AGS — Step Types

Step Types & How They Help task templates JSON

Each step in a task template has a step_type. This tells AGS what kind of interaction to expect — and changes how it monitors and intervenes. The step type is the first thing the governance system reads after the calibration and condition checks.

navigation Moving to a new page

The participant needs to find and click the right link, button, or tab to advance. This is often where people get lost — clicking the wrong item, navigating to an unrelated page, or freezing because there are too many options on screen.

What AGS watches: Wrong clicks, backtracking (pressing back and trying again), time between page load and first interaction. A long pause combined with multiple wrong clicks is a strong struggle signal. Locator tooltips defined in the task template fire as timed nudges pointing to the correct element if the participant hesitates past a threshold.

form_field Filling in a field

The most common step type. The participant must find the right field, type the correct value, and submit without validation errors. Common failure patterns: leaving required fields blank, typing the wrong format (e.g., ID number with spaces), or submitting without reviewing.

What AGS watches: Keystroke count, backspace ratio (corrections), inter-key interval (typing speed relative to baseline), field clears, and invalid action events (form submission with validation errors). High backspace ratio combined with multiple field clears is the extraneous load signal that most reliably predicts difficulty.

captcha Completing a CAPTCHA

CAPTCHAs are disproportionately hard for older adults — the visual puzzles assume fast pattern recognition, the audio alternatives require reliable hearing, and the time limits add pressure. AGS treats this step type differently from all others.

What AGS does: On entry to a captcha step, AGS proactively delivers a Level 2 assistance message — before the participant has struggled, before any readiness calculation. The message explains what a CAPTCHA is and what to do. This is the only step type where AGS bypasses the standard governance rules and intervenes at step entry. If the extension is installed and the proxy detects the CAPTCHA iframe, the session hands off to the real tab so the CAPTCHA works normally.

confirmation Reviewing before submitting

The participant sees a summary of what they've entered and must confirm before final submission. This is a critical step — errors caught here can be corrected; errors past here may require starting over.

What AGS watches: Whether the participant rushes through this step (very short dwell time, immediate click) versus takes time to read. A fast confirmation after a high-error session is an abandonment-risk signal. Governance may fire a reassurance or verification prompt here.

upload Attaching a file or photo

Upload steps require the participant to locate a file on their device and attach it. For participants using mobile, this often means taking a photo live. Common failure: selecting the wrong file, uploading an unsupported format, or not knowing how to open the file picker.

What AGS watches: Extended idle time on upload steps (participant has stopped interacting — possibly confused by the file picker), abandonment risk score. A walkthrough-level (L3) intervention may fire if the participant has been stuck on an upload step significantly longer than baseline step duration.

review Reading a result or receipt

The participant has completed the task and is viewing a confirmation, reference number, or receipt. This step is typically the end of the session's active work. AGS mostly stays silent here unless the participant is clearly confused (e.g., trying to navigate away from the success screen).

What AGS does: Monitors for continued struggle signals that would indicate the participant doesn't recognise the step as complete. Session completion is marked when the participant marks the step done or time-on-step suggests they have finished reading.

Controlled practice tasks

Not all sessions use live government sites. Three local practice tasks are served from the AGS server itself, allowing signal collection in a fully controlled environment:

Task	Simulates	Why it exists
SHA / Afya Yangu `test-form.html`	Registration, OTP login, profile, household, eligibility, services dashboard	Social Health Authority registration is the primary study task. The simulation allows us to test the full form flow including multi-page navigation and OTP entry without live credentials.
KRA iTax `kra-itax/index.html`	PIN authentication, return filing, payment — in development	KRA iTax practice site mirrors the real iTax portal flow for tax filing and payment. Replaces the phone-settings warm-up with a genuine government task of comparable complexity.
Online shopping `shopping-market.html`	Search, product, cart, delivery, payment, confirmation	A familiar e-commerce flow used to establish baseline competency before government-specific tasks. Lower cognitive complexity means governance decisions here validate calibration quality.
Health Search `health-search.html`	Mock search engine — SHA result evaluation, official vs. fake domain identification, information extraction	Teaches participants to find and evaluate health information online safely. Four scenarios (D1–D4) progress from basic searching to identifying fraudulent look-alike domains (e.g. sha-kenya.co.ke vs sha.go.ke) placed at the top of results. Maps to the digital skill of searching for health service information.