To enable you with more ways to collect and manage inputs for quality participation, we have developed our own in-platform survey tool. This tool can help you seamlessly build surveys, collect data, analyse and download results - all on the secure CitizenLab platform.
Without needing to leave the platform, you can create questionnaires with short, long, or numerical answers, multiple choice, single choice, or linear scales, even adding logic. You can also view real-time results on the platform or easily export data through spreadsheets for further analysis.
Building an in-platform survey
To create an in-platform survey, you can start by creating a project.
Under the “What do you want to do?” section - you can choose the engagement methods you would like to use for the project, and here you will choose; "Create a survey"
After creating the project and the phases with its details, you will be given an option called Survey on the phases that you selected "create an in-platform survey.
To create survey questions, please click on "Edit". Then you will be presented with a survey editor where you can find pages and all the questions available in the survey on the left-hand side.
When you add or edit a page or a question, you will be presented with details to edit on the right-hand side.
Pages
Pages can be used to break up a long list of questions and better organize your survey. If you add questions to a page, the questions will be visible right below the description of the page. If you don’t add questions to a page, the page will act as an informational divider.
You can choose between a normal page set-up or a Map-based page set-up:
Normal page
You can give the page a title and a description like you are used to in your projects. You can add images, embed videos and add links to other webpages.
Map-Based page
In the map-based page set-up you can also configure a map layer to appear next to the questions in that page as contextual information to ask survey question about. Simply press "configure map" and you can edit the zoom, coordinates and upload GeoJson layers (and ESRI map layers if you have access to this feature)
Question types
On every question type, you have options to make the question mandatory (required) or not to answer, add the title of the question, description or explanation of the question.
Short answer
Pick this option if you want to collect a short answer to a question. Depending on your plan (with access to our AI package) you will be able to summarise and categorise text responses with AI.
Long answer
Pick this option if you want to collect a long answer to a question. Depending on your plan (with access to our AI package) you will be able to summarise and categorise text responses with AI.
The difference with 'Short answer' is that the field box that is shown for long answers will be bigger so it is easier and more inviting for users to leave a longer answer. Similarly, for short answers the field box is smaller to incentivize users to be succinct. But technically speaking, there's not character limit difference between both question types (short and long answer).
Single choice
When you select this option you can add answer options to your question. Users can only pick one answer.
Multiple choice
When you select this question type you can add answer options to your question. Users can then pick multiple answers.
Image choice
If you want people to choose between different images you can use the question type 'Image choice'. You can add images to your question and give the image a short description. If 'Limit number of answers' is enabled, respondents need to select the specified number of answers to proceed.
Linear Scale
For Linear Scale questions, you can add Range and labels of the minimum and maximum values.
Today, we do not support matrix questions, but, you might be able to use the linear scale question type to create a series of questions or statements that respondents can rate individually. Use the question copy function to do this more conveniently.
Number
Pick this option if you want to collect a number and want to prevent people of filling text.
File upload
With the question type 'File upload' you can ask your respondents to upload a file to their survey response. The files will show as links in the preview of the results and also in the export of the results the files will be shown as a URL and from there it can be downloaded. It is not possible to download the files in bulk.
The maximum size of files is currently 50MB.
Mapping questions
Our Map-based Survey Toolbox, offers the following features:
Drop Pin in Map
Our "Drop Pin" question feature allows users to drop a pin anywhere on the map to highlight specific locations in response to survey questions. This versatile tool is perfect for collecting geographically relevant data points, such as identifying areas needing improvement, suggesting new project sites, or reporting incidents
Draw Route/ Line in Map
Our new "Draw Route" question allows users to create routes by adding points linked by lines on the map. This feature is particularly useful for collecting information on preferred travel paths, proposed routes for new infrastructure, or documenting existing pathways. Users can simply click on the map to add points, and the system will automatically connect them with a line, providing a clear visual representation of the route. This functionality is ideal for urban planning, transportation studies, and any scenario where understanding movement patterns is essential.
