Maptionnaire merges traditional survey tools—like multiple-choice and open-ended questions—with interactive mapping. This puts demographics, qualitative feedback, and location data into a single dataset. You get a multidimensional view of the community that is not possible to achieve when your survey data and maps are kept separate.
In the following sections, we explore the primary benefits of keeping your data under one roof.
1. Identify trends by comparing different groups
When all questions live in one survey, every response is tied to a unique Respondent ID. This shared ID acts as a bridge, allowing you to filter geographic map data by demographic profiles like age, gender, or residency.
If you split these into separate questionnaires, this connection is lost. With integrated data, however, you can easily filter for specific insights—for example, viewing only the map points and open-text suggestions submitted by respondents in the "21–30" age bracket.
2. Visualize differences with conditional styling
Beyond just filtering, you can change the visual appearance of map responses based on a user's previous answers—a feature called Conditional styling.
Example: If you ask, "Are you a resident or a visitor?", you can set the map to display resident pins in blue and visitor pins in red. This instantly reveals whether different groups prioritize different locations.
3. Pinpoint stakeholder impact
Mapping alone tells you where things are happening; integrated data tells you to whom and why. By combining location data with responses to other questions, you can understand exactly who will be most affected by changes in a specific area.
Using our Spatial Filters tool, you can draw a border around a "hotspot" on your map to instantly:
Profile Local Stakeholders: Build an instant demographic report of everyone who commented on that specific block or park.
Capture the Big Picture: Generate a list of all open-text comments linked to that area. You can even use our AI feature to summarize the dominant themes within that specific location.
How to set it up
You can keep everything in one survey and still give respondents a shorter experience: make the map section optional with branching, or show just one page of the survey on a Project Page.
The Basics: Structuring Your Survey
Having both question types in the same survey is very simple. The best practice is to organize your content by page to ensure a smooth flow for the respondent.
Making Map Questions Optional (Branching Logic)
Mapping tasks might not be for everyone, and that's okay! To keep completion rates high, you can make the map section optional using Branching. This ensures that only those interested in mapping do so, while others can skip directly to the rest of the survey.
Add a Trigger Question: Before your map page, add a Choose one or Single checkbox element (e.g., "Would you like to provide feedback on the map?")
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Set Branching Rules: Use the responses from this question to determine the respondent's path.
Example: If "Yes," show the Map Page. If "No," jump to the questions that come after the mapping page.
Accessibility Tip:
Traditional survey questions are screen-reader friendly, but interactive maps are not. You can use a checkbox (e.g., "I prefer a screen-reader friendly version") and branching logic to automatically hide map pages for those who need an accessible experience.
Read more: Essential practices for ensuring accessibility
How to Embed Part of a Survey on a Project Page
If you are using a Maptionnaire Project Page, you can integrate specific parts of your survey, like a single map question, directly into your page layout. This allows you to collect map responses without requiring the respondent to navigate the entire survey.
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Embed your survey on the Project page using Iframe-element
Isolate the specific page you want to show by adding the following parameter to the questionnaire URL:
?startPage=[number of page]
If you want to ensure that respondents cannot move to other pages, add this to the URL:
?disableNavigation=true
If you want to use both in the same iframe:
?startPage=[number of page]&disableNavigation=true
Here is a walkthrough of embedding one page of your survey while keeping all responses in the same survey: