Using Skip Logic
Skip Logic refers to a programming setup where a participant may be ‘skipped’ over a specific question (or set of questions) based on their response to a previous Task. This type of set up is typically used when subsequent questions can become irrelevant to a participant based on their previous responses. For example, if a participant indicates that they do not own a car, they could be skipped over any questions regarding car ownership.
TIP: Leveraging skip logic and segmentation can allow you to easily filter participants' responses during analysis. For example, a Task could be configured to skip participants over a task if they do not own a car, as well as add them to a ‘Does not own a car’ segment, allowing you to filter on participants who do not own a car during analysis.
There are two Task Types that can be used to leverage Skip Logic:
Poll Tasks and
Prompt Tasks.
Using Skip Logic in a Poll Task
Polls are excellent for generating more quantitative data within Recollective, but Skip Logic can also be leveraged to collect additional qualitative data by asking participants unique follow-up questions specific to the choice they made.
When setting up your Poll choices, under
Show Advanced Options, you have the ability to set up custom
destinations for each Poll choice. The default destination is the next task, but there are several other destinations to choose from. We have detailed 3 of these options below, but you can review our
Task Type: Poll article for more information on the remaining destinations:
- Jump to a Task: Allows you to Skip participants to another Task within the same Activity. When selected, a new drop down field will appear, allowing you to select the Task you would like to send participants to if they select this choice. This is useful for skipping participants over a small number of questions that are not relevant to them.
- Another Activity: Allows you to Skip participants to another Activity entirely. This can be useful for skipping participants over the remainder of an activity if it is no longer applicable to them.
- Discussion Tab: Allows you to send participants to the Discussions tab. This is useful for encouraging participants to engage in a socialized discussion.
It’s important to note that if you plan on sending participants to another activity (or to the discussion tab) and do not want to require them to return and complete the original activity, you should also select Complete Activity under the destination field. This will ensure that participants don’t need to return to complete the remainder of this Activity
Using Skip Logic in a Prompt Task
Prompt Tasks are often used as an introductory, closing, or instructional buffer. However, the ability to configure multiple buttons allows this Task type to operate very similarly to a Poll Task. All of the same destination options are available for each programmed ‘button’ in your Prompt Task.
Skip Logic vs Segmentation Logic
Skip Logic will direct participants to the intended destination, but depending on your study needs you may require more complex branching or logic. This can be accomplished by adding
Segmentation logic to your Prompt or Poll choices.
For example, let's say that you have a Yes or No Poll question and you have some tasks that should be limited to participants who select Yes, and some tasks that should be limited to participants who select No. You can configure each of your choices to add participants to unique segments that you can then use to limit the visibility of your follow up questions.
- Create your basic segments for each choice. You can review our Adding New Basic Segments article for more information on creating segments.
- Navigate to your poll task and select one of your choices.
- Use the drop-down menu under Add to Segments to select your new segment.
- Save your changes.
- Navigate to an applicable follow-up Task
- Enable Limit Task Visibility at the bottom of the page
- Select the corresponding segment.
This will ensure that only those who select ‘Yes’ in the initial Poll will have access to the follow-up ‘Yes-related’ question(s), and vice-versa for those who select ‘No’. Participants who are
not a part of the segment will not have access to complete the Task.
Not only does this ensure the most seamless participant experience, it also provides you a quick high-level option to filter by once you enter the analysis phase of your project, as you can easily filter responses by these relevant segments.
Testing Skip Logic
When testing your programmed study settings, it’s important to note the distinctions between the two Preview options.
Using the
Preview tool at the Activity level is sufficient for testing Skip Logic, however it cannot be used to test Segmentation Logic. Activity level Previewing allows you to preview every single Task within an Activity. This is useful for testing Task configurations, but should not be used to test Segmentation Logic. If you want to test your Segmentation Logic, you should always use the dedicated
Preview Mode under the study Admin menu. This will be your closest representation of the participant experience.