Surveys

A survey asks people any questions you like, in any order you like. You build it on a map: each question is a card, and lines between the cards decide who sees what next. That makes screening, skips, quotas, random splits, blocks and loops something you can see at a glance rather than a list of programming notes. A survey has its own screener built in, and you can start from a blank map or import a questionnaire you already have.

When to use a survey

Reach for a survey when you need a general questionnaire: who people are, what they use, what they think, how satisfied they are, how likely they are to recommend you, or how they react to a concept. It is the right tool when the questions are varied and different people should see different questions.

The other study types each answer one kind of question better than a survey can:

Card sort shows how people group a list of things into categories.
Pairwise ranks needs by how important they are and how well they are served today.
Best–Worst ranks a long list by what matters most.
Findability tests whether people can find things in your menu or site structure.

If what you need is one of those, use that study type. A survey's rank order and rating questions are fine for a short list, but they won't give you the clean, reliable ranking those methods are built for.

Starting a survey

Click New study on the dashboard and choose Survey. Give it a Title and click Create. The builder opens on a fresh map with two empty boxes, the Screener on top and the Study below it, ready for your first questions (see the survey builder).

A new survey counts toward your plan's study allowance, the same as any other study.

Importing a questionnaire

Already have the questionnaire in a document? In the New survey window, click import a questionnaire instead of creating a blank one. You can Upload a file (a Word .docx or a PDF, up to 5 MB) or Paste the text. Click Import as a new survey and Graham reads it, usually in under a minute, and up to a few minutes for a long one. Keep the page open while he works.

An import always makes a new draft survey. It never changes a survey you already have, and nothing goes live until you say so.

Graham picks up the questions, their answers and the programming notes, and builds them on the map:

Question types, from single and multiple choice to grids, rank order, NPS, numbers, dates and open ends.
Screen-outs, such as "TERMINATE IF UNDER 18" or "must select X to continue".
Skips and conditions, such as "SKIP TO Q12" and "ASK IF" or "SHOW IF".
Randomized answers and limits like "select up to two".
Blocks of questions, including randomized or rotated ones and questions shown together on one page.
Loops that repeat questions for each brand or concept, including "for each brand selected at Q5".
Quotas, such as "50% male, 50% female".
Attention checks and made-up answers (a brand that doesn't exist).

Anything Graham couldn't build is listed in a note at the top of the builder, Imported from a questionnaire: N things to check. Typical examples are piping, custom scripts, hidden variables, a rule that applies to only one item of a loop, and skips that go backwards. Nothing is guessed: it is left out and listed instead. Click the note's heading to open or fold the list. Work through it, then dismiss the note with its close button. Dismissing removes the note from the survey for everyone, so do it once you've checked every item; only editors can dismiss it. The Map checks under the map show anything else that would stop the survey working.

Some limits to know:

A scanned PDF has no text to read. Use the Word version instead.
About 100 pages of text per import, and up to 999 questions. Split a bigger questionnaire and import each part.
Each person can import up to 10 questionnaires a day (and 2 a minute).
Imports aren't available in a demo workspace, or to viewers.

The tabs

A survey moves through five tabs: Build, Audience, Pre-launch, Launch and Results.

Build is the map and the outline, where you write and wire your questions. The survey's screener lives here too, in the Screener box at the top of the map, so there is no separate Screener tab.
Audience is where you set how many responses you want, and see what the panel will be asked for. Who takes part comes from your screener.
Pre-launch is the final check before going live. Nothing is spent here.
Launch takes the survey live (see launching a survey).
Results charts every question and lets you dig in (see survey results).

Before you launch, you can take the survey yourself or send it to colleagues with a test link (see testing a survey).

Viewers in your workspace see the Results tab only.

Duplicate

The Duplicate button in the survey's header makes a new draft from the survey's last saved version. The copy is called "Copy of" and the original title, and it keeps the design, its own copies of the pictures, the target number of responses and the client folder. It doesn't bring any responses with it.

Duplicating is the way to change a survey that is already live: once a survey goes live its design is locked, so make a copy, change that, and launch it as a new survey. The copy counts toward your plan's study allowance, and you need to be in the survey's own workspace to make it.