IntelliSurvey quick start guide

This guide outlines the typical workflow for survey creators in a market research project using IntelliSurvey's platform.

After logging in, you'll be taken to IntelliSurvey's "Home page," also known as the Survey Navigator, where you'll find a list of all surveys you have access to. From here, open existing surveys or create new ones. The left menu provides system-level navigation, while the upper-right controls let you open a survey, access the documentation, and edit your user profile.

Quick start video 1

The first video in this article provides a brief overview of building and testing surveys. To skip ahead to the next video, click here.

Creating a new survey

In the system navigation menu, click on New Survey to create a new survey.

Notice the first field is the ID. The ID is the file name of the survey and will appear in the URL. To maintain confidentiality, avoid including client or project-specific details.

To set up your survey:

1. A survey ID is generated automatically. Replace this with your preferred survey ID. IDs should be all lowercase and cannot contain spaces or special characters, though underscores are permitted. Once the survey is created, the ID cannot be changed.
2. Next, add a Survey Description, it will appear at the top of the screen and is visible to anyone with survey access.
3. The Theme, Primary Country, and Language(s) are pre-set, but you can change them as needed.
4. Choose your editing mode, discussed in detail in the next section.

Choosing your editor

IntelliBuilder

The IntelliBuilder (IB) editor is our menu-based survey creation tool that requires no coding. It's ideal for collaborative survey design, allowing surveys to be built from scratch or by copying and pasting survey content from questionnaires. Surveys created in IB can later be switched to survey programming language (SPL) editing, making it a practical way to learn SPL while building.

To start:

1. Click New Question to add a new question or survey element.
2. Choose the type.
3. Fill in all the required fields, and click Apply.
4. When you are satisfied with your edits and ready to save them, click on the Save Version option in the top-right corner of the IB toolbar.

SPL

If you're programming from a questionnaire and are familiar with our survey programming language, then the SPL editor is generally the faster option.

Our best-practice approach for creating SPL "base code" is to:

1. Copy and modify a Word document directly so you have a backup.
2. Remove all unnecessary instructions or spacing, and anything else that won't be used in the final survey. This includes rich text formatting in programming instructions.
3. Save this file as a .txt file.
4. Use the File Importer tool found in the top right of the toolbar to upload the .txt file.
5. Adjust lists with lettered options to use numbered options instead. Lists with numbers will be easier to reference later on.
6. Replace question instructions like 'single select', '[SC]', etc. with the appropriate SPL tags, e.g., types, groups, instructions, etc. Click Ctrl/control+space to access the snippets library to conveniently find these tags.
   
7. For items that are more complicated or that will be worked on later, use comments. Single lines are commented with a '#' at the line start; block comments start with '/*' before the first line and end with '*/'.
   
8. Once you believe the code is correct, click Save Version in the top right of the screen.
9. Review the version comparison, and click Commit Changes.
10. Review any errors, cautions, and warnings. Click Back to Editor in the top right of the screen to correct the issues and try again, until the survey parses (builds) successfully.

Quick start video 2

The second video in this article covers how to add users, publish your survey, creating and managing quotas, and adding panels to your survey. To skip ahead to the final video in this article, click here.

Adding users

At IntelliSurvey, there are two levels of user permissions: system and survey.

• System permissions control global access, including managing themes and resources, default survey visibility, and adding users.
• Survey permissions control access to individual surveys, including editing surveys, managing files, and viewing data.

For more information on system and survey roles, go to the system navigation menu > Admin > Roles.

Adding users to the system

The two most commonly assigned system roles are Standard User and Survey Creator. When adding a new user, decide if survey creation should be allowed — this determines whether to assign a Standard or Survey Creator role.

To add users to the system:

1. Go to system navigation menu > Admin > System Users.
2. Click New User in the upper-right corner.
3. Enter the user's first name, last name, and email address.
4. Select a system role.
5. Click Create. An email will be sent to the provided address for the new user to complete their account setup.

Adding users to a survey

To add users to a specific survey:

1. Go to survey navigation menu > Settings > Survey Users.
2. Click Add in the upper-right corner.
3. Choose the primary survey role.
4. Select any "add-on" permissions you want to give (for example, Manage Quotas).
5. Enter the user's email address; multiple email addresses may be added, one per line. To add a user group, type "@" to access a list of previously added user groups.
6. Click Add Users/Groups to finish.

Editing your survey

After the initial survey build, you'll likely want to add to or edit your survey content. To access the editor, go to the survey navigation menu > Build > Editor.

The editor you selected when creating the survey will be the default editor. Use the Editor Mode dropdown on left side of the toolbar to switch.

IntelliBuilder editing is best suited for:

- Simple collaborative edits with client/researcher input.
- Simultaneous work on different survey sections by multiple users.
- Proofreading while the team adds content.

Survey Source editing best suited for:

- Quickly establishing base survey content.
- Applying advanced respondent exercises like conjoints or complex pathing.
- Managing translations.

Testing your survey

Testing your survey as a respondent is vital to ensuring it meets specifications. Several links with various test modes are available, but we suggest you "power test" the survey by running it in Testmode. You can quickly test multiple termination (screen-out) points, review stored values, edit stored values for testing purposes, and branch out to multiple paths for efficient testing. 

