troubleshooting.

Kevin Pearce
Author

almost 5 years ago05/15/19 at 7:25 pm (UTC)

Thanks again Crystal. I've submitted a case and will keep my fingers crossed. I anticipate that what I'm asking for may be beyond Storyline's current capabilities, but perhaps there is a method for us to trick it into doing what I'm asking.

almost 5 years ago05/16/19 at 5:05 pm (UTC)

Awesome - I see Pete is testing your file. You're in good hands!

How can I prevent a lightbox from appearing when the slider bar is moved?

5 Replies

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