Get Data From Viewers Using Input Dialogs

You don't always know everything you want to know about your customers. Sometimes the very reason for communicating with them is to collect data. Other times, you just need to fill in one last detail in order to move them along to the next stage of their customer life cycle.

Collecting data inside a video is beneficial as you are both collecting and delivering information in the same place, making sure you are not losing your cutomer's attention. Moreover, it is simply a more enjoyable method than a simple text form.

Here are a few example use cases:

• Ask the user a question, then depending on the answer, show them different parts of the video.
• Collect data from the user, then send that data to your servers using an API call.
• Let the user answer some questions, then generate and load a new video based on those answers.

Using a Dialog with Player Actions

Once you have a dialog (and we'll get to how you go about this below) you can load it using player actions or interactive placeholders. With both options simply choose the Show Dialog option and choose the dialog name you want to show.

Finally, you have a choice if to let the user close the dialog themselves, or to close the dialog automatically after a certain amount of seconds.

Build a Dialog With Dialog Creator

Dialog Creator allows you to build an input dialog interface that loads during video playback.

Let's look at an example dialog that collects some information for a loan. This is what the dialog looks like once we're done configuring it:

You can see here, the dialog's title, the question labels, some pre-filled data, and a submit button. All of these are defined in Dialog Creator.

To load Dialog Creator, while editing a storyboard in the storybuilder, click the three dot menu at the top right of the interfae then click Dialog Creator.

Now that Dialog Creator is open, let's go over the interface. I'll start at the top left of the interface.

1. The first step is to give the dialog a name, so you can choose it later (as you did above). You do that by using the Dialog Name field.
   For our example I call the dialog "Loan Details".
2. Next, give the dialog a title that appears at the top of the window when presented to the viewer.
   In this case let's use the title: What Loan Would You Need?
3. Finally, to close the dialog, the viewer clicks a button. By default that button reads Done, however, you can change that.
   In our case I change it to Submit.

Now that you've setup the panel itself, it is time to collect some data.

Every question you ask leads to an answer, which feeds into a parameter. These are special parameters called a Player Parameter. They can only be used during the viewing session and drive interactive events during that session, such as jumping to a different point in the video or triggering an event on the page.

The first question I want to ask the viewer is how much the loan amount is for. To setup a question and parameter, follow these steps:

1. Click "+Add Parameter to Dialog", at the bottom left of the Dialog Creator interface.
   

You are now presented with this interface:

2. The first step is to choose or create a parameter that holds the data entered by the viewer. Under the Name property, choose or create a parameter from the drop down menu. I create a parameter called "amount".
3. To use a default value if the viewer isn't using anything, enter a value in the Default Value text field next. This is optional. In this use case, I enter 0, to indicate that if the viewer left this empty, they are probably not interested in a loan at all.
4. The Initial Value to Displayproperty let's you show a prompt for the user. Maybe it's the beginning of their account number, or an example of what the data you are looking for looks like. You can also connect this to a data point you already have, which is the case in our example.
   1. In this loan example, the viewer received this video because they indicated they want to take a loan, and we already have the loan amount. In this question we are confirming the amount, and we can start by displaying the amount we already have.
   2. Click "+ADD PARAMETER". From the drop-down menu click Create New. I name the parameter "initial amount", and I click OK.
   3. Note that this initial amount has to be sent with the data that generates the video.
5. The next field, Mandatory, is there to indicate if the viewer has to fill in an answer in order to continue.

This ends the parameter section. Now comes the viewer input section where you define what the viewer sees.

1. The Label field is where you write the question you are asking. In this case the question is: "How much would you like to borrow?"
2. Type and Display options are currently locked into free text input. No changes needed here.
3. Input validation allows to validate that the user inputs values that can be used in the next steps. For example, here we need a number, if the user inputs their name, that won't be userful, so we use the validation option "number".

I just finished setting up the first parameter and question. To add another parameter I click + Add Additional Parameter at the bottom left of the panel.

In the next question I set up a parameter called "duration", with the qeustion "And for how many months?"

My dialog is now ready and I can use a player action or a placeholder to bring this dialog up.

Managing Multiple Dialogs and Parameters

On the right hand side of the interface is the list of dialogs and parameters you created.

Using this list you can:

• Create another dialog.
• Delete a dialog
• Delete an input parameter.
• Change the order of the input parameters.
• Duplicate an input parameter.

In the next article I describe where the data collected sits and how you can use it with rules or with other player actions.