Friday, April 26, 2019

Weighing of customizing options for Questions & Feedback capability with Stream Live Events

In "Options considered for extending Stream Live Events with live chat/questions capability" I enumerated multiple options for enriching the Stream Live Events experience with Questions & Feedback capability. In below overview, I enlist pros and cons weighing of the diverse options.
OptionProsCons
Via Yammer
  • Existing / available IT building block within Office 365 suite;
  • Low-code solution: only a bit of JavaScript needed for correct visual embedding in the landings page;
  • Access can be limited to selected audience;
  • Live feed visible of questions, also the ones raised by others;
  • Possible to respond on questions / feedback of others;
  • Chat-like experience
  • Separated information container from the webcast;
  • Authorization to be done 2x (Stream and Yammer), with risk of inconsistency / out-sync
  • Not every webcast visitor is an active Yammer user;
  • On authorizing account to the Yammer channel, one receives a notification email; while the context is totally unclear, and the Yammer channel should not even be open for submitting questions & feedback;
  • Questions and Feedback of others are visible to all;
  • Yammer channel remains afterwards, Need to remove all access to avoid unwanted visits after the webcast;
  • Not simple to capture / archive the questions & feedback
Via MS Forms + MS Flow + SharePoint Online List;
Forms embedded on page via MS Forms webpart
  • Existing / available IT building blocks within Office 365 suite;
  • Fully No-Code solution;
  • Access limited to the webcast authorized audience;
  • Included in same data container as webcast, sufficient to authorize once;
  • Access after live event can be removed via SharePoint permission handling;
  • No need for additional Yammer accounts / affinity;
  • Possible to add classification in the questions, eg from dropdown select a topic area. In the capture list, possible to group on the topics;
  • Easy to get a dump of the feedback, eg in Excel; and then decide whether to delete the list or simple make it inaccessible;
  • Modern look, responsive behavior
  • No live feed for webcast visitors on total of submitted questions / feedback;
  • Limited styling capability;
  • Placeholder per question is always “Enter your answer” / not possible to change that;
  • The usage experience after submit input is aimed at “survey scenario” (“your response was submitted”);
Variant of above:
Forms embedded on page via iframe construct
  • Same list as above;
  • and in addition it is possible to preserve the style heading and hide the message at bottom
  • Same list as above, with exception of message at bottom;
  • After submit input, out-of-context the submitter is confronted with ‘promotional’ message that one can create your own form / survey. The user cannot relate this message.
SharePoint List + default / classic NewForm
  • Existing / available IT building block;
  • Fully No-Code solution;
  • Embedded NewForm can be embedded without LeftNavigation + Header in ‘dialog-mode’ (put “&IsDlg=1” on URL);
  • Access limited to the webcast authorized audience;
  • Included in same data container as webcast, sufficient to authorize once;
  • Access after live event can be removed via SharePoint permission handling;
  • No need for additional Yammer accounts / affinity;
  • Possible to add classification in the questions, eg from dropdown select a topic area. In the capture list, possible to group on the topics;
  • Easy to get a dump of the feedback, eg in Excel; and then decide whether to delete the list or simple make it inaccessible;
  • UI-look not optimized for user-experience of ‘Questions & Feedback’ capability;
    • Toolbar in top, including actions not relevant in this context
    • Cancel button in bottom; also irrelevant in this context
  • Width of NewForm is that large that it requires 2-column page layout ( 2:1 layout results in horizontal scrollbar); which results that the available screen estate for webcast is reduced, and that in the layout the webcast UI is not allowed more significance above the Questions & Feedback UI;
  • Customization of the default NewForm needed to only show the multiline ‘Question’ input field;
  • After submit of a new item, the iframe loads the list view iso returning to (empty) NewForm;
SharePoint List + customized NewForm via PowerApps
  • Existing / available IT building blocks within Office 365 suite;
  • Low-code solution: only a bit of JavaScript needed for correct visual embedding in the landings page;
  • Access limited to the webcast authorized audience;
  • Included in same data container as webcast, sufficient to authorize once;
  • Access after live event can be removed via SharePoint permission handling;
  • No need for additional Yammer accounts / affinity;
  • Possible to add classification in the questions, eg from dropdown select a topic area. In the capture list, possible to group on the topics;
  • Easy to get a dump of the feedback, eg in Excel; and then decide whether to delete the list or simple make it inaccessible;
  • Modern look, responsive behavior;
  • The canvas of PowerApps is positioned at the layout of Phone App, and cannot be reduced in height, even when the App itself does not need that height. Scrollbars can be avoided however by reserving the needed height in screen layout, “wasting” screen estate. In this context acceptable, as no other controls are included on the page and positioned below the Question & Feedback. However, the increased page height does result in unnecessary browser scrollbar on the right;
  • Embedded part shows toolbar in top, and not a submit button below the question/feedback input;
  • Embedded NewForm default shows the label ‘New item’;
  • After submit of a new item, the iframe loads the list view iso returning to (empty) NewForm
All of above drawbacks can be prevented, via a bit of custom code
Custom UI / control + SharePoint List
  • Access limited to the webcast authorized audience;
  • Included in same data container as webcast, sufficient to authorize once;
  • Access after live event can be removed via SharePoint permission handling;
  • No need for additional Yammer accounts / affinity;
  • Possible to add classification in the questions, eg from dropdown select a topic area. In the capture list, possible to group on the topics;
  • Easy to get a dump of the feedback, eg in Excel; and then decide whether to delete the list or simple make it inaccessible;
  • Modern look, responsive behavior;
  • Custom coded solution: Requires custom development, testing and deployment;
  • Deployment as control requires some additional preparation on SharePoint site (Site Collection App Catalog)
Standalone PowerApps + SharePoint List
  • Existing / available IT building blocks within Office 365 suite;
  • Low-code solution: PowerApps itself + embedding in SharePoint page;
  • No need for additional Yammer accounts / affinity;
  • Possible to add classification in the questions, eg from dropdown select a topic area. In the capture list, possible to group on the topics;
  • Easy to get a dump of the feedback, eg in Excel; and then decide whether to delete the list or simple make it inaccessible;
  • Modern look, responsive behavior;
  • PowerApp also available for Mobile
  • Separated information container from the webcast;
  • Authorization to be done 2x (Stream and PowerApps);
  • Webcast Questions & Feedback App is available on tenant level, not limited within the boundary / scope of the associated webcast event;
  • Webcast Questions & Feedback App on Mobile is separate from Stream Mobile App, user would have to switch between Apps to submit question/feedback;
Azure Bot
  • Proactive + automated responses on recurring questions and reported issues;
  • Self-learning knowledge base
  • Considerable design + development effort
  • Bots experience no natural fit for submitting questions and feedback

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