SURVEY CREATOR - RATING SCALE QUESTION

Summary & Best Practices

The Rating Scale allows respondents to evaluate a single item, statement, or experience along a standardized, ordered continuum. Instead of typing a number or choosing from a long list, users simply click a button, emoji, or star that matches their evaluation.

When to Use It

• Single-Item Evaluations: When you need a respondent to evaluate one specific metric (e.g., "Rate your overall satisfaction with the device").
• Standardized Research Measures: Ideal for implementing validated scales and structured assessments, such as symptom severity ratings, quality-of-life measures, agreement scales, and Likert-type questions using consistent response options (for example, 1-to-5 or 1-to-7).
• Clear Numerical Ranges: When you want a strictly bounded range with fixed increments (e.g., rating a feature from 1-to-5).

When NOT to Use It

• Evaluating Multiple Items: If you have a list of five different features to rate on the exact same 1-5 scale, do not drop five individual Rating Scale questions onto your survey. Use a Single-Select Matrix question instead to save space and reduce survey fatigue.
• Unordered Categories: If your choices don't follow a logical progression (e.g., choosing a preferred communication channel), use a Radio Button Group or Dropdown instead.
• Open-Ended Numbers: If you are asking for an exact age, percentage, or dollar amount where the upper limit is unknown, use a standard Single-Line Input box and restrict it to numbers.

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.

The Rating Values properties define how respondents interact with and interpret the rating scale. They allow you to select the display mode and choose rating icons such as labels, stars, or smileys. You can specify the number of rating points, automatically generate or manually configure the scale, and set the minimum, maximum, and step values. Additional settings let you add labels for the scale’s endpoints, control label alignment, and display those labels as the extreme values.

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.