Exact number or ranges: choosing honestly
Ask for an exact number when the person knows it without thinking: age, household size, number of employees in a small team, how many tickets they need.
When the figure is a guess, give ranges instead. Asked for their monthly spend on software, most people invent a number; asked to pick «under 100», «100-500» or «over 500», they answer truthfully and fast. That is a single choice question, not a numeric one.
Set realistic limits. A maximum of 120 on an age question catches the typo «350» without insulting anyone, and a minimum of 1 on «How many people are coming?» prevents a zero that would break your seating plan.
Numeric question examples
- How many people are coming, including you?
- How old is your child?
- How many years have you worked in this role?
Limits, unit and the numeric keypad
The block takes a placeholder, a minimum, a maximum, a step and a unit. The unit is shown to the right of the field, so «years» or «people» does not need to be repeated in the question.
On a phone the field opens a numeric keypad with a decimal separator. A value below the minimum gets «Minimum X», above the maximum «Maximum X», and anything that is not a number gets «Enter a number».
In quiz mode a numeric answer can be scored with a tolerance, so 99 or 101 can count as correct when the right answer is 100.
Results show the mean, the median, the range and a small histogram of four or five bins.
What you can set
- hint inside the empty field
- lower bound
- upper bound
- step
- unit of measure