What to put on a text screen
The opening screen is where most surveys lose people who were never told why they are there. Two sentences fix it: who is asking, why, and how long it takes. «Five questions about your last order, about a minute» does more for completion than any design.
Mid-survey statements help before a change of topic or a harder task. Before a ranking exercise, a line like «Now drag the items into order, the most important on top» saves confused answers.
A statement is also the place for context the respondent needs to answer well: a short product description, the rules of a contest, the dates of an event.
Keep each screen short. A wall of text on a phone gets scrolled past unread, and the one sentence that mattered is lost with the rest. If you have a lot to say, split it across two screens or link to a page with the details.
Be careful with promises. «Your answers are anonymous» must be true for the whole survey: if a later question asks for an email, the survey is no longer anonymous for the people who fill it in. Either make that clear on the screen or drop the claim.
Example text for a welcome screen
- Thanks for coming to the workshop. Seven short questions, and your answers shape the next one.
- This survey is anonymous. We only see answers in aggregate.
Formatting and piping earlier answers
The block has a title and a body of rich text. New blocks start with the title «Welcome» and a line of sample text that you replace.
The body supports piping, which means inserting an earlier answer into the text. After someone gives their name, a later screen can greet them by it, which makes a long form feel less like paperwork.
A statement never blocks the Next button, because there is nothing to answer, and it gets no statistics in the results.
What you can set
- the block text