Nine ways to level up your research with Typeform

Typeform’s flexible form builder, array of integrations, and robust reporting capabilities make it an ideal tool for survey-based research. Read on to find out more about how you can use Typeform for research projects.

Design questions for easy analysis

Cleaning up messy data can be a slog. Do your future self a favor: create questions for neat and statistically defensible analysis later on. Typeform makes this easy by offering a range of question types with clearly defined options, including Multiple Choice, Opinion Scale, Matrix and Rating questions, and more.

You can also enable Multiple Selection to let participants pick more than one answer, and set questions as Required to make sure that you get all the data you need.

Check out this article for tips on designing survey questions.

Give participants a friendly heads-up

No one likes taking a survey that drags on for ages, even if it’s user-friendly and well-designed. Enable the Time to complete feature to let participants know how much time they can expect to spend on your form.

Show participants the questions that matter to them

With Logic, you can improve survey experience for participants by showing them only relevant questions—and there’s no need to create multi-page surveys or different survey versions to achieve this!

Think out your question order beforehand, then use Logic to direct participants down different question paths depending on their answers to previous questions. If you’ve included open-ended questions, like a Short or Long Text question, you can even set up question paths for answers containing certain words.

Finally, if you’re on a Plus plan or above, you can include links in your End Screens or use URL redirects to take your participants to a relevant webpage after they finish your survey.

Personalize your form for your population

Filling out a form can seem like a cookie-cutter interaction, but Typeform makes it easy to shorten the distance between researcher and participant. Use Recall information or variables to incorporate tform answers into later questions, like asking for your participant’s name and then using that name throughout the rest of the form.

Figuring out where your participant sample is coming from can also be important for evaluating the validity of your conclusions. You can use Hidden Fields to insert certain information about your respondents right in the URL of the form. For example, if you’re collecting research from multiple sources, like a form that’s sent through an email and shared on Facebook and Twitter, you can include this in the form link.

Later, once you’ve gotten results, you can check up on how many respondents came from each source, and take into account what impact this might have had on your data.

Create a no-sweat consent process

Getting consent to use participant information is essential to any research process. Typeform offers various options to make sure you’re asking for participant permission in the right way.

Legal questions have built-in phrasing that makes sure participants are agreeing to the conditions you give them. Setting a Legal question as Required will prevent participants from sending their answers until they give their agreement:

If you’d like participants to be able to opt out of certain data uses, you can also use Yes/No questions:

Collect organized contact information

Depending on the nature of your research, you may want to follow up with participants after they complete your survey. Question types like Contact Info, Phone Number, Email, and Website will make sure that contact details are correctly formatted, saving you the headache of trying to guess webpage domains or country codes.

Implement accessibility strategies

Working on your form’s accessibility makes it possible for a wider group to participate in your research. This article gives a few helpful pointers on how you can format your form to make it more accessible according to WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).

Generate easy-to-read reports right from Typeform

Once your form has gone live, all responses it receives will be stored in the Results panel. You’ll be able to download a summary overview of your results, and can also look through, filter, and export individual responses. (If you’re on a Business plan, you’ll be able to dig even deeper into your data with question-by-question insights!)

Stream your results into your favorite apps

Dozens of integrations are available on Typeform from your form’s Connect panel (our Google Sheets integration is great for research purposes!). If your favorite integration isn’t available through Typeform yet, you can also use Zapier to set up a link between your form and any other apps you need.