This document discusses different types of visual questions that can be used as alternatives to standard question types. It provides examples of single choice, multiple choice, ranking, scale, numeric and allocation questions displayed visually using grids, sliders, card sorting and other interactive elements. The document summarizes research showing that visual questions can increase engagement and elicit different response data than standard questions. Specifically, visual questions encourage greater use of the full scale in ratings and fewer "don't know" responses. However, question type can significantly impact responses, so visual alternatives are not always direct replacements for standard questions. The document provides guidance on appropriate uses of various visual question types to capture unique response data.

1. Vision Critical’s Visual Questions
What, when and why to use these question types

2. Divider Page Example with Picture
Mapping Standard Question Types onto Visual
Alternatives

3. Single Choice
STANDARD VISUAL
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4. Single Choice Grid
STANDARD
VISUAL
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5. Single Choice Grid #2
STANDARD
VISUAL
(Magnetic Board)
5

6. Single Choice Grid #3
STANDARD
VISUAL
(Card Sort)
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7. Multiple Choice
STANDARD VISUAL
* Combination of options with images and no
images for demo purposes.
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8. Multi Choice Grid
STANDARD
VISUAL
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9. Multiple Choice Grid #2
STANDARD
VISUAL
(Magnetic board)
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10. Multiple Choice Grid #3
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11. Rank Order
STANDARD VISUAL
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12. Scale Question
STANDARD
VISUAL (Scale Slider)
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13. Numeric Response Question
STANDARD
VISUAL (Numeric Slider)
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14. Allocation (Constant Sum)
STANDARD
VISUAL (Allocation Slider)
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15. Geographic Location
STANDARD VISUAL
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16. Example text Example text Example text
Go ahead and replace it with your Go ahead and replace it with your Go ahead and replace it with your
Visual Questions that do what standard
own text. This is an example text. own text. This is an example text. own text. This is an example text.
question types can’t
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17. Page Turner
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18. Media Player
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19. Highlighter
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20. Click-map
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21. So how do these visual questions
effect respondents?
engagement and data quality
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22. We will go deeper on these question types
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23. Engagement measures:
Visual Question types vs. Flat Grid Questions
The Visual Grid and Multi Choice Magnetic Board question types were significantly more
engaging than flat grid questions. Scale Sliders were equal.
Multi-choice (MC) Single choice (SC)
Magnetic Visual Visual Scale Visual Visual
Board Grids Grids Slider Grid Grid
(US) (Canada) (US) (Canada)
Easier to
complete = = = =
Fun to
complete = =
More
enjoyable
than most
= =
Significantly higher rating, 95% CI
= Equivalent rating, 95% CI

24. Prior studies have also shown greater engagement
Papers presented at CASRO and ESOMAR
showed a similar pattern of increased
respondent engagement with visual question
types, compared to flat question types.

25. Sliders and Visual Grids
Visual Grid
Scale Slider
Flat Single Choice Grid
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26. Sliders and Visual Grids
Sliders and Visual Grids are used for rating exercises like
attitudinal statements and brand ratings.
Visual Grids (both single and multi choice) are rated as being
more fun, easier and more enjoyable than radio button grids.
Both Visual Grids and Sliders encourage people to use more of
the scale, and less of the midpoint, than flat radio buttons, on a
10 point scale anchored verbally at the ends.
On verbally anchored scales, much less variation is observed,
suggesting the verbal anchoring makes an important difference.

27. Comparison of how 10 point brand association scales are used for
Flat Single Choice Grid (radio buttons), Visual Grid and Slider Scales
In the US study, the differences seem to driven by a more varied use of the scale points by people answering the visual
questions. With the flat grid version, many people were parking their votes on “5” and using “1” less often. In the Canadian
study, the flat grid questions again gets more “5”s and shows a distribution skewed right somewhat, while the visual grid
produced a more normal distribution
Percent of Respondents
US study Canadian study
Scale Points Scale Points
Note: different brands were rated in each country.
These numbers represent the combination of the answers for all brands

28. Comparison of how 5 point verbally anchored scales are used for
Flat Grids, Visual Grid and Slider Scales
With this verbally anchored scale we do not see any important variation between question types,
suggesting that, in this case, the verbal anchoring drives people’s responses more than the question layout.
The smaller number of scale points may also influence it.
US study Canadian study
[RICH MEDIA—SLIDER, 3a. We’re almost done. Please indicate how you feel about each of these stores, based on everything you know or
have heard about them, either by clicking on the column under the rating or by dragging the checkmark to the column you choose.
[FLAT—RADIO BUTTON GRID] 3b. We’re almost done. Please indicate how you feel about each of these stores, based on everything you
know or have heard about them, by clicking on the column under the rating you choose.
Note: different brands were rated in each country.
These numbers represent the combination of the answers for all brands

