Test your questionnaire before launch

Questionnaires can always be previewed using the Preview functionality.

You can also view single pages in preview by clicking the three dots on the corner of the page in the questionnaire editor.

If you have set some questions to be mandatory, you can bypass those settings by browsing the questionnaire in Preview using the menu found under the cog symbol.

Please note that a questionnaire in the preview mode is only visible to team members – you can't share it with people who don't have access to the team. Furthermore, preview is not intended for proper testing and thus some question elements may not function normally in it.

All surveys made after June 24, 2024 can be published in test mode.

When a survey is published in test mode:

• The analysis tool and the Excel results file show data from five latest respondents
• You can still edit the questionnaire, but need to activate any changes by re-publishing
• The test results are automatically separated from your actual data

Publish in test mode:

1. Go to Publish.

   

2. Select Publish for testing.

   

3. Click the Publish button.

4. If you need to make changes, remember to re-publish again to activate them in the live test version.

   When the survey is finalized and you are ready to start collecting real data, choose Publish for data collection and then click Publish final version. You cannot return the questionnaire back to test mode after this.

What should you check during testing? See this article for more details.

1. Go to Publish.

2. Click the Publish button.

3. Confirm that you want to publish the survey.

4. Distribute the survey link to test respondents. Remember to hide test data before you start real data collection (see section below for instructions).

If you make larger changes to the survey after getting feedback from testers, such as deleting questions and adding new ones, it may be a good idea to create a copy of the survey (select the survey > Actions > Copy) and make the changes there.

Things to check during testing:

• Test every feature: every question type, page jump, map feature, setting etc. It's also a good idea to test with different browsers and devices.
• Make sure that you're testing with people from various backgrounds. Surveys are usually created by experts in the topic, but you need your survey to also be understandable for people who aren't.
• Remember to check accessibility. Can people with different disabilities and/or language barriers respond to the survey with ease? Are there cultural differences that may affect the way the survey is perceived? Have you offered people alternatives to responding on map?
• Take a look at the test responses in the Analysis tool and in the Excel sheet. Are the responses recorded in a format that is useful for your project? Are the testers understanding the questions the way you intended? Or could you ask something differently to get better data? What do you want to do with the data once you have it and what questions you want it to answer determines what question types and other choices you should make.
• We also highly recommend going through the items in the Survey checklist before launching the survey. Remember, if you are even a little bit unsure about something, please don't hesitate to contact us at support@maptionnaire.com. We'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have! 

Once you receive feedback, you can make the changes to your survey and activate them by re-publishing it. 

Clearing test data (for surveys created before June 25, 2024):

When you first publish the survey, it starts to immediately collect data. This means that test answers are recorded in the results. We recommend clearing your respondent data before you start the real data collection period.

1. Go to Results and choose the Hide respondents tab.

2. Choose the dates by which you want to filter respondents. If you just want to delete all data collected so far, you can skip this step.

3. Each code on the list corresponds to a test respondent. Tick the checkboxes next to the respondents whose data you want to remove from results and the analysis tool.