Draw Area/Poligon in Map
The "Draw Area" question enables users to outline and fill in shapes to represent specific areas on the map. By adding points that are automatically connected to form a closed shape, users can define boundaries for zones such as proposed development sites, protected areas, or community spaces. This feature is invaluable for projects requiring precise area demarcation, such as land use planning, environmental impact assessments, and zoning applications. The filled-in shapes provide a clear and easily interpretable visual of the defined area, making it easier to analyze and act upon the collected data.
ESRI Shapefile Upload Question
With the "ESRI Shapefile Upload" question, users can upload shapefiles that are then automatically read as GeoJson files in the survey results. Shapefiles are widely used in GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and can represent various spatial data types such as points, lines, and polygons. This capability is particularly beneficial if your consultation engages specialized stakeholders like urban planners or architects who might need to submit more detailed spatial data.
Please note that our mapping tools are designed to collect only one input per question type. Therefore, if you need to gather multiple inputs for a specific question type, such as multiple routes or areas, you will need to add additional instances of that question type to your survey.
All mapping questions and map-layouts can be configured individually to showcase different areas. To edit the map, click on 'Configure map'. You can change the default center and zoom and add GeoJSON layers (and ESRI maps if you have access to this feature).
At this time, we do not offer a matrix question type. However you can duplicate your base question and still be able to reproduce a similar behavior to a matrix question.
Survey end page customization
Unfortunately, today, we don't provide a way for you to customize neither the last survey page prior to survey response submission, nor the survey submission confirmation modal users see upon submission of their responses.
Visualising and Filtering results of the mapping questions
All answers will be shown aggregated on a map in the survey results tab on the back-office of the project. Additionally, for the “drop pin” question you can switch on a toggle to visualise the pins as a heat map, to see in a quick overview where the most pins have been placed.
To visualise and filter individual respondent’s answers you need to open the AI analysis interface. Press on "show AI insight" next to a short/long answer question somewhere in your survey. If you do not have access to this feature, this means that it is not part of your price plan.
IMPORTANT: you must have a short/long answer question somewhere in your survey to be able to open this AI interface
There, you will be able to see users (green) and the individual answers of these users including their inputs on the mapping questions (blue). Here are can filter individual responses based on answers to previous survey questions. The uploads added to the “ESRI Shapefile Upload” question will be visualised on a map too (red) as a less details geographical form to be able to easily see the basic outlines of the suggestion uploaded. To see the full ESRI shapefile which includes colours and textures, you will need to open the file in an external mapping tool (eg: mapshaper).
In this interface you cannot easily filter through an aggregated map to uncover geographical patterns therefore we recommend you use a third party tool such as mapshaper, to view/filter and conduct deeper analysis on the geospatial inputs for lines and polygons.
Reporting results of the mapping questions
You can use the “survey question” reporting tool to display the aggregated results on a map for each mapping question.
Please note it is currently not possible in the report builder to filter mapping questions on individual responses or demographic information in the way that other question types can use the data grouping feature. However by using external mapping tools you can filter these answers as described above, take screenshots of the results, and add these screenshots as images in the report builder. Example below:
Survey Preview & Testing
You can preview the questionnaire from the top right “View Survey” button. After creating questions, you can Save the survey.
You will be presented with options to toggle off the response collections, view the results, edit the survey, view the survey or delete the results. Deleting the results is not undoable.
You can't keep an individual survey phase in draft mode. Status applies to the whole project not the phase. What you can do though is turn the toggle 'Open for answers' off until, for example, a survey is ready. The survey phase will be visible on the timeline but the survey itself won't be visible yet. You can edit the survey in the back end until it's ready and only then turn the toggle 'Open for answers' on. From that moment on the survey will be visible to residents and they can start submitting. You'll find this toggle in the back end of your survey phase under the 'Survey' tab.
Tip: If you are in the process of creating your survey and are submitting test survey responses to make sure everything looks right on the resident side, be sure to delete these submissions before you open the survey up to the wider public. You can do that by clicking on the ‘Delete survey results’ button.
Survey Result Preview
You can monitor both quantitative and qualitative survey results as they come in under the 'Survey tab'. If per your plan you have access to our AI Analysis tool, you will also be able to summarize all the survey textual responses within the platform in a matter of seconds.
