1.a. Block types
Blocks can be of 3 types: talk, question and answer. Below, a detailed explanation of the different blocks.
This block type is used to create messages that do not require an answer from the user. The conversation flow will proceed without waiting for user input. The message can be a free text, an URL or an image. For each content type there is a different block:
- Talk [text]. Only text message
- Talk [imageUrl]. Image or GIF specified by an URL
- Talk [link]. External link with a custom displayed text
This block type is used to ask questions to users. The conversation flow will stop and wait for the user to select an answer. Question can be formulated only as a textual message and the text can be specified in the form highlighted in orange in the following figure. This block can be used to define all types of questions, from open-ended and multiple choice to checkboxes.
Each question can be tagged with a custom label by clicking on the “TAG” button. Tags are not unique and the same tag can be used on multiple questions and on multiple surveys. Survey designer can use tags already defined (see the list of available tags highlighted in green) or can create new tags. Tag will be not displayed in the chat administered to users, but they will be attached to the data collected and exported for subsequent analysis of results.
This block type is used to create the options presented to the user as possible answer. There are three types of answers block, one for each type of question (open-ended, multiple choice or checkbox).
In case you want to gamify your conversation/survey, it is possible to assign points to the answers by modifying the value in the "PT:" field of the answer block. In this way it is possible to count the points that each respondents collect with the answers given.
Hereafter the detail explanation of each answer block type:
- Answer[open]. This block is used for open-ended questions. When you connect this block type to a question, a selector will appear on the question block. The selector allows you to specify the expected input type among a text, a number, a date, a time or a URL. The figure below shows how an open ended question will appear on the chat. The user has the possibility to skip the filling of the open answer.
-
Answer [multiple]. This block is used for multiple choice question. Each block represents one of the multiple options among which the user can choose one. Options can be visualized in five different ways (star rating, emoji, slide, options and select) and the visualization type can be set in the selector in the question block (see the figure below).
As regards the value of the option, you can define both a numerical value (circled in orange) and a textual label (circled in yellow). For some visualisation types the textual label is mandatory (options and select), for other it is recommended in order to have a better user experience (slider and emoji). The numeric value associated with the question is not visible in the chat, but it will be attached in the exported results for the analysis.
Each visualization type allows a different maximum number of options. The list of all the visualisation types is reported in the following table.
|
Viz. type |
Max options |
Textual label mandatory |
Preview |
|
Star rating |
10 |
No. The textual label is never displayed in the chat. |
 |
|
Emoji |
5 |
No, but nothing will be displayed above the emoji after having clicked on it
|
|
|
Slide |
9 |
No, but at the endpoints of the slider the default label (MIN, MAX) will be displayed |
 |
|
Options |
6 |
Yes |
 |
|
Select |
25 |
Yes |
|
The Options and Select visualization types are more or less the same. Choose the Select in case you have more than 6 options to display.
The visualization order of the options can be set in the “order” field of each answer block (circled in red in figure below). Values start from 1 and the smallest number will be displayed in the top of the list (option, select) or on the left side (slide, star, emoji). The following figure shows an example of a multiple question with 3 options (in the editor interface on the left side and in the chat interface on the right side).
- Answer [checkbox]. This block can be used for checkboxes questions, in which more than one option can be selected at the same time. All the options (max 10) must be specified inside one answer block. By clicking on the flag “add none of the above” an additional option with value “none of the above” will be added to the list. The same numerical value can be associated to all the options, except for the “none of the above” option for which a custom value can be specified. After a checkbox the conversation flow can go only in one direction and branches cannot be defined.
