Selecting the New survey model or Edit survey model toolbox functions will result in the survey model work area and several sub-menu items in the side panel being displayed. The Diagnostic survey sub-menu item will allow you to define or edit the default diagnostic online survey questionnaire layout for the survey model. Please note that there will only be one default diagnostic survey questionnaire for each survey model - use the Pulse surveys toolbox function to create additional pulse or employee survey questionnaires.
Creating a survey questionnaire manually or with a wizard
Clicking on the Diagnostic survey sub-menu item will result in the following dialogue window being displayed if no diagnostic survey questionnaire has been defined for the survey model:
A diagnostic questionnaire can either be created manually or generated automatically with the aid of the questionnaire layout wizard (see the next section for more). Click on the Define manually button to generate an empty questionnaire with only the mandatory Page header and Closing page sections. The Add pages and Add content toolbox functions in the side panel will allow you to manually insert additional pages and content, including survey questions and custom images.
The following dialogue will appear if a diagnostic survey questionnaire has already been created or if one was included when the survey template was copied:
When editing the survey questionnaire layout, the following options will be available via buttons at the top of the work area:
- Regenerate questionnaire – generate or regenerate a survey questionnaire by means of a questionnaire layout wizard (see the following section for more).
- Add missing questions – a Click here to add x missing question(s) button will highlight the fact that not all the survey questions in the survey model have been included in the current questionnaire layout. Ignore this button/message if the plan is to include only a subset of the survey questions in the questionnaire layout, or click on the button for the missing questions to be automatically inserted into a new page that will be added before the questionnaire’s Closing page. Alternatively, insert the questions manually into the required pages by means of the Add content > Survey question toolbox function.
- Preview questionnaire – click on this button to see what the survey questionnaire is going to look like on a desktop PC or mobile device (see the following section for more).
- Download questionnaire – the Download questionnaire button will allow you to download the current survey questionnaire design in Excel format, with the survey questions in the same sequence as the online version. The Excel version can be edited and logos and branding added where required and printed to be used as the basis of a paper-based survey questionnaire.
Generating the questionnaire with a wizard
Clicking on the Generate/regenerate questionnaire button will open a dialogue window where the questionnaire layout wizard’s design parameters can be set. Please note that you can still rerun the questionnaire layout wizard at any later stage by clicking on the Regenerate questionnaire button, but be warned: running the wizard will delete the current questionnaire layout and replace it with the wizard-generated layout.
| 1. | Introduction page – include a custom introduction page as the first page of the survey questionnaire. |
| 2. | Business unit – add a business unit selection mechanism to the survey, i.e. one or more dropdown fields that will allow the survey respondents to select their business units and sub-units. This option will only be available – and necessary – in cases where the survey participants’ business unit affiliation have not been pre-loaded via the Manage PARTICIPANTS module (see Manage Participants). |
| 3. | Demographic questions – include demographic questions in the survey questionnaire. This option will only be available in cases where the survey participants’ demographic data have not been pre-loaded via the Manage PARTICIPANTS module (see Edit Demographic Data). |
| 4. | Partner and/or client logos – include the Partner and/or client’s logos in the header section of the questionnaire layout. The logos can be edited or changed afterwards, or can be manually inserted via the Add content > Text & images toolbox function. |
| 5. | Sort survey questions – select the appropriate option to either sort and included the survey questions in a random order or in a construct sequence, with each construct starting on a new page. |
| 6. | Number of questions per page – specify the maximum number of survey questions per page. Please note that this option will only be available if the random sort option has been selected (see previous point). |
Previewing the Online Questionnaire
Click on the Preview questionnaire button to preview all the pages of the online survey questionnaire. The Previous Page and Continue buttons at the bottom of the screens will allow you to page through to the next or previous pages without having to complete any of the survey questions. You will however have to complete a few of the questions if you want to see the progress bar in action.
Defining the Header Content
The page header section will be repeated on all pages of the online survey, so it will make sense to include the survey’s name, company logos or branding, and survey-specific themes in the header.
Hint: to make sure that logos and banner images are as crisp as possible, use logo images that have been created at a resolution that does not exceed 220 pixels wide or 65 pixels high, and banner images at a resolution of 940 pixels wide and 180 pixels high.
The header section will be displayed in full on the first page of the online survey, but will automatically be scrolled off-screen in subsequent pages to save space if there are more survey questions on the page than can fit on to the screen (see example below). The user can however scroll up at any point to view the full header section.
Adding Pages to the Questionnaire
The Add pages toolbox group in the side panel will allow you to insert additional pages into the survey questionnaire by dragging and dropping them to the desired positions in the work area.
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Insert an introduction page by dragging and dropping it into the survey questionnaire work area |
To add an Introduction page to the layout, click and drag the toolbox function from the side panel and drop it at the position in the questionnaire where you want the page to be inserted. Then edit the content by clicking on the toolbox dropdown menu and selecting the Edit content menu item. You can insert additional content by means of the Add content toolbox group in the side panel, and you can edit the content by double-clicking on it or selecting the Edit option from the relevant dropdown menu.
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Insert a page for survey questions by dragging and dropping it into the survey questionnaire work area |
To add a Questions page to the layout, click on the toolbox function in the side panel and drag and drop the page into the survey questionnaire work area. A dropdown field with the first survey question will be included in the page. Select the survey question to be displayed by clicking on the dropdown field and selecting the question from the list. Click on the Save button to save the question that was selected. See the Add content > Survey question section for more on inserting and editing survey questions.
