Summary

The Activity challenge module is a great way to drive engagement through the app. It allows you to create fun interactive challenges within your workspace, where app users can compete as individuals or part of teams in order to gain points.

App users will be able to earn points by completing certain actions in the app, and will have access to a page that will track and display their progress, including score and rank, in the game.

The page in the app will display all the activities and objectives that app user can complete to earn points, as well as a leaderboard where user can see the scores of all the participants. This leaderboard can also be branded and used to broadcast the users' ranking and points on a large screen for all to see.

To use and configure Activity challenge, you'll need to install the module from the Marketplace. Once installed, you'll see the Activity challenge module appear in the Interactivity category in the workspace menu, alongside a separate Leaderboard module.

Activity challenge is a paid module. Contact your SpotMe account manager to find out more about the pricing.

In this article, we'll start by providing an overview of the components that make up an activity challenge. We'll also show you an example of what activity challenge looks like to app users, and  then we'll go through the basic steps required to configure an activity challenge.

In addition to this overview article, the following articles are also available to learn more about the activity challenge module:

• Activity configurations
• Activity actions
• Using Activity challenge with Steps

Overview

Activity challenge is based on the app users interacting with app content (pages, forms, sessions, speakers, etc.), real objects (such as prints with QR codes that can be scanned), as well as other app users (via exchanging business cards for example).

This means that before you can configure an activity challenge, you will need to build your workspace and create any necessary internal or external content used in the challenge.

The basic set-up for an activity challenge in the module includes three levels of items:

• A challenge, which is the actual game in the app, and the main "container" for the game.
  An activity challenge will contain one or more objectives. Each workspace can have up to 3 activity challenges.
• One or more objective(s), which will typically contain a number of activities that the user will need to perform with the app in order to earn points. Each workspace can have up to 7 objectives in total.
• Activities, which are the actual tasks or actions that the user needs to perform, and that are associated to the points that can be earned. Each workspace can have up to 100 activities,

Important: For an activity challenge to work, a challenge must always be linked to an objective, which in turn must always be linked to an activity.

In addition to these three items, the activity challenge will need:

• An activity challenge page where the users' activity challenge progress will be displayed to them in the app. This includes their objectives, activities, their progress/earned points, and a view of the leaderboard.
• A configured leaderboard, that will display the combined points that a user or group of users have accumulated in the challenge. The leaderboard, once configured can be projected on a live screen, but also linked to the activity challenge page in the app, as a component, for the app users to see. Each workspace can have up to 10 leaderboards. Leaderboards are by default updated every 20 minutes.
• A way for app users to access the activity challenge page, for example via an app menu item or a navigation bar item.

Before going into the details of configuring an activity challenge, let's take a look at what an activity challenge looks like in the app for the user.

Note: Please be aware the if you have enabled data anonymization in your workspace, only a limited number of activity challenge activities can be configured. More information

How does an activity challenge look in the app?

Once an activity challenge is configured and working in the app, users will be able to access a page to see how they are progressing in the game, and the points that they and the other participants have earned. Here for example, they can access the page via an item that was created and aded to the bottom of the app menu called Launch (with the rocket icon).

Tapping this item opens the activity challenge page in the app, that contains all the items that are configured in the activity challenge, as well as the app users progress.

Here, the activity challenge page includes the following items, that are all configured in Backstage as part of the challenge:

Launch This is the challenge. Launch is the title selected for this challenge (in step 1 below), and the text below is the header text for this challenge. Total points This is the total number of points that the app user viewing the page has earned so far. Bookworm This is an objective linked to the challenge. Bookworm is the title that we gave to this objective (in step 2 below), and the text underneath is the objective's content text. Watch introduction video  This is an activity linked to the Bookworm objective, that consists in the user watching a video (per steps 3 and 1 below). Here you can can see that the user has completed the activity (1 task out of 1 completed - 100%) and received the 6 associated points. Leaderboard This is a view of the leaderboard, with the app users' names and current scores. It also includes the date and time when this was last updated (every 20 minutes by default).

Below, in the Configuring an activity challenge section, we'll go through all the necessary steps to create the challenge displayed here. 

Configuring an activity challenge

For the purpose of this guide, we'll create the activity challenge seen in the above. For reference, this is actually a part of the activity challenge that is pre-configured in the product launch workspace template.

Important notes before starting

• Please note that app users that have their status set to "hidden" will not be able to earn points in an activity challenge.
• Challenge, objective, and activity time frames need to be coherent for an activity challenge to work properly. This means that an activity timeframe needs to be within the objective's timeframe, and the objective's time frame needs to be within the challenge's timeframe.
  More specifically, if an activity is completed outside of the time frame of an objective, the points will not be awarded.
• Remember that activity point thresholds are very important for controlling the number of points app user can win for their activities.
• Please remember that an activity challenge and the related objectives and activities will always be based on the event's timezone, not the app user's timezone.
• When multiple attendees have earned the same amount of points, the order in which they are show in the leaderboard is random. It is not based on the time when they earned the points or any alphabetical order.

