Slider question

What is a slider question?

Slider scale questions let respondents rate an answer option on a numerical scale by dragging a slider. Respondents drag the sliding bar to log their answers. Sliding bar questions are a type of graphical rating question types. Respondents don’t have to enter any text or number to answer a question.

Slider rating scales allow researchers to produce question and answer styles that incorporate a more extensive range of answers and enable animation and interactivity. With slider questions in a survey, the respondents can select values by dragging a slider through the range.

Slider questions are particularly useful when respondents want to enter a response that's between two digits. For instance, assume the availables options are five, ten, fifteen and twenty. What if the respondents want to answer thirteen? In that case, they will select a choice that does not resemble their actual answer. It might lead to inaccurate results and hence inaccurate insights. Slider scale questions removes this limitation of multiple-choice questions and lets the respondents choose any option between zero to twenty.

Example of a sliding scale survey question

You can build slider survey questions for:

• How much time do you spend on the below activities?
• How often do you have below cuisines?
• How satisfied are you with the following?

Types of slider questions in a sliding scale survey

• Text slider: A text sliding scale question slides over textual answer options. Based on the point at which the respondent has left the indicator, the answer will be selected.
• Numerical slider: A numerical sliding scale question slider over binary answer options. Respondents can slide the indicator towards the right or left to increase or decrease the number, respectively.

Slider question in online surveys

You can set the starting position of the slider scale question to avoid the bias that creeps in the data. Respondents tend to drag and drop the slider that is close to the starting point. Reports generated from such results do not offer much value. You can set the slider for both numeric slider and text slider questions.

QuestionPro offers below options to set the start position of numeric sliding scale question.

• Default
• Left
• Middle
• Right
• Custom

For the text slider question, you can set position to below options.

• Default
• Column name

You can also choose to display answer selected by respondents. It is particularly helpful in numeric slider questions with a small step size.

Uses of slider survey questions

Survey slider questions are generally used when there are multiple answer options. Although you can be used this question type for a single answer option too. The slider is a great way to engage your audience with an interactive text or numeric sliding scale.

Advantages of slider questions

• Gather feedback on multiple items: Sliding question types let you collect feedback on multiple items related to the same question at one go. So, you don't need to add multiple questions.
• Easy to answer: Respondents have to just drag the slider to answer the question. Thus, it takes very little effort on their side to answer the question. It improves the overall survey-taking experience of the participants.
• Quick to answer: Respondents can share more feedback in less time. They just have to click on the sliding bar to answer the question.
• Works well on both desktop and mobile: Slider questions work well on both desktop and mobile and look equally good.

How to use a slider question to create a sliding scale survey?

Check out our help document on the slider scale question for a better understanding of how it works.