LifeGuide: Experiences of a new user Leanne Morrison lm904@soton.ac.uk 07 July 2010

What is it like to use LifeGuide? Creating the pages… Just like MS word and powerpoint Writing the logic… Is like writing a story Tells the website or intervention exactly what you want it to do at each stage

What can you create using LifeGuide? Tell users if they’ve made a mistake Ask users questions Insert links

What can you create using LifeGuide? Insert images Set page backgrounds

What can you create using LifeGuide? Setting variables – present user with their selections from a previous page Insert Buttons

Logic: A simple example begin dietsection show p5adietintro show p5dbalanceddiet show p5eavoidfood show p5fdietroutine end Simple commands – “show” is like telling the website to turn a page Create sections – just like chapter headings in a book or piece of writing Emphasise that all writing in black text is created by you – logic may look complicated to someone who is unfamiliar to the intervention, but if you have created the intervention and named all the pages and items on a page yourself – this will make perfect sense. All coloured text represent pre-set functions that tell the intervention or website what you want it to do – much like the statistic/numeric functions in programs like excel The start of every logic command begins with a page name

Logic: A more complex example show p1habits if (p1habits.q1 = “yes”) set habit1 to 2 if (p1habits.q1 = “maybe”) set habit1 to 1 if (p1habits.q1 = “no”) set habit1 to 0 … set habitscore to (sum(habit1, habit2, habit3, habit4)) show p2habitfeedback1 if (habitscore >= 5) show p2habitfeedback2 if (habitscore >=10) Possible answers to the questions on a page “set” function allows you to allocate your user a score based on their answers to a quiz Tailoring and setting scores Items on a page e.g. quizzes or questions for the user to answer “if” functions are like directions – think about “choose your own adventure” story books Numeric functions – just like Microsoft Office Excel

What’s it really like to use LifeGuide Frustrating, at times Time consuming BUT… Excellent support available LifeGuide team, LifeGuide Community Website (www.lifeguideonline.org), Researcher help manual LifeGuide gives you greater control over your intervention

Top Tips for using LifeGuide Plan ahead (e.g. order of pages, location of images etc…) Keep records (e.g. page names, solved errors…) Develop consistent labels (makes the logic a little easier) Write logic as you go (this will keep it fresh in your mind) Break the logic down into small steps User testing