What is a Dynamic Questionnaire? What's the Need for It?

A dynamic questionnaire is a questionnaire that is context-aware, meaning it asks the users the right amount of questions at the right time for the right purpose. This enables companies to not overwhelm and confuse users and significantly improve the user's experience.

Questionnaires play an important role in data collection such as surveys, application form filling, and etc. What are the different challenges posed by traditional questionnaires that can be addressed by dynamic questionnaires?

  • Lack of personalization
    The questionnaire may contain unrelated and unnecessary questions.
    Example: If a user is applying for a mortgage as a single applicant, showing the questions related to the secondary applicant leads to a lack of personalization confusing the user.
  • Lengthy questionnaires
    The questionnaire may contain a long list of questions, with the possibility of repeated questions.
    Example: If you display all the questions in one page as one block of a long list of questions, instead of separating and paging as necessary, users will feel overwhelmed and uninterested in responding.
  • Skipped questions
    There is a high chance of missing and ignoring questions in questionnaires.
    Example: In a mortgage application, when you ask the user to enter the amounts for each expense type (i.e. glossaries, entertainment, charity, etc.), they can be easily missed, leading to inaccurate data collection.

A dynamic questionnaire is a more effective and efficient way of overcoming these challenges. When you select the questions in real-time, you can personalize them according to the user, show only the related questions and ensure that all the necessary questions are answered without missing. It helps to get accurate responses lowering the form abandonment rate.

Next, we are going to discuss when to use a dynamic questionnaire.

When Can You Use Dynamic Questionnaires?

There are numerous occasions that you can use dynamic questionnaires.

  • Surveys
    A questionnaire is one of the key data collecting approaches in surveys. Market research and getting customer feedback are some of the examples. Presenting a set of personalized questions dynamically can ensure you get a higher number of responses without frustrating the users. Also, when you collect only the necessary data, it is easier to analyze the consolidated responses at the end.
  • Application Forms
    This is a very common use case. Insurance applications, insurance claims, loan request applications, quotation request forms are some of the examples. In these scenarios, it is very crucial to get accurate data as these data can go a long way in making important decisions on the applicants.

Now let’s see how we can easily select the questions dynamically, with the help of a decision engine.

Dynamically Selecting the Questions

The following sample project building a dynamic questionnaire using the FlexRule decision automation platform shows how to select the questions dynamically. FlexRule's decision engine decides which question to be displayed based on the answer provided by the user.

We used a Decision Table to define the questions, answers, and the next question. The questions can be in any data type in any type of form field. For example,

  • Single answer (i.e. Numeric, Text, Boolean, etc.)
  • Multiple choice (i.e. Selection of multiple items by users)
  • Open-ended questions (i.e. User may write a paragraph as the answer)
  • Ranking questions (i.e. Rank from a minimum number to a maximum number)
  • Matrix questions (i.e. A few questions in a row with the same response option for each)
  • File upload questions (i.e. Upload a file in a given file type as the response)
  • Slider questions (i.e. Provide a slider to quantify the response)

Then, the Decision Tables were connected in a Decision Requirement Diagram (DRD). This allows defining the hierarchy of questions to be displayed.

Dynamic questionnaire

 

This method of creating dynamic questionnaires ensures that only the necessary questions are displayed instead of bombarding the users with a list of unrelated questions.

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Dynamic Questionnaire for a Better User Experience

The purpose of a questionnaire is to get quality data that will be interpreted into decisions. That means, to make the right decision, you need to collect the right data. The days of filling long forms with an endless number of fields is outdated as the customers require a more efficient way of answering questions. Sifting through all the questions thinking which question to answer overwhelm the users. Showing the necessary questions makes it easier to answer and easier to analyze making the whole process time-efficient for both the users and businesses. That’s why a dynamic questionnaire makes quality decisions faster. In the end, quality decisions always lead to producing a high return on investment.

Last updated November 3rd, 2021 at 01:55 pm, Published September 15th, 2021 at 01:55 pm