Practice survey with variables?
Sep 05, 2022
Hello,
I'm trying to create a survey that will present a layer depending on how the questions were answered. I've set it up so that each answer adds a numerical value to a variable, and then a button that shows the layer I want depending on the final value of the variable. However, it doesn't seem to work the way I've tried to do it. Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong? Also, I do feel like there's a better way to set the idea itself up, but I'm too new to storyline to know for sure.
In more detail:
basically, if the user selects options 1,2,1,1,2 (option 1 is top button on each slide, option 2 is the bottom button.) then the variable total by the end should be 23, which then should allow my "project manager" layer to show once the button is clicked, but it doesn't!
5 Replies
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for reaching out!
You have the default value of your variable set to 5 instead of 0, which means by the time your learners have selected the options <1,2,1,1,2>, their total at the end is 28 instead of 23.
Correct the default value of your variable to get your calculations to align correctly with the expected value. You can place variable references on your slides to help with troubleshooting:
Hope this helps!
Andrew,
Another problem with your project is that on every slide, you are adding to a variable. In general, adding to a variable is very vulnerable to incorrect totals. If the learner wants to change their mind, and returns to a previous slide to make a different (or the same choice) the new choice will be added to the total, and the final score will be inaccurate.
A far more reliable method is to keep track of all the choices, then at the end evaluate them.
But what if the learner selects 2,1,2,1,1? The total is 23. Are they still a good fit for Project Manager? So maybe just a certain total is not the best option.
See the attached sample for one way to solve these problems.
On every other slide, you ask one either/or question, and give two options. On slide three, you ask three questions, but still give only two options. Questions one and three should be moved into question two, becoming examples of aesthetically appealing slides. See "just the way you like it" on slide four for an excellent example of how to do that.
Thank you very much, this is exactly the sort of helpful advice I needed. I had a strong feeling I had been going about it the wrong way, but no idea how to do it better! One last question- is there a catchall i can do to have a layer show up when clicking a button if the variables were selected in an order I hadn't anticipated? Instead of noting all the total different combinations and stating what will happen with each of them, is it possible to have a it set so that if my other conditions weren't met, then a different layer shows up?
Hey Walt,
I'm sorry, but did you upload the original slide and not one you edited? I don't see anything different in the one you shared- slide 4 is the same. And yes, I'm aware there are definitely a number of issues, asthetic and otherwise with the slides, but that's just because it's a work in progress, and more of a proof of concept than a well thought out scene.
When you are showing different layers on a slide, all the triggers are executed. So if the value is 23, the 23 layer will show, but if the last trigger is “show error layer” (intended to show something if the value didn't fulfill any other condition), that layer will show, too. So there is no way to do a catchall with layers.
You can do it with slides. If you jump to another slide, it interrupts the execution of the trigger list. So any time no condition is met, the last trigger can jump to an error slide.
I added some variables, and most of the trigger changes are on slide 6.