Please, note that if you are looking to download a PDF version of the results, we recommend you creating a survey report by adding an Information phase -> creating a downloadable report of the responses.
Responses on the survey can be downloaded via the ‘download survey results’ button. You can find this button in the dropdown when you click on the 3 dots.
This export will also include URL's to images and attachment that respondents submitted in their survey so you can download each attachment individually from the export. It is not possible to download these attachments in bulk.
It is not possible to delete individual responses in the back-end of the project. If you want to delete certain responses, the best way to do this is to export all the results and delete the responses from the export.
Privacy Consent Note: You can certainly use our in-platform survey tool to collect information also amongst unregistered users, but any legal advice regarding GDPR would need to be consulted with through a professional source who can best understand what personal data you will be collecting and what you’ll be using the data for.
It is generally recommended as best practice to have a separate required question at the end of the survey that allows survey respondents to see the privacy policy page and agree/disagree with it. You can do this by creating a mandatory single-choice question.
Collecting responses
When the survey is open for responses partial filled in surveys will be automatically saved. This means that when a user doesn't complete the survey in one take, it will be automatically saved and the survey can be finished later.
Users who didn't finish a survey will get an email with a reminder 1 day after the platform last saved the survey in draft. This reminder can be switched off under 'Messaging' -> 'Automated emails'.
Using Logic in your surveys
Logic lets survey creators control the flow of surveys and display only relevant pages to the respondents.
Our in-platform survey tool supports logic at two levels:
Logic at question level
At the question level: this will let survey creators decide what page to take respondents next based on their answers to a single select question or linear scale question. [Please, note that we only support this kind of logic for single select questions]
Let’s say you are setting a survey that will get sent out to Brooklyn residents. You want to split residents according to their zip codes, so you can then ask them a set of questions specific to the neighborhood they live in.
We’d probably start with a question like: “What is your zip code?” We would set it as a required single select question.
We would then click Logic in the side panel on the right, and add logic to send respondents to a different page based on their answer. Let’s assume you have already created the three different pages you want to send residents to depending on their zip code. Each contains a list of questions specific to the three neighborhoods you are surveying: Park Slope, Crown Heights, and Boreum Hill. We would then simply set up Logic that says ‘If Answer is e.g. 11217’, then ‘Next page is e.g. Page 3 - Park Slope’
If you had set a zip code option that read e.g. “None of these” to make sure respondents that did not live in the zip codes you wanted to survey did not take the survey, you could then set logic to send those respondents to the survey end.
Logic at page level
At the page level: this will let creators determine what page to send respondents to irrespective of their answers to the questions within the page.
Following our example above, it is likely you would not want Park Slope residents to see the following pages that contains the questions addressed to Crown Heights or Boerum Hill residents. In that case then click Logic in the side panel on the right and set the page flow, so the Next page it goes to is e.g. the final survey page, instead of the Crown Heights page.
A few additional things to know about logic for in-platform surveys:
We don’t allow logic to direct respondents to a prior question.
We don't have logic for multichoice questions
All questions within a page will be visible to every respondent that lands on that page.
We do not support setting logic between questions within a page. If that is the desired behavior, one workaround is to create multiple single-question pages, and set logic between them.
Single select or linear scale questions with logic are required by default.
We highly recommend you test the survey before launching it to make sure it is behaving as you intended.
Current limitations of the native survey tool:
Although we are constantly improving the survey capabilities, these are some of the things that are not possible in the survey tool today:
Ranking type question.
Matrix type questions (although you can hack simple versions through multiple scale questions).
Editing the text of the final page (survey submission page).
Pin in Map question is designed to collect only one pin per question. Therefore, if you need to gather multiple pins, you will need to add additional instances of that question type to your survey. The only place residents can added multiple pins in a map is during an ideation phase with a map.
Who can take my survey? A note on access rights?
When you set up your survey access rights so that anyone can participate without providing an email or verifying their identity... we will not have a way to prevent an individual from submitting multiple surveys. Please, note that:
We don't track the IP address, so you will not be able to detect duplicates
Our Back Office interface doesn't allow individual survey response deletion
If you require survey respondents to provide email confirmation or create an account... they will only be allowed to submit one survey response for that phase.