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Insert a page with demographic survey questions by dragging and dropping it into the survey questionnaire work area |
To include demographic questions in the survey, add a dedicated page with survey questions for all the demographic categories as defined via the Manage PARTICIPANTS > Demographics function to the survey questionnaire. To insert the page, drag and drop the Demographics page toolbox item into the questionnaire work area.
Note: including demographic survey questions in a survey should only be done if the demographic data of all the participants have not been captured or imported beforehand via the Manage PARTICIPANTS function, or if you want to use the survey to update the survey participants’ demographic data by getting them to answer demographic survey questions.
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Insert a page with business unit selection fields by dragging and dropping it into the survey questionnaire work area |
To allow the survey respondents to indicate the division, department or business unit where they work, include a dedicated Business unit page in the survey. To insert the page, drag and drop the Business unit page toolbox item into the questionnaire work area.
Note: asking survey respondents to indicate their business units should only be done if the business unit affiliations of all the participants have not been captured or imported beforehand via the Manage PARTICIPANTS function.
The business unit survey function will use a branching mechanism to make provision for an organization with a hierarchy of business units. The first business unit selection field will ask the respondent to select the highest-level business unit, e.g. Regional Office. A second business unit selection field will then be displayed, asking the respondent to select the next level’s business unit, e.g. Division. This mechanism will ensure that respondents select only valid sub-units that fall under a higher-level unit.
To ensure that the correct terminology is used to describe a business unit at a particular level (division, department, team etc.), edit the descriptions for the different business unit levels (see image above).
Adding or Editing Content to a Page
The Add content toolbox group in the side panel will allow you to add survey questions, descriptive text, images and logos to survey questionnaire pages.
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Add survey questions to the survey by dragging and dropping them into a page in the work area |
To add a survey question to a page, drag the Survey question toolbox function from the side panel and drop it onto a survey questionnaire page in the work area. Select the survey question to be displayed by clicking on the dropdown field and selecting the question from the list. Survey questions that have already been included somewhere else in the survey questionnaire will be marked with a tick mark in a circle, and cannot be selected again. Click on the Save button to save the question that was selected.
To edit a question (i.e. select a different question) or to delete a question, click on the question’s dropdown toolbox and select the Edit content or Delete content options. To reposition a survey question, simply click on the question and drag it to a new position.
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Add text and images to the survey by dragging and dropping them into a page in the work area |
To add descriptions (text) and images to a page, drag the Text & images toolbox function from the side panel and drop it onto a survey questionnaire page in the work area. The text editor will automatically be loaded, and will allow you to format the text as required (more about the text editor’s functions). Click on the Save button to save the changes and to close the text editor.
Images can also be inserted anywhere in the survey questionnaire, and can be scaled and left or right justified as required.
The text editor will provide you with full control over the layout and formatting of the text:
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Insert logos by dragging and dropping them into the survey questionnaire work area |
Add the Partner and/or client’s logos to the header page if you want them to be displayed at the top of each page. To add the logos to a page, drag the Logos toolbox function from the side panel and drop it onto a survey questionnaire page in the work area. Select the logos that should be displayed on the left or right side of the page, and click on the Save button to save the configuration.
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Add conditional questions to the survey questionnaire by dragging and dropping them into a page in the work area |
To configure a single-choice Likert question as a conditional question in a survey questionnaire, drag the Conditional question toolbox function from the side panel and drop it onto a survey questionnaire page in the work area. Select the survey question to be used as a Conditional Question by clicking on the dropdown field and selecting the question from the list. Survey questions that have already been included somewhere else in the survey questionnaire will be marked with a tick mark in a circle, and cannot be selected again. Click on the Save button to save the question that was selected.
See the next section for more on how to use conditional branching in a survey questionnaire.
Including Conditional Branching in a Survey Questionnaire
The conditional branching feature will allow you to add branching logic to your survey questionnaires so respondents can be guided to survey questions that are relevant to them and/or their circumstances. Using conditional branching in this way will result in a more personalized survey experience for all respondents, and will not only help to improve survey participation and completion rates, but will also provide you with more reliable and accurate survey response data, and hence better insights.
The process that you can follow to configure a survey questionnaire with conditional branching logic is outlined in the remainder of this section. A short survey with 10 questions (see diagram below), of which Question 2 and Question 6 will be conditional questions, will be used as an example:
- Question 2: Conditional Branch #1: asks the respondents to choose between Pears, Apples or Neither. Choosing Pears or Apples will take them to different conditional pages in the questionnaire, while the Neither option will take them to the next available survey question, which in the example below will be on Page 2 (the last page of the questionnaire).
- Question 6: Conditional Branch #2: the respondents who chose Apples, will get another conditional question – this time making a choice between Green or Pink apples, with each choice taking them to a different conditional page.
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Define the survey model – click on the Survey Models function in the side panel to create a new survey model (see Edit a survey model)
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Define the survey questionnaire – the next step will be to generate or create a survey questionnaire. You can either use the auto-generate wizard to generate a survey questionnaire where you can then change the required questions to make them conditional, or you can create the survey questionnaire manually yourself – see Survey Questionnaires for more. Follow the steps as outlined below to create a conditional survey questionnaire manually:
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Create conditional (restricted) pages – the next step will be to convert the questionnaire pages that will be the landing pages for conditional questions, to Conditional pages.
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Configure the conditional questions – the next step will be to link the Likert options of the conditional questions to the related conditional pages:
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Preview the questionnaire – preview and test the questionnaire’s logic by clicking on the Preview Questionnaire button at the top of the questionnaire. Select each of the conditional questions’ different options and check that the correct conditional pages are loaded. Click on the Previous Page buttons to navigate back to a conditional question and select and check all the other conditional options and their related pages.
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| For more information, click on a sub-menu item at the top of the page⇑ or in the right margin⇒ |