Launchers are customizable icons, buttons, or links embedded on any page or app that trigger an action or provide information to users. You can launch guides, resources including videos, links, images, docs and text using Launchers.
Typical use cases are:
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Enhancing user engagement and solving UI issues.
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Introducing new app features or process enhancements.
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Notifying planned downtime.
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Collecting user feedback via survey links.
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Reminding users to complete tasks.
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Updating users on software upgrades.
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Posting informational messages, company or team updates.
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Providing quick access to important links, and resources (docs, videos, etc).
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Guiding users through a workflow.
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Providing easy on page access to support (send an email, submit a help desk ticket)
How it works
When a launcher is created on a page and assigned to a group of users, any user in that group would be able to see the created element - icon/button/link. The end user then clicks on the launcher which performs the assigned action.
In this example below, an OnScreen Help button is added to the bottom of the page. It is made to look like the exactly like an existing button on this page. When the end user hovers over it, it will show a tooltip to the user describing what this button does. When the user clicks on it, in this example it will open the OnScreen Guidance Help Portal in a different tab.
Creating a Launcher
A Launcher can be added to a page from the Extension by an ‘Author’. The Author needs to record the element on the screen to which the Launcher will be anchored to. Once this is captured, the author can make adjustments and assign actions to this launcher.
There can be four different types of launchers that can be customized by the author depending on how rest of the action buttons appear on the screen. The author can use a button, link, icon, or a beacon type of launchers. For the example above, a button type of launcher was created and it was anchored to the existing ‘Quickstart’ action button.
For each of these types, the author can also customize styles including color, text, and size. In addition to the look and feel, there are other advanced options provided that allow the author to appropriately set the launcher on the page.
There are different types of actions available for the author to set -
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URL: to launch a page to the end user, examples could be help portal or community site or an article or even a survey.
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Tooltip: this provides more context to the user as to what they can expect next. Authors can choose to set context by launching a tooltip followed by one of the other actions listed
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Resource, Resource Collection, or Guide as the action: this allows to launch other OnScreen help objects for the end user. End users could be prompted to run a guide when they land on a specific page.
As with any other OnScreen Guidance help, you can make launchers context specific by enabling it for required set of users as well as application pages.