Configuration order

Please note that it is important that you follow the order of the below steps when configuring an activity challenge, to ensure everything works properly:

1. Creating the challenge
2. Creating an objective within the challenge
3. Creating an activity within the objective
4. Adding a task to the activity
5. Adding an action to the task within the activity
6. Checking all items are linked
7. Configuring and linking the leaderboard to the activity challenge
8. Linking the activity challenge page to an app menu icon
9. Testing the activity challenge via the app page

We'll go through each of these below.

1 - Creating the challenge

We'll start by creating the challenge. This is the container component for all objectives and activities that will be part of the activity challenge:

1. Go to the Interactivity category in the workspace main menu, and select Activity challenge.
2. Select New challenge, enter the Name of the challenge and the Header information. This information will be visible to the app users at the top of the activity challenge page in the app:
3. Click Save item once you have added this information.
   The challenge you just created will now appear in the Challenges tab in the list:
   
   

2 - Creating an objective within the challenge

Once you've created the challenge, select it in the list to open the View challenge tab. Now we'll add an objective to the challenge:

1. Click on the Create button next to the Objectives field.
2. The below window opens, where you can add a Name for the objective and some Content. This information will also be visible to the app users in the activity challenge page. You can use all capital letters or even emojis to make the objective name stand out more:
3. Click Save item once you have added this information. The objective is now added to the Objectives tab:

3 - Creating an activity within the objective

Once you've created the objective, select it in the list to open the View objective tab. Now we'll add an activity to the objective:

1. Click on the Create button next to the Activities field.
   The below window opens, where you can add the necessary information for the activity:
2. Add a name for the activity. Here we want to add an activity that consists in watching an introduction video.
   
   
3. Add any text content you'd like to display to the app user for the activity.
   
   
4. Add an icon associated to the activity. Here we have added a video icon.
   
   Note: If you are uploading and using colored icons for your activities, in the activity challenge page in the event the system will automatically grey out those icons to indicate that the activity wasn't yet completed to the user. Upon the activity being completed, the icon would turn to color.
   
   
5. Add the number of points app user will earn when they complete the activity:
   - Define how many points to earn per item done for the activity.
   Here for watching this introduction video, the app user will earn 5 points. If more videos are associated to this video, each video would be considered as an "item", and could each earn the app user 5 points for watching them.
   - Define how many additional points the user will earn when completing the whole activity (i.e all items in the activity). Here there are no extra points associated.
   
   
6. Define the threshold. This is the maximum number of times the associated points can be earned for completing this activity.
   Entering "0" or leaving this field blank means that there is no limit set (the ♾️symbol will appear in the activity). For example, here, this field is set to 1, so the app user can only earn the points once for watching the video (so a maximum of 5 points). The threshold also adds the % completed information to the activity in the app, as well as the xx/10 information.
   
   
7. Click on Save item.

The activity you just created will now appear in the Activities tab in the list:

4 - Adding a task to the activity

Once the activity is created, select it in the list to open the View activity tab. Now we'll add the actual task that the activity will include.

You'll see that the Provider options are now available for the activity:
The providers here are the actual types of tasks that you can choose from to associate to an activity. For a full breakdown of the available providers, and what they do, please refer to the Activity specific configurations article.

For this activity, we want to reward the app users for watching an introduction video (that has been previously added as a document to the workspace). To configure this:

1. Select the Document viewed provider in the list to the left.
2. Now, in the Any specific document viewed dropdown list to the right, you can select the specific document you want to reward the app users for viewing.

5 - Adding an action to the task within the activity

An Action option can be added to the activity. 

By adding an action to a task or activity, a link will be added to the activity visible in the user's activity challenge page. The user can then simply tap the activity on the page to have easy access to the task that they need to perform to earn the points.

Here, we want to add a "pop-up" action. In addition to the link when the user taps the action on the activity challenge page to view the video, we'd like a pop-up to appear to inform them that they are about to view a video (so they can decide to proceed or cancel). To configure this:

1. Click on the Add button next to the Action field.
2. Here you can select the Show pop-up option
3. Enter a title for the pop-up.
4. Enter some body text for the pop-up
5. Add the link to the video.

For more information on the various actions that can be associated to activities, please refer to the Activity actions article.

6 - Checking all the items are linked

After following the above steps to create the challenge, objective(s), and activity(ies), you'll want to double check that the challenge is linked to any added objectives, and that the objective is linked to any created activities, to ensure that the game will work.

To do, simply go the challenge you created and check that the objective(s) is/are linked, and then check that the objective(s) is/are linked to the activities.

7 - Adding the objectives to the app page

In the activity challenge app page, in addition to the Total Points and the Leaderboard, you can choose to display individual objectives, such as the Bookworm one below:

This is done by accessing the activity challenge display template.

Here, using the Gamification objectives component, you can select one or more objectives to display on the app page:

Remember to click on Save to confirm your changes to the display template.

