Task Type: Prompt
Prompt is a Task Type that presents a single (or set of) click-through buttons (similar to a single-choice Poll). The Task can be used in a number of different ways.
A Prompt task can be used to convey a message, present a concept, or set the stage for what will follow with a single Continue button (as shown below). You can even customize the button text however you see fit. It can also display multiple buttons, each with a custom Label, Style (i.e. its color) and programmed action (e.g. Destination).
Prompt Button Setup
The default Destination for a Prompt button is to proceed to the Next Task but, similar to a Poll Task, it can be configured to:
- Go to the Next Task, Previous Task or Jump to a Task in the same Activity sequence
- Go to the Activity Response Stream
- Go to Another Activity or to a specific Discussion Topic in the Study
- Go to the Home page, Summary Tab, Activity Tab or Discussions Tab
- Go to a URL (either in a new tab or the current tab) which directs participants outside the Study (e.g. to an external website or survey)
Read our article on Linking to External Surveys to learn more about this use case.
When using multiple buttons, you may need to change the Prompt Status associated to particular buttons. The status indicates whether choosing that button marks the Task as Completed, Skipped or Incomplete.
For example, you may have a Prompt Task with Yes and No buttons that asks participants to confirm whether they have made their daily Journal entry. The Yes button would have them proceed to the next question while the No option might send them to the Journal Activity to make an entry.
In this case, you'd want the Prompt Status tied to the No option to be set to Incomplete. The participant would ideally make their Journal entry and then see the Prompt again when they return to the Activity. They would be able to respond withYes on the second time through.
When redirecting a participant outside of the current Activity, enable the Complete Activity (skip remaining) checkbox option if you do not expect the participant to return to the Activity later. This ensures the current Activity response will be deemed complete.
Advanced Options
Each Prompt button also has an Advanced Options menu so that the button can be configured to add and / or remove participants from one or more Segments.
Other Prompt Task Examples
Prompts are often used at the beginning and end of Activities to provide intro / outro messaging. For example, it is good practice at the beginning of an Activity to provide an introduction as to what the Activity will entail and whether the responses will be private or socialized.
Likewise, at the end of the Activity, a final Prompt Task can be used to request that participants review the responses contributed by others (which will appear on the following page). You might even direct them to leave a certain number of comments and / or give Like / Dislike ratings. Another common use case for a Prompt at the end of an Activity is to provide a direct link to a Discussion Topic of relevance.
For more complicated Studies, Prompt buttons can be used to implement simple skip logic. This setup is ideal when you have binary questions (e.g. yes / no), where one choice satisfies the requirements to proceed to the next Task(s), while the other skips the respondent past those irrelevant Task(s) and to the next qualifying one in the sequence.
For more information on how you can leverage the Prompt Task type within your research, make sure to check out our Spotlight: Prompt Task blog article!