29. Card Sort
29

30. With attitude statements we see fewer “don’t knows”,
with the card sort than with radio buttons
% DK to all
12 11
10
People doing the radio button
8
survey were more likely to
6
choose “don’t know” for all 24
4 3
statements 2
0
% with zero DK Card Sort Radio Buttons
60
52 46
50
40
More people doing the card sort
30
did not choose any “don’t know”
20 responses
10
0
Card Sort Radio Buttons

31. Verbally Anchored Scale--Trustworthiness

32. With this verbally anchored rating scale we see slightly greater
use of the midpoint and less use of the top box, with the radio
button vs. the card sort
Card Sort Radio Button
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Completely Very Fairly Not Very Not at all
We saw no difference in the amount of time required to do
the card sort, compared to the radio button

33. Card Sort Usage Conclusions
Attitude statements are good candidates for use with card sorts.
Ratings of single items is also a good use, as the data appears to
be more varied.
Card sorts also provide a welcome change of the type of task
respondents are asked to do.

34. Multi Choice Magnetic Boards

35. Multi Choice Magnetic Boards
People enjoy the magnetic board exercise, rating it higher on
“fun to complete” and “easier than most” compared to a radio
button
While conceptually similar to a visual grid or radio button grid,
we find that the magnetic board question results in different, yet
similar results.
We conducted a head to head test of a magnetic board question
vs. a radio button and a visual grid design, using three different
arms of the study, each of whom used a different question type.

36. Comparison of Multi-choice (binary) Brand Associations Using MC
Grid (radio button), Visual Grid and Magnetic Boards
When people used the Magnetic Board, the pattern of attributes chosen was very
similar to that observed with the grids, but there were roughly half the number of
attributes chosen.
80% Visual Grid Radio Button
Magnetic Board
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51
[RICH MEDIA—VISUAL GRID & SLIDER] Here is a list of words and phrases that might describe these stores, to varying degrees.
Please indicate how closely you associate each word or phrase with each store, by either clicking on the column under the rating
or by dragging the checkmark to the column you choose. [FLAT—RADIO BUTTON GRID] Here is a list of words and phrases that
might describe these stores, to varying degrees. Please indicate how closely you associate each word or phrase with each store,
by clicking on the column under the rating you choose.
These numbers represent the combination of the answers for all brands

37. Multi Choice Magnetic Boards: time spent and
explanatory power
People spent as long on the magnetic type exercise as they did
on the visual grid—even those they ended up choosing half the
number of attributes
Interestingly, when we modelled the strength of the attributes
ability to predict overall liking of the brand, we found that the
visual grid and magnetic type question types had the same level
of explanatory power—even though there were half the number
of attributes included.
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38. Multi Choice Magnetic Boards: Conclusions
Multi choice magnetic boards are engaging, but people respond
to them differently. So don’t use them to replace your flat multi
choice grids questions in a tracker.
But do think of magnetic boards for things like monadic brand
association exercises, shopping exercises or the like.
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39. Highlighter and Click Map: Unique data?
While the highlighter can obviously be used in in-person
interviews in the real world, there is no other equivalent way of
capturing this data.
Click maps, however, have been compared to eye tracking, a
relatively costly and laborious process.
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40. Research on Click Maps Vs. Eye Tracking
When looking at total clicks versus eye movements, results are similar
Traditional Central
Click Map Online Location Eye Tracking
High
Low
• Note: Heat mapping shows all clicks (up to 3 clicks per person) and all views (6 seconds). Online: Please look at the package
below and click on the first three things that catch your attention. CLT: Please look at the products on the screen as you would
when you’re out shopping. 40

41. Highlighter and Click Map Conclusions
The data is qualitative, but the reporting is very clear
When dealing with multiple languages, know that the
highlighter results will need to be analysed separately
Click maps can replace eye tracking, in some uses.
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42. Conclusions

43. So what do we make of these question types?
We see that visual question types tend to be more engaging
We have seen
We also see that they gather somewhat different data: data
that we suggest is “better” because there is greater use of
the full scale and fewer “don’t knows”.
But in the case of something like magnetic type, we see that
visual questions can capture data that is, in some ways, very
different .
And in the case of something like a click map, we find it can
be very similar to something like eye tracking.

44. But the interesting question is: how do you see
them being used?
How might you use them in new and unique
ways?
Let’s have a go at creating a questionnaire
using visual question types…
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