SURVEY CREATOR - RADIO BUTTON GROUP QUESTIONS

Summary & Best Practices

A Radio Button Group is a single-select question type that displays all available options simultaneously on the canvas.

When to Use It

• Single-Choice Selection: When you have a predefined list of mutually exclusive options (e.g., "What is your primary gender identity?" or "Select your preferred contact method").
• Low to Moderate Number of Choices: Ideal when you have 2 to 6 options that you want fully visible on the screen so the survey respondent can quickly scan them all at once.
• Triggering Survey Logic: Best used when the choice made will immediately dictate what page or question the respondent sees next using visibility rules.

When NOT to Use It

• Multi-Choice Selection: If a respondent should be allowed to pick more than one answer (e.g., "Which of these programming languages do you know?"), do not use a Radio Button Group. Use a Checkbox question instead.
• Large Lists of Options: If you have 6 or more choices (like a list of study sites), displaying them all as radio buttons will clutter the screen and force excessive scrolling. Use a Dropdown question instead.
• Ordered Continuums / Scales: If you are asking users to rate something from 1 to 5 or Poor to Excellent, use the Rating Scale component rather than manually building a row of radio buttons.

Property Grid

The General properties define the question’s identity, content, behavior, and data connections. You can specify the question name (backend value), title (survey label), and description; control whether the question is visible, read-only, or required; and add a comment box for additional respondent feedback. These settings also allow you to connect the question to a Single Select Custom Variable or one of the following Study Variables:

• Ethnicity
• Race
• Recruitment Site
• Recruitment Strategy
• Sex
• Status

The Choice Options properties control the answer choices available in the question. You can add, edit, remove, reorder, or randomize choices, and manage their underlying values and respondent-facing text separately. These settings also allow you to copy choices from another question, add special options such as Other or None, and include a Clear button so respondents can remove their selection.

Layout properties control how the question appears on the survey page. They let you place the question on a new line, hide its number, and determine whether it is collapsed or expanded. You can also adjust the alignment of the question title, description, and error messages, as well as control the question’s indentation and width. The settings also include the number of columns used to display the answer choices, allowing you to present them vertically or across multiple columns.

The Conditions properties control the question’s behavior based on survey responses or other conditions. You can determine when the question becomes visible, read-only, or required; set or reset its value; and define default values using expressions. These settings also allow you to hide the question when no choices are available and control when individual choices are visible or selectable.

Data properties manage how the question stores and uses response data. You can specify a Join identifier to connect related data, set or change the correct answer for evaluation purposes, and clear the answer when needed. The section also lets you choose whether display values should appear in dynamic text and determine whether answers to questions hidden by conditional logic should be cleared.

The Validation properties ensure that respondents provide acceptable answers. You can add validation rules to check whether responses meet specific requirements, such as a required format or value range. This section also allows you to customize the error message displayed when a required question is left unanswered.