Because Skip Logic allows for complex behaviour, and users' requirements can be extremely varied, This guide can only focus on generalities and capabilities, rather then providing "how-tos". If you need more specific help with setting up a specific Skip Logic scenario, contact support or your account manager.
Advanced Skip Logic involves applying rules when the respondent selects multiple answers for one question, so you will need to be familiar with using basic skip logic.
As with basic skip logic, you will need to plan your survey out before you start designing it. You will also need to use different pages to organise your questions, so that the correct page can be loaded according to the rules you decide upon.
For example, a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ question only has two possible answers. But if you ask somebody to tick more than one checkbox, you need rules that can act on all of the different combinations.
Creating a Survey With Advanced Skip Logic
Create your survey, working to the plan you’ve drawn up. Ensure that your pages align with the places where you need to add Skip Logic. Naming your pages descriptively, according to the answer each one is associated with, will make it easier to associate the correct page with each rule applied to it.
- In the Design page, next to the first question where logic needs to be applied, click Skip Logic
- Click Add New Rule
- Select the Condition and Choice to determine the criteria for the rule to be applied
- The Condition is the action that triggers the logic
- The Choice in the drop-down menu is the selection that the respondent will make to trigger it
- Select the Action and Page to determine how the survey will behave once this rule runs
- The Action determines what will happen
- The Page in the drop-down menu is the destination that the respondent will be sent to
- If more skip logic is needed, repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 to add a rule for each question choice
- Click Save and Close Page
An Example of Advanced Skip Logic
We can illustrate advanced skip logic with an example.
- Question 1 asks the respondent to select the electronic devices they use at home. We have 5 options: Games Console, Laptop, Smartphone, Tablet and Smart TV
- Depending on which devices the user selects, we want to ask them questions about the devices they have. We want to skip questions about the ones they do not select
In order to do this, we assign a page to each electronic device. We then create logic that only displays the pages associated with those devices.
The rule on Question 1 would be as follows:
- Condition would be Choice is not
- Choice would be Games Console
- Action would be Skip Over Page
- Page would be the name you had set for page 2, such as Games Console Questions
This rule says that anyone who does not choose ‘Games Console’ skips the Game Console Questions page.
We would then repeat the process for the next answer choice:
- Condition would be Choice is not
- Choice would be Laptop
- Action would be Skip Over Page
- Page would be the name you had set for page 3, such as Laptop Questions
- Repeat for all choices in the list
Once Question 1 is submitted, the survey will proceed to the pages selected. It will skip over the ones that were not selected.
Answering or Not Answering a Question
In addition to basing a Skip Logic rule on the answer given to a question, you can also set a rule to trigger based on solely on whether the question is answered or not.
To trigger a rule when the respondent answers the question, choose "Respondent answers this question" from the drop down with the "Choice" options.
To trigger a rule when the respondent does not answer the questions, choose "Respondent skips this question" from the drop-down with the "Choice" options.
A respondent is considered to have answered the question if they enter anything (valid, if validatioon is applied) into a free text box question, or to have selected an option for a multiple choice question.
Multiple Criteria
It's not possible to create a rule that will only trigger based on more than one criteria being met (Unless it's an "any of, or "none of" a set of answers). For example, a rule which only triggers when A and B are selected out of a choice of ABCDE, isn't directly possible. However in this case, you could:
- Require that the respondent chooses two options using question validation.
- Set a rule that triggers when None of C,D,E are chosen.
This will have the same effect of a rule that will only trigger on A and B.
Combining with Page Logic
More advanced or complex behaviour is possible by combining Skip Logic with the "after this page" function of Page Logic.
On any page that has both Page Logic and Skip Logic on it, any Skip Logic rules that have been activated by a respondent will over-ride any Page Logic rules.
This means that you can make your defauilt behaviour on a page to be to go to the next page, go to any page, or end the survey, and then selectively over-ride that with a skip logic rule.
This approach makes it possible to get behaviours that are otherwise not possible using just the skip logic rules.