Simulation issue? Triggers perhaps? Storyline 2
Aug 04, 2015
Before I even get started, our company works in a very, VERY dated system!
I am working on a series of simulations on our system for our agents to be able to practice and learn how to complete transactions without having to touch live accounts.
In theory, creating these simulations seems ideal; however... our system is in blue screens that does not use the mouse at all. We navigate through with function keys... (Yes, those keys you probably though no one ever uses... we do.) And the fact that we use the F-keys has really made creating simulations for our agents very challenging.
So I think I found a way to kinda make this work - a virtual keyboard. Lots of triggers and creative ways to explain that the learner must use the virtual keyboard for F-key requests and the physical keyboard for all others.
Due to confidentiality, I can only share a small portion of the training. The names within this portion are not real. The notes are the script I will be recording at a later time that direct you through the guided portion of the simulation.
As you go through, there are some issues:
- Focus within the player seems to shift when pressing the arrow keys. I have checked the triggers and they seem like they are set correctly, but the focus shifts away. For example, you press the down arrow to go to the next slide, then arrow on the next slide and nothing happens when it should.
- The number keys are not working consistently. I have a trigger for the number 2 from the number pad and another from the number line above the main keyboard, but again, it's like it loses focus or doesn't recognize the keystroke. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
- I have triggers to use the keystroke of the Enter Key to move to the next slide and sometimes this is working, sometimes it is not.
If you are able to share any ideas of what might be happening or how to "fix" this (or me!) please help.
4 Replies
Hi Brandon,
A couple of months ago I was in the same boat. Making training for old mainframe software from the 70's that connected through telnet and requires the user to navigate using the TAB key. Clicking in the system would mess it up, so it was important that we didn't teach the learners to do that. The biggest issue as you've mentioned was that focus was not consistent and it was next to impossible to make sure it worked 100% of the time.
I discovered a workaround later that isn't very practical. If you have a javascript trigger throw an alert() function, then when the user closes the popup the focus will be where it needs to be and they can use the key press triggers (as long as they dont click outside of the player).
Another option is to have the user manually click inside the player every time you need they to use the key press trigger, but again thats not very practical in our situation with the old software you cant click around in.
Basically I had to give them a full virtual keyboard to use and that was the best I could do. Since focus can be thrown off with something as simple and pressing the NEXT button, there was no good way to make sure the learner didn't get stuck in the course because triggers wouldn't fire. so maybe you could consider expanding your virtual keyboard to include all the keys you want them to use?
If somebody can come up with an idea to make sure it consistently works I would be their biggest fan, its very annoying that we cant control the focus and that triggers can be broken so easily if the learner accidentally clicks outside of the player.
Thank you Jackson! I am glad to see that I am not the only one in this boat. Based on this, I think using a virtual keyboard is the best solution. I have created a keyboard with the triggers for rollover.
This is just in a layer and within the layer, I just have one trigger so it's not too bad to setup, just a little klunky for the user.
I'm glad you got a solution in place :)
The virtual keyboard can be klunky, i know mine is at least, but its a solid workaround for the focus issue. You don't reinforce bad behavior (clicking on screen) with it and its fairly non-obtrusive.
Thanks for sharing the solution you discovered, Brandon! :)
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