Slider Questions
Basic Features
Prior to reading these instructions, see the information on the general features of questions in the PIEL Survey.
A slider question allows a participant to choose a response by moving a thumb slider horizontally.
The slider question is a way of gathering a numeric rating from 0 to 1. This type of question works well if there is a continuous range of potential answers rather than specific point answers. There is also an option to have the option of "steps" to force answers to be discrete values (see below).
To create a slider question, use "%TYPE slider".
The following code created the question shown in the images below. The image on the right shows how the "Next" button is activated when the slider is moved.
1|How do you rate your experience? %TYPE slider |poor|great
The slider must be tapped or moved to move to the next question.
The "Next" button and right swipe capability will also then be enabled.
The Slider question will in many cases have a word or 2 at each end of the slider (often called anchors), although it is also possible to have 1 or no labels. The example above shows 2 labels, a very common scenario. As the left and right anchor texts have limited space, care should be taken to make sure these texts are not too long.
The Slider question is flexible in that it is possible to have 3 labels so one will show in the centre of the slider. It is important to realise that there is not much space for these labels so they should be very short. An example of this follows.
1|How do you rate your experience? %TYPE slider |poor|average|great
Another possibility is to have multiple numbers as labels. In the following example, the slider will have labels 1-5. In this case, space is very limited so typically only numbers will be used.
1|How do you rate your experience? Please rate from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). %TYPE slider |1|2|3|4|5
The slider question can have a number of more advanced features applied.
The first feature is set using "%HINT", which is placed before "%TYPE slider". The other settings are "%OPTIONS" and "%NEXT", placed after "%TYPE slider", in that order. These are described below.
Hint
Slider questions do not show a default hint. A hint can be added by placing the keyword "%HINT" after the question text followed by the custom hint.
1|How do you rate your experience? %HINT Please rate from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). %TYPE slider |1|2|3|4|5
Options
There are a number of options available for the slider question. Each option specification following "%OPTIONS" should be separated by a comma.
Starting Position
The starting position of the slider is by default in the middle (a value of 0.5). This can be changed to left or right by using the "%OPTIONS" keyword followed by "start:left" or "start:right". For example, the following example sets the initial position to the left.
1|How do you rate your experience? %TYPE slider %OPTIONS start:left |poor|great
Ticks
You can add “ticks” to the slider. The following example will add 5 ticks using the specification "ticks:5".
1|How do you rate your experience? %HINT Please rate from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). %TYPE slider %OPTIONS ticks:5 |1|2|3|4|5
Steps
You can add “steps” to force the slide to gravitate to discrete values. The following example will add 5 steps so the answers will be forced to be one of 5 values using the specification "steps:5". The resulting values will be: 0, 0.25, 0,5, 0,75, 1.
1|How do you rate your experience? %HINT Please rate from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). %TYPE slider %OPTIONS steps:5 |1|2|3|4|5
Combining Ticks and Steps
In many cases, researchers will combine ticks and steps.
Generally ticks will be the same as steps and will match the number of labels but the researcher can decide to make them different. The same number of labels, ticks and steps is seen in the following example.
1|How do you rate your experience? %HINT Please rate from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) %TYPE slider %OPTIONS ticks:5, steps:5 |1|2|3|4|5
Branching
Slider questions can be branched so participants are directed to a designated question or to the end of the survey. To direct them to a designated question, after "%TYPE slider" put "%NEXT" followed by the branching specification. The specification is a percent range (from 0-100) followed by the desired next question. For example "%NEXT 0-50:5". Multiple branching specifications can be set for a slider question. They should be separated by a comma. Note that branching is only allowed to later questions and that the ranges should not overlap (although they can share an endpoint).
In the following example, if the answer is between 0 and 0.5, the next question will be question 5. If the answer is greater than 0.5, the next question will be question 6.
3|How would you rate the activity? %TYPE slider %NEXT 0-50:5,50-100:6 |awful|fantastic
You can also branch to the end of the survey. In the following example, if the answer is greater than 0.5, the survey will end.
3|How would you rate the activity? %TYPE slider %NEXT 0-50:5,50-100:END |awful|fantastic
If you want to reverse the logic so that the next question is 5 if the answer is less than 0.5 (rather than less than or equal), you can reverse the order.
3|How would you rate the activity? %TYPE slider %NEXT 50-100:END,0-50:5 |awful|fantastic