SURVEY CREATOR - LONG TEXT QUESTIONS

Summary & Best Practices

In Survey Creator, the Long Text or Comment question is designed for unstructured, open-ended responses. Unlike a Single-Line Input question, it provides a larger, multi-line text area that allows research participants and study staff to enter detailed explanations, experiences, stories, or feedback comfortably.

When to Use Long Text

• Detailed participant feedback: Collect rich descriptions of experiences, behaviors, or opinions, such as “Please describe your experience using the device.”
• Suggestions and brainstorming: Gather ideas, improvement requests, or explanations that cannot be captured effectively through predefined options.
• Follow-up explanations: Use conditionally after a participant selects a particular response, such as an extreme rating or “Other.”
• Participant diaries or event descriptions: Capture detailed accounts of symptoms, interactions, tasks, or events when qualitative context is important to the study.

When Not to Use Long Text

• Short, structured information: Use a Single-Line Input question for names, email addresses, participant IDs, phone numbers, dates, or other brief responses. Input masks or validation can help standardize these data.
• Quantitative measures: Use Rating Scales, Number questions, or other structured formats when you need data that can be compared, scored, or charted.
• Predefined response categories: Use Radio Buttons, Dropdowns, or Checkboxes when participants are selecting from known options. This reduces participant effort and simplifies data analysis.
• Sensitive information unless necessary: Avoid requesting unnecessary personal, medical, or identifying information in an open text field. Participants may provide sensitive details even when they are not required.

Provide a clear prompt, explain the type of response needed, and avoid making long-text questions required unless the information is essential. Consider using conditional display logic to limit these questions to relevant participants, and review responses for privacy, coding, and qualitative-analysis requirements.

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 Long and Short Text Custom Variables.

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, value range, or maximum character limit. This section also allows you to customize the error message displayed when a required question is left unanswered.