To access Testmode, go to Build > Testing > Test Survey in the survey navigation menu.

Lastly, the following video provides a brief overview of some of the testing tools available.

Draft and published versions

A Draft is the latest saved survey version, used for editing and testing without affecting the live survey. It's a safe space with limited access to other users.

A Published version is the live survey that respondents see. It's an active survey space.

• Draft — This is always the most recently saved survey version. It's your sandbox where every newly saved version will be seen via Draft testing links when the survey page is refreshed or submitted. A Draft version does not have to be published. In fact, you can create as many Draft versions as needed without ever publishing them. 
• Pub — This is the version that is created when a survey is published. Surveys in field (live) should always use the live link for the Published version of the survey.

Quotas

Quotas allow for tracking and capping the number of respondents in particular categories. Quotas can be set up in either editing mode and are primarily managed in Quotas. In Quotas, users input a maximum number, also known as a quota target or quota "cap," for each quota group.

To open Quotas, go to Field > Quotas > Quotas in the survey navigation menu.

Creating quotas

Quotas can be created in multiple ways in either IB or the SPL editor.

Via IntelliBuilder

• Add a new quota variable by clicking New Question and selecting Quota under STRUCTURAL, or
• When creating a new simple question type, select Quota from the Add New Property dropdown menu.

Via SPL

• Use quotas: y on a radio, checkbox, or pulldown question,
• Use the type: quotas tag on a question with conditioned options, or
• Quotas like gender by age, called crosslist quotas, are created by forming a new crosslist and then using that list with the optsfrom tag at the quota variable.

set list: GENAGE
crosslists: QGENDER, QAGE

GENDERAGE. Gender by age
type: quotas
optsfrom: GENAGE

Setting quotas

Your survey must be published to open Quotas.

Surveys are generally "soft launched" with reduced quota targets to review early data. Set quota targets/caps to prevent any overages.

Each quota is displayed in its own table with editable light-blue cells in the Quota column. Click a cell to set a target, then press Enter or click outside the cell to save.

A simple quota includes one Quota column, along with additional detail columns.

Crosslist quotas display one list as rows (e.g., QGENDER) and the other as columns (e.g., QAGE). Outcomes appear as fractions, showing completes against the category’s maximum (if set). If no maximum is defined, a double dash (--) is shown.

Integrating panel vendors

Use Panels to integrate vendors into your survey. Panels helps survey Field Managers and Makers manage panel-related tasks in one place, including adding panels, finding invite links, and editing redirects.

To access Panels, go to Field > Audiences > Panels in the survey navigation menu.

1. Go to the survey navigation menu, Field > Audiences > Panels.
2. Choose a panel from the Add Panel dropdown menu.
3. Review and adjust the Entry Link Format and edit Redirect Links if needed.

Panel vendors usually test both survey completions and terminations, sharing respondent IDs for verification. Panel vendors may also need to be added to the survey in order to review data and manage quotas.

Setting to Field stage

Surveys can be in one of four stages: Build, Field, Analyze, or Archived. New surveys start in Build, used for programming and testing. Then, switch to Field when you are ready for live respondents to take the survey. Finally, use Analyze to close the survey.

The current stage is shown in the banner at the top of the Metrics tab in Fielding Overview.

To change the survey's stage from Build to Field, for example, click Change Stage, select Field, and click Submit.

Quick start video 3

The final video in this article discusses the "soft launch" testing process, performing data checks, creating reports, and closing your survey.

Soft launch

Vendors will use their entry links to begin fielding towards your soft launch goal. Once the quota targets are met, any additional respondents will be routed to the "Over Quota" end links provided by your vendors.

If you need more data, our platform also offers two tools to fabricate data: Dummy Data and Simulated Data (Beta).

Both tools generate test records and populate all relevant survey fields as an actual respondent would. Use either one to verify programming logic (skip patterns, and validations, and more) or to preview reports. Note, Simulated Data has different customization options from Dummy Data, is faster, and can run in the background.

To auto-generate data, go to Build > Testing > Simulated Data/Dummy Data in the survey's left navigation menu.

Data checking

Survey data is the final deliverable, so ensuring its accuracy is critical. There are several reporting tools to support this review process. Additionally, Deliverables, provides a central location to view, edit, download, or upload saved reports and exports.

• • • Frequency Reports: Show response counts by question and option, helpful for verifying skip logic.
    • Response Reports: Display individual responses for a limited set of questions.
    • Crosstabs: Provide robust tabulations for deeper data review.
    • Charts: Visualize your survey data with graphs.
    • Base Counts: Quickly confirm the number of responses per survey field.
    • Page Report: Present aggregate metadata by page, useful for evaluating the respondent experience.
    • Activity tile: Contains any notices or warnings generated by respondents taking the survey.

Full launch

Once you have verified your survey's performance and data, you're ready to gather your full "N" (number of completes). Adjust your quota targets, give your panel vendors the OK to proceed, and monitor your progress using the Quotas and various reporting tools.

Close survey

When your survey is completed, we have two Analyze stages to accommodate its closure:

• Soft close: If you have a few active respondents finishing up the survey, choose this option. In progress respondents will be allowed to complete, while new respondents will be turned away.
• Hard close: Choose this option to turn away all respondents immediately.

Finding help

If you ever need a hand, we are here to help. There are several ways to get assistance