8 - Configuring and linking the leaderboard to the activity challenge

The leaderboard is a separate item in Backstage, and its purpose is to display the combined points that users have accumulated in the challenge. Leaderboards are by default updated every 20 minutes.

Once configured, it can serve two purposes:

• It can be linked to the activity challenge page in the app, as a component, for the app users to see the scores of the top ranking users or groups of users and their accumulated points.
• It can be broadcasted onto a live screen updated in real-time for all app users to physically see at the venue.

Here we'll take you through how to configure the leaderboard and link it to the activity challenge page in the app.

8.a Configuring the leaderboard

Go the Interactivity category of the workspace main menu, click on Leaderboard, then click on New leaderboard.

The below screen is displayed, where you can create and configure the leaderboard for your challenge:

For the purpose of adding this leaderboard to the activity challenge app page, we have entered the following information here:

1. Enter a Name for the leaderboard section in the activity challenge app page.
2. Select Gamification points in the Entries origin field.
3. Select Standard table in the Template field.
4. Select Gamification points in the Sort entries by field.
5. Select No grouping in the Group entries by field.
6. In the Entries format section, we need to determine what will appear on the leaderboard for the app users. To do so, create these three entries, using the + button:
   1. Item 1: First name, with {{fname}}.
   2. Item 2: Last name, with {{lname}}.
   3. Item 3: Score, with {{score}}.
      Note: The “Entries format“ metadata is not applied to the in-app leaderboard. It is only used for leaderboards broadcasted onto a live screen.
7. In the Game configuration field, select the challenge you want to link the leaderboard to. Here our challenge is called Launch.
   
   
8. Click on Save.

The leaderboard is now created and linked to the activity challenge. The next step now is to configure the leaderboard component in the activity challenge app page.

8.b Linking the leaderboard to the app page

Go to the Activity challenge module, and select the Display template tab.

The default display template is opened. This corresponds to the actual structure of the activity challenge page that will be displayed in the app:

1. Select the Leaderboard component in the central panel, to open its configuration options to the right.
2. In the Leaderboard dropdown list to the right, select the leaderboard you created in the previous step (we called it "Leaderboard"), and then click OK to confirm.
3. Select the Override showing points in app leaderboard option (otherwise the scores will not show in the app).
4. Click Save to save your changes.

9 - Linking the activity challenge to an app menu icon

Once you've created your challenge, and configured and linked all the components per the above steps, you'll need to make the game accessible to your app users. This will also allow you to see how it looks for yourself in the app.

To do so, go to the Design category in the workspace main menu, and select App menu. This will open the app menu editor where you can add an item to the app menu:

To add an app menu item that will allow your app users to access the activity challenge page on the app:

1. Select Generic item launcher in the item dropdown list.
2. Select or edit a label on the dropdown list. Here we have selected the section_title.launch label, and the associated text that will be displayed in the app menu item is Launch.
3. Upload and or select an icon for the app menu item. Here we have selected the spotman.rocket icon.
4. Select the activity challenge configuration that the app menu item will open when tapped. Here we've selected the activity challenge configuration created above, called Launch.
5. Click Save to save the app menu item.

The item is now added to the app menu, and you can move it up or down the list to position it where you want it.

Now, you can sync your app, and go and have a look at the activity challenge page you have created, and test it.

To note, after associating the activity challenge with an app menu item, you can also add the activity challenge app menu item to the navigation bar, for easier access. However, please be aware that for attendees using the iOS mobile app, the label that will appear in the navigation bar will be the full name of the activity challenge, and not the label/translation that was configured in the app menu label itself.

10 - Testing the activity challenge via the app page

To test how the activity challenge page looks, and how the challenge itself is working, tap on the app menu item to open the activity challenge page in the app.

You should see something very similar to this after following all the above steps. This is how the page looks before performing any of the activities. You can see that the activity has not been completed, the user has earned no points, and neither have the other users visible in the leaderboard. Now tap on the Watch our introduction video activity that was created in steps 3 and 4.

The pop-up action created in step 5 should appear. Tap View in the pop-up, and the video should play. After watching the video, sync the app and go back to the activity challenge page.

 

After watching the video (thus completing the activity) you should now see that you have earned the points associated to that activity. The Total points now shows 5 points The activity shows as completed, with: the number of points earned (5); 100% complete; the number of items complete for this activity compared to the threshold (i.e. 1/1).

The leaderboard may not display the accumulated points yet. This is because by default it will only update every 20 minutes. You can however force the leaderboard to refresh. To do so:

1. Click on the Leaderboard module, in the Interactivity category.
2. Click on Update Leaderboard data:

After updating the leaderboard, sync your app, and re-open the activity challenge page. The leaderboard has now updated with the accumulated points. Remember that when multiple attendees have earned the same amount of points, the order in which they are show in the leaderboard is random. It is not based on the time when they earned the points or any alphabetical order.