Home Sweet Home

Last year, the new Home tab in Recollective took over for the "Study Overview". The Home page features a modular layout made up of "cards" that provide tremendous freedom to personalize the page. In the recent December 2016 update to Recollective, we made the Home page much more sweet with a trio of dynamic cards: Activities Card, Discussions Card, and People Card.

Last year, the new Home tab in Recollective took over for the "Study Overview". Both were focused on welcoming new participants to your study and guiding them to their first or next activity. The Home page became the preferred solution as it can incorporate more information while being far more flexible. The Home page features a modular layout made up of "cards" that provide tremendous freedom to personalize the page. In the recent December 2016 update to Recollective, we made the Home page much more sweet with a trio of dynamic cards:

  • Activities Card
  • Discussions Card
  • People Card

We also introduced a new default home page template, and the ability to copy and paste cards in the same study or across studies.

Home Page Template

Every new study now starts with a default arrangement of cards on the Home tab. It saves moderators time by suggesting a best practice for home page usage. This template is made possible by the new card types introduced in the last release, each of which are discussed in greater detail below. After creating a study it typically has no activities, discussions or active participants. The template therefore works to provide a rough preview of its layout:

Once the study is populated with people and content, the same template comes to life:

  • The Activities card will show the first or next activity to complete for the individual participant viewing the page.
  • A People card adds a welcome message that is easy to personalize. It can feature one or more study administrators.
  • A Discussions card highlights both new and recently updated topics to ensure they become or remain vibrant conversations.
  • Finally, a second People card serves to highlight participants that have been returning to the study which reinforce a sense of liveliness and community.

Nothing about the home page template must remain as it's presented. Cards can be added, re-configured or removed. We recommend adding photos and webcam videos to make the page even more engaging. You can also add the same card type multiple times such as listing people on your leaderboard in addition to those that have recently visited.

If you have an existing study or would like to revert to the default template. you can do that via Page Options. Select Revert to Default as shown below:

Any existing draft page will be lost but your published page (seen by participants) will remain unchanged. Once you've re-customized the template, press Publish.

Activities Card

Activities are at the heart of the Recollective research experience. Here are some sample uses of this new card type:

  • Guide participants to their first or next activities
  • Improve socialization by promoting completed activities (tip: add an introduction to encourage participants to review and give feedback to responses made by others)
  • Highlight select activities, such as on-going journals, to ensure they are well promoted and easy to access

A few things to note:

  • Activities can appear as cards or as a simple and compact listing
  • The card hides if there's nothing for the participant viewing the page but you can have it remain and show a customized message
  • If you use select activities, those activities will always be shown, even after they're completed (they will simply appear with a green checkmark)
  • You can add an introduction that will appear above the featured activities
  • You can increase the configured quantity to show more than one activity

Discussions Card

Discussions are at the heart of the Recollective community experience. Here are some sample uses of this new card type:

  • Guide participants to new and updated topics
  • Promote featured topics (those with a star)
  • Promote participant-created topics
  • Promote a particular category of topics
  • Highlight select topics, such as those that act as a FAQ or some other common ongoing discussion that benefits the entire study

A few things to note:

  • Topics listed in the card will include more details if the card is wide enough
  • The card hides if there's nothing for the participant viewing the page but you can have it remain and show a customized message
  • If you use select topics, those topics will always be shown, unless they're archived
  • You can add an introduction that will appear above the featured topics

People Card

People are both the community and key ingredient of your research so this card is an important one. It has many great uses:

  • Introduce the study moderator(s)
  • Highlight recent visitors
  • Randomly showcase participants
  • Offer a leaderboard by sorting on points
  • Congratulate people that reach a specific incentive level
  • Highlight select people, such as those that have made insightful contributions or have been especially helpful to the community

A few things to note:

  • People can be listed with large circular profile photos (their name appears below) or they appear with smaller photos (name is on the right)
  • You control how many people are listed (e.g. 4 pages of 5 people each)
  • Use the Sorting option to find new uses such as Recently Online, Points or Random Order
  • To control displayed names and profile photos, visit the Study Settings area to access Privacy Settings.

Copying Cards

Cards you configure can now be copied and pasted in the same study or across studies (within the same site). Select the action menu on the card and choose Copy as shown below:

In the same study, or in another study, press Add or Paste Card and then Paste Card

The card will appear at the bottom of the page. You can reposition and resize the pasted card without affecting the original card. Either card can be removed without affecting the other. Overall, we hope you enjoy these new features and look forward to seeing the pages you create!

Philippe Dame
Co-Founder & CPO

Let's research happy together