What is a slider?

A slider is an interactive feature which allows participants to increase/decrease spending or points to affect the overall total. The slider has different increments, set up by the admin, and the participant moves the slider along the scale to change the total and compare consequences.

Example of a Simulator slider. Slider title: Building digital skills. Slider scale starts as zero and increases 5 times, with increments of 5, so slider points are 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25.

Slider increments

The slider scale will increase and decrease in percentage increments for Budget and Bill Simulators, or in points if you are running a Points Simulator. 

If you are creating a scale with both negative and positive increments, the increments must run from negative on the left hand side of the slider (at the top of the scale in the admin side) to positive on the right hand side (at the bottom of the scale).

Slider group example for Transport. Set to allocate points. Points scale increments start at -3 and increase by 1 until 3 points.

Types of slider

  1. Balanced slider: this has an equal number of increments on its positive and negative sides, balanced at 0 in the middle.

    Example of balanced slider for Transport with slider increments at -3 points, -2 points, -1 point, 0 points, 1 point, 2 points, and 3 points.

  2. Positively biased slider: this has more increments on its positive side.

    Slider example with more positive increments that negative increments. Waste slider with increment points at -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

  3. Negatively biased slider: this has more increments on its negative side.

    Slider example with more negative increments than positive increments. Energy slider with increment points at -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, and 2.

Points to note 

  • There is a limit of 11 increments on any one slider (although we suggest using fewer than this). 
  • One of your increments has to be 0. Zero is the neutral point at which all sliders are set when a participant first arrives on the site.
    • In a Budget or Bill Simulator, the 0 mark represents the current total spend
    • In a Points Simulator, the 0 mark represents the current situation
  • Sliders can be structured differently from one group to the next, but they stay the same within each group. Using the structure below as an example, let's say that an admin sets up a balanced slider for the slider group 'Business'. All of the sliders in that group (Building digital skills, Helping new businesses and Creating new opportunities) will be balanced sliders. The admin might then set up a positively biased slider for the slider group 'Health and wellbeing' - all of the sliders in that group will be positively biased.

Example of slider groups and sliders. Group name: Business. Sliders include: Building digital skills, Helping new business, and creating new opportunities. Other slider groups are: Health and wellbeing, Staying connected, and Your workplace - each group will have its own set of sliders.