Past Learnings Reap Future Reward
Initializing record search… point allocation.
Record found.
Point Allocation. A list question type used to determine where and how an audience would allocate time, money, or points for a specific purpose.
End record.
Okay, well that seems straightforward enough. Like keeping score in a video game. Or a sportballs event. Or the spinning wheel on the Price is Right.
Best Practices for Point Allocation
We’ve pulled a few tips and tricks for Point Allocation from the computer-library.
- Assess quantitative value or time. Understand how an audience perceives how much something might cost. Or how much time would be spent completing a task.
- Limit your categories. Don’t kill people with too many choices! 7 items is the most you’ll need. Any more than that is overkill.
- Keep items categorized. Similarity in items can skew results. So keep ’em different. Say you want to know how much one would spend on a Transformer verses a Go-Bot. Or jeans versus trousers. Well, those two are very similar, so any data you get might not be as useful.
Point Allocation in the Helio-verse
So enough with definitions and best practices. Let’s get to why we’ve beamed you here.
Point Allocation is now part of the expanding Helio-verse. Everything we learned in constructing the very fabric of Helio came into play adding this list question type.
Those learnings pointed us in the right direction. Get it… “pointed” us.
Stepper, Input, or Slider?
For our first iteration of Point Allocation, we went with a simple number input paired with a stepper. This allowed us to use what we learned from Ranking and release faster. Nevertheless, a slider is still on the table for improving the take flow in the future.
Pluralizing Custom Labels
We originally designed some areas of Point Allocation with natural language. However, we couldn’t guarantee correctly singularize or pluralize when “1” item remained. A simple solution of changing “1 dollars available” to “Dollars: 1 available” made it clear and flexible for any custom label.
Iconic Iterations
A fun decision we made was to use iconography to describe Point Allocation. To do this, we created several iterations of an icon. We ultimately landed on the square with the “1pt pixel” shaded corner, seen below.
More Visible Data
Point Allocation provides a lot of different insights from a wide range of data points. Mo’ insights, no problem! We showcased this with a bar chart along with a table breakdown below it: “total, mean, minimum, maximum, standard, deviation, and count”. To switch between them, we added a dropdown menu.
Leaving Out Branching
We felt branching in Point Allocation would add a complicated and cumbersome barrier for test creators and doesn’t align with Helio’s values of being able to create tests quickly. In any case, we’re still chatting with customers on any potential future updates.
So there you have it, Point Allocation in the Helio-verse.
Now you can point yourself and your audience into different and interesting directions. Okay, that was one too many point puns. Mea culpa.
Teleport over to Helio and engage Point Allocation for yourself.
