states and objects
Aug 05, 2021
By
Iffaf Khan
Hello.
I've been trying to follow @TomKuhlmann's advice by working on states rather than layers to reveal information.
I've got myself in a little pickle though and would appreciate some advice on what to do with my red circles that are not part of the 'change state by clicking on hotspot.'
A user will click on a circle (with a hotspot in it) to change state and learn more. That circle itself will change its state to hidden too.
The problem is the other red circles and how complicated it's going to get with my triggers.
I have attached the slide so that you can see what I mean. Please click on any red circle and you'll see my other red circles. How do I also hide the other red circles when the state changes?
I'm 'triggered out.'
3 Replies
Hi, Faffie,
While @TomKuhlmann offers wonderful advice, not every trick is useful in every situation.
I found it distracting and hard to follow when the program jumped to the closeups of the screenshot in different states. That also ends up hiding parts of the screenshot that would otherwise be clickable.
So, in this instance, I think it'd be better to transition to layers to reveal the additional content. (You could even play around with using zoom regions, to make it appear that the user is zooming in on a given area. There's more info about that here: https://community.articulate.com/series/articulate-storyline-360/articles/articulate-storyline-360-user-guide-how-to-add-zoom-regions.)
Also, it's needless extra work to use a hotspot and then outline it with a shape. Instead, just use the shape. Give it a solid fill that is 100% transparent. That will make the entire shape clickable. Another advantage to that method: you can add states to shapes. So, for example, you could give your circles Visited states, which would allow you to track whether the user has clicked the shape or not.
Dear Judy,
Thank you for the advice (and for giving me an opportunity to see your lovely hat. :-)).
Hi Faffie - I'm never one to question Mr. Kuhlmann. Not in public, at least. After all, I do report directly to him:-)
Generally, we recommend states to change how an object looks and layers to show more information or additional content.
So in your example, layers are the way to go.
Echoing Judy's comments, I think there's a need to guide or transition learners from the big-picture view of the screenshot to each of the close-up screens.
One way I like to achieve that effect is with interactive screenshots. For example, here's a quick demo: Interactive Screenshots and the source file if you want.
A quick fix for your example might be to reduce the size of the close-up view and add a background shape with some transparency so the learner can still view the original screenshot below.