Containers

Containers are useful when delivering tailored messages to end-users. They allow you to organise numerous objects together to ensure that the length of a page is only as long as the feedback you need to give to the end-user.

Any type of textbox can go into a container, but if you are using a container to provide tailored messages you will need to use feedback boxes.

Giving tailored feedback: the example of the Internet Doctor

The Internet Doctor is an intervention which is aimed at helping people to manage their cold and flu symptoms. End-users can select if they want to check their sore throat, runny/stuffy nose, cough or fever symptoms. For each symptom the end-user is asked a series of ‘doctor’s questions’ that asks symptom severity, duration of symptoms and any other health factors that may impact on symptoms. They are then provided with tailored feedback based on their responses to their symptoms.

Example 1 below illustrates the tailored advice given to an end-user who has a high fever and has recently been travelling to a country where they may have picked up an infection. We can see in this example that this feedback is relevant to the person’s situation. This is because feedback boxes, containers and logic have been used to ensure that this end user receives the right information. In example 2 we can see what this page looks like in the authoring tool.

EXAMPLE 1

EXAMPLE 2

In example 2, each bullet pointed message is a separate feedback textbox with its own unique name. The logic for this example was written to show the feedback boxes to the end-user only if they have selected the interaction variable that corresponds with the message.

The separate feedback boxes have been put inside a container so that the relevant boxes are shown without leaving spaces where the redundant feedback boxes would be.

A demo version of the internet doctor intervention is available on the LifeGuide community site.