"First Time Only" Checkbox(es) for Actions
June 19, 2009 12:00 AM
When I have a page that has building text on it (text that comes in with delays), I'll often put an invisible "Special Next" button over the next button so that, if the learner clicks the Next button before all of the text has appeared on the page, she gets a message letter her know that there's more to see (and is prevented from going to the next page until an action, timed to coincide with the display of the last piece of text, hides the Special Next button).
However, through all of my user testing experiences, I find that, despite providing a menu function, many, if not most, users prefer to go back page by page to review stuff and then go forward page by page to return to where they were. In that case, the Special Next functionality becomes an unfair barrier when going forward through pages they've already seen. So, to accommodate for that, I set a variable on those pages that tracks whether they've been there before, and, if so, the Special Next functionality is disabled. This works fine, but the PITA thing about it is that I have to create a unique variable for each of those pages.
It would be nice if, instead, when I created an action, I had the option to specify that I only wanted it to occur the first time the page is accessed (in other words, a behind-the-scenes, automated version of what I've been doing). I can think of lots of other uses for this besides my Special Next functionality, too. And, if Trivantis REALLY wanted to impress, it would be even better if there were two checkboxes -- one that only does the action if it's the first time the page is accessed and one that only does it if it's the first time the action is triggered. (In other words, click the button once, it does whatever; click it a second time, it doesn't.)
I know all of this can be done now by creating variables, but I'd love to have this be a more automated thing. Anyone else agree?
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