Add time-on-page requirement using sd_stop_if()

[Hergie]

Description

Hello,

Is there a way to require a user to spend a minimum amount on a page of time before moving on the next page. This is useful in survey research to try to ensure that people spend at least some time thinking of a particularly important question.

Could this be done using the sd_stop_if() function? If so, how to specify the logical condition?

[jhelvy]

I think that should be possible, though I'm not 100% sure yet how to trigger the timer starting. You should be able to write a custom function and then use it as a condition, something like this, in sd_stop_if(). The function would just need to return TRUE if the desired amount of time has passed and FALSE otherwise. So the key is figuring out a way to trigger the timer to start and then have it register a stop and compute the elapsed time.

Alternatively, you might be able to just use some simple javascript to hide the next button until a desired amount of time has elapsed. Just having the button be hidden when the page loads and then appear after some time would probably be the simplest.

[Hergie]

Ok, thanks! Your preferred solution makes sense.

I wonder if, using the sd_stop_if() approach, we could use the time stamp variables (time_q, time_p) that are automatically saved in the output csv to achieve the purpose? If one of these measured the time of starting the question, then we could just condition on the difference between current time and starting time. But as said, probably your suggestion of hiding the next button would be the better option at least in this case.

[jhelvy]

You could try it. The different time stamp names are created based on the page and question ID names, so if you used a time stamp name in the condition in sd_stop_if() it might work. I've never tried it.

[pingfan-hu]

Issue 259 could be a possible solution to this.
In short, I intend to create a new wait parameter for sd_nav() that sets a countdown in seconds. For example, sd_nav(wait = 30) sets a 30s wait time, and forces the participants to stay at least 30s before move on.