Forum Discussion
Drag-and-drop interaction with active drop zone that is not evaluated
Hello everyone,
I’m currently working on a drag-and-drop interaction in Articulate Storyline.
I have two visible drop zones on screen:
- On the left, a drop zone to determine whether the situation is a request or a complaint — in my example, the correct answer is “Request”. This is the only zone that should be evaluated.
- On the right, a drop zone labeled “Complaint profile”, where the learner can drop items like Standard, Sensitive, or Cross-functional. This zone is only meant to support reflection or illustration, and should not be taken into account in the evaluation.
The issue:
If I don’t associate any items to the right-side zone in the Form View, Storyline doesn’t allow anything to be dropped there.
But if I do associate items, Storyline includes them in the evaluation — which is not what I want.
So I’m looking for a simple solution that would allow:
✅ the items to be visually dragged and dropped into the right-side zone
❌ but without being counted in the question’s evaluation
I’ve attached a screenshot and my .story file so you can see exactly how the interaction is set up.
Thanks in advance for your help 🙏
5 Replies
Hello FrançoisMichot,
Thanks for sharing your file with us! I was able to adjust this with a few quick changes in Storyline.
1. Modify the Drop Target
You can make an object draggable even if it isn't part of the correct response (i.e., a decoy drag item). Just select that object in the Drag Item column, then select None in the Drop Target column.
2. Update Drag & Drop options
In the Drag & Drop Options window, remove the checkmarks for:
- Return item to start point if dropped outside
- Snap dropped items to drop target
I'll attach the updated .story project file for your reference.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Many thanks LucianaPiazza for your response and for the work you did on the file.
I had something like this in mind, but there’s still one detail that’s bothering me:
the fact that the snap-to alignment (magnetism) for the drop zones is no longer active.No idea?
Hi FrançoisMichot!
Great to see Luciana has been helping you. Happy to jump in here!
Unfortunately, setting the Drop Target column lines to 'None' prevents the 'Snap to center' setting from functioning. This is the expected behavior for Storyline, as Drop Targets must be set for Drag-and-Drop options to apply to an object.
I do understand this limitation prevents you from implementing the partial scoring type of design you were after. I've shared this feedback with our product team! We'll be sure to notify you if we release a feature enhancement that helps.
As a workaround, I suggest splitting the interaction into two separate slides, then omitting one from the Results Slide. This will exclude it from being counted towards a learners final score. I'll also open the floor to our talented community who may be able to share more custom design suggestions with you!
FrançoisMichot : Steven's suggestion to split this into 2 slides would definitely work.
Other options:
Keep the drag-and-drop for the scored question, and use a separate button set for the reflective responses.
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The reflective questions could be on the base, on both the Correct & Incorrect layers, or on a separate layer.
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If they're on their own layer, have the Continue button on the Correct and Incorrect layers show the reflective-question layer. Then have a button on that layer with triggers that hide the layer and jump to the next slide (in other words, it would have the triggers from the standard Continue button).
or
Drag-and-drop isn't accessible, so don't use that at all. Instead, use a Pick One. Demande and Reclamation would be the only two responses involved in grading. The reflective responses would be in a separate button set that isn't scored.
- You could still require the user to click one of those options. To do that, edit the Submit__ trigger so it submits the interaction with added conditions that all of those reflective-response buttons ≠ (don't equal) Selected. Also add an Else statement that shows a warning message about needing to select one of the reflective-question options.
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