Build a Survey

In this article, we walk through how to build a survey using the Survey Builder tool in the Pattern Health Console. We will cover the basics of survey building. For articles on Branching Logic, Matrix Questions, Embedded Attributes, please click on the appropriate link.

Surveys are a versatile feature to include in your Pattern Health application. You can use the survey-builder tool to create eCOAs, assessments, and study-specific activities. 

Before you open the survey tool, have an outline of your eCOA ready. This outline should include the following:

• Information screens
• Questions (and internal question identifiers)
• Answers (we support multiple choice, short answer, scale, sortable list, and other answer types).
• Skippable questions
• Branching logic

Once you have an outline for your survey, navigate to the Pattern Health Console and click on the Surveys tab. 

Your first step will be to create a new survey using the Add Survey button.

I. Setting Up Your Survey

Begin by filling out the following form fields: 

• Name - the internal name of the survey.
• Title - the user-facing title that the survey will have in the app.
• Prompt - this user-facing text will appear below the title in the app. Include any additional instructions for your survey here.

Then choose the Type of survey you are creating: 

• Survey - data collection mechanism 
• Quiz - knowledge-building mechanism to force correct answers 
• Slideshow - information sharing (does not collect data)

Surveys have full functionality available to them -- you have questions, answers, opportunities for branching logic, graphics, etc. Quizzes are just like surveys, except each question has only one right answer. When a participant takes a quiz and answers a quiz question incorrectly, they will see a pop-up that says "That's not correct, please try again." Participants will not see this pop-up in a survey. Slideshows do not have answer choices. Slideshows just include a series of information screens, configured to match your use case. 

The basic configuration steps covered in this article apply to surveys, quizzes, and slideshows. 

Once you create a name, title and type for your survey, you can select any additional settings from the Survey Settings section that apply to your survey.

• Share survey - this option allows for other programs in your organization to use this survey in the future.
• Auto-Advance - this setting will automatically move users to the next question after they select their answer. This applies only to multiple-choice questions. "Auto Advance" is turned on by default.
• Progress Bar - the progress bar shows users how much of the survey they have completed. You can choose to hide this feature. 
• History Display - when this option is selected, users can review their past survey responses in the History section of their app. For more information on Survey Summary in Mobile History, click here.

II. Survey Building

Add an Info Screen

Often, you will want to start your survey with an "Info Screen" that gives the participant information about they survey. To add your first Info Screen, click the Add Info Screen button at the bottom of the survey builder. Then follow these steps:

1. Create a unique identifier for your info screen.

2. Type Info screen text into the Prompt section of the building tool.

3. Add any subtitles for your info screen in the Prompt Details section of the building tool. 

Add a Survey Question

To add your first survey question, click the Add Survey Question button.

Each survey question must have 3 elements:

• Identifier
• Prompt / Prompt Detail
• Answer Type

Identifier: At the top of your new question, enter an ID that is specific to the question. Two questions in the same survey cannot have the same ID. Please note: these identifiers will be used as the column names for these questions in a survey export. 

Prompt: Type out your question in the Prompt field in the middle of your screen. You may include bold, italicized, and underlined text in your question. You may also change the size of the text in your question. Use the Prompt Details section to add subtitles (optional).

Answer Type: Select the appropriate answer type for your question. Pattern Health offers the following answer types today: 

After selecting your answer type, fill out all the relevant fields for that selection. For example, if your question has a "Choice (integer values)" answer type, complete the recorded value and display value fields. Once you complete all of the required fields for your question, the survey preview window will reflect your changes: 

Note: If you select the answer type Choice, you can allow the participant to select multiple answer choices by checking the box next to "Allow multiple values to be selected."

III. Advanced Options

The Advanced Options section contains several settings that you can include to enhance your survey. These include adding images and building out branching logic. 

Add an Image

To add an image to your survey question, click on Advanced Options and then upload your image. You can choose the position of the image (top - above the survey prompt, middle - between the survey prompt and prompt details, and bottom - between the prompt detail section and the answer choices).

The Add Image option in the Advanced Options section is one of many places to insert an image. You can also add images in a "Choice" answer type -- one image per answer.

Conditional Visibility

Conditional visibility rules allow you to conditionally display a question based on previous survey responses. For example, if you wanted to display a follow-up survey question only if the previous question included "Other" in the response, you could use a Conditional Visibility condition to do so. 

Rules

Rules allow you to build branching logic into your survey. You can use rules to direct a user to a future survey screen based on their response. For example, if you wanted to allow users to skip ahead in a survey based on their response, you could use a Rule to do so. As a rule of thumb, Rules are used less often in surveys than Conditional Visibility.