This article discusses functionality that is included in the Aha! Ideas Advanced plan. Please contact us if you would like a live demo or want to try using it in your account.
Aha! Ideas | Introduction to the in-app idea submission widget (Advanced plan)
Sometimes the best feedback comes in the moment. The idea submission widget connects your web-based application to a public or submit-only ideas portal. Users can send you feedback without ever opening another page.
Ideas submitted through the widget function exactly like ideas submitted directly to your portal. You can customize the layout to require specific information (including dynamic forms), review the ideas using custom fields and scorecards, and report on them to analyze trends in your customers' feedback. And just like you can customize your ideas portal, you can customize the widget itself to match your brand.
There are two types of in-app widgets you can install in your application. This article focuses on the widget that lets your users submit ideas directly from your application, but you can also install an in-app feedback widget to create a threaded chat conversation between you and your users.
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Create an ideas submission widget
Ideas submission widgets start with an ideas portal. So first, open the ideas portal where you would like to receive ideas submitted through the widget, and then open the portal's settings. You will need to be an administrator with customizations permissions to configure an ideas portal.
From your account settings, click the name of the ideas portal you wish to edit.
From Ideas Overview, click the pencil icon by the name of the ideas portal you wish to edit.
You can add ideas submission widgets to any public or submit-only ideas portal that uses the new (October 2020) portal design. If the ideas submission widget is not compatible with your portal, you can always create another portal in the same workspace. You will still be able to review all ideas from all portals in that same workspace.
In your ideas portal settings, navigate to Widgets then click + Add widget.
The Add feedback widget modal will gather a few basic details. After you have created your widget, you can customize it further.
Title: Your users will see this title at the top of the widget.
Subtitle: Your users will see this subtitle under the title. Add a brief description for your users to read before they submit an idea.
Color: Customize the widget with your brand color so giving feedback is a familiar, branded experience for your users. Use a hex code here to enter a custom color.
Target URL: This is the page (or pages) on your web application where you would like the widget to appear. You can use an asterisk * for wildcards here. For example, if you enter "https://www.example.com/billing/*," the feedback widget will appear on every page in the /billing section of your site. Or you can just enter * for the widget to display on every page where the widget code is installed.
Application: If you have installed the widget code on multiple applications, you can select the application where you want your widget to appear here.
Click Add widget to create your widget. When you first add it, your widget is Disabled by default, so that you can customize it and preview your users' idea submission experience.
Install the widget on your application
You have created a widget in the ideas portal where you would like to receive feedback. Now it is time to install it in the application where you want to collect feedback and connect the two.
After you have created your widget, you will see your widget's details page, with installation instructions at the top. Click Installation instructions to see everything you need to pass on to your development team so they can install the widget in your application. We also have an installation walkthrough that will help them and you complete the installation.
Customize your widget
With your widget added to a portal, it is time to customize it to match your brand.
Widget
Internal name: This is your internal name for your widget. If you have multiple ideas submission widgets attached to this ideas portal, it is a good idea to give them unique names.
Visibility
Active: Control whether your ideas submission widget should appear on the pages you selected in your Target URLs. If you activate or deactivate your widget, those changes will happen in real time.
Target URLs: This is the page(s) in your web application where you would like this widget to appear. Remember, you can use an asterisk * for wildcards here. You can also use the delete icon to remove a target URL and the + icon to add a new one.
Application: If the widget code snippet has been installed in multiple applications, select which one should display this widget.
Design
Title: Your users will see this title at the top of the widget.
Subtitle: Your users will see this subtitle under the title. Add a brief description for your users to read before they submit an idea.
Color: Customize the widget with your brand color so that idea submission is a familiar, branded experience for your users. Use a hex code here to enter a custom color.
Accent color: Choose whether your ideas submission widget should have Light or Dark text on top of the selected color.
Position: Choose the corner (Lower right or Lower left) or side (Side right or Side left) on your site's page where the ideas submission widget should appear, or select Custom to install a custom trigger for your widget. When you select a side position for your widget, you will have the option to customize the button text that users will click to open the widget. By default, the button will read Feedback.
Preview your widget
You want to design an idea submission experience for your users that is familiar, branded, and welcoming. So it is worth checking the experience you have designed frequently with the widget preview. You can preview your ideas submission widget at any time during this process.
Widget previews are fully functional, which means you can actually submit test ideas and review them internally.
You can preview any Active widget:
From the widget details page, click Preview a live widget from the installation card at the top of the page.
From the Widgets General page, hover over a widget and click the Preview icon.
The preview will open in a new browser tab. Once there, click the lightbulb š”icon in the lower corner you selected (right or left) to open the ideas submission form.
Check the widget Position. Is it a natural place? Does it cover important parts of your application?
Check the Color and Accent color. Do they match your brand?
Fill out the idea submission form. Is the form easy to complete? Does it capture required information?
Ideas submission widgets support dynamic ideas submission forms!
Finally, submit your test idea. Back in Ideas Overview, open the idea to review it. Does it have all the information you need?
If you want to change things that you see during this process, you can. If you want to change the branding, you can customize your widget from the widget's detail page. If you want to customize the ideas submission form itself, you can customize the ideas submission form layout.
Customize your ideas submission form layout
Ideas submission widgets use the same ideas submission form layout that your ideas portal users do. So even if some ideas are coming through your application and others come through your ideas portal, you are capturing the same information in the same way. Since you can review all your submitted ideas in one central location, regardless of their channel, this makes for a consistent review process.
To change your ides submission form layout, navigate to Settings āļø Account Custom layouts. Select the Ideas portal ā Ideas layout tab, then click Add custom layout or hover over a layout that you wish to Edit. Either option will open the Custom layout builder. You will need to be an administrator with customizations permissions to do this.
From the custom layout builder, you can add, remove, rearrange, and require different fields to change the flow of the ideas submission form. You can also create and manage dynamic forms to create personalized idea submission experiences for your users.
Many of your ideas portal customizations apply to your ideas submission form too, including:
Ideas submission widget user experience
Once a user in your application submits an idea through the ideas submission widget, they receive a Thank you email, just like the people who submit ideas through your ideas portal.
You can customize this email in your ideas portal settings.
They are also added as users to your ideas portal, based on their email. If a user with their email does not exist yet in the portal, they are created as a new user. If a user with their email does exist in the portal, the ideas submitted through the widget are added to the ideas they have submitted through the portal.
In either case, as portal users, they can now receive votes and comments on their ideas (if they submitted to a public portal) and can be notified when the idea changes statuses. If they want to submit more ideas, they can do so through the widget or the ideas portal, whichever they prefer.
Review submitted ideas
Ideas submission widget ideas may come through another channel, but they function just like ideas submitted through any other channel. You can review all ideas in one place, analyze ideas trends in reports, and of course prioritize ideas with scorecards and custom fields.
From your widget portal settings (Widgets General), you can even click the number of Ideas beside a widget to generate a prebuilt list report including all ideas submitted through a particular widget. You can add this information into your reports and charts yourself by including the Idea submitted in-app feedback widget field, available in the Idea table, or the Submitted in-app feedback campaign filter, available in the Idea table.
Congratulations! You can now gather more feedback and reach more people without complicating your ideas review process.
If you get stuck, please reach out to our Customer Success team. Our team is made up entirely of product experts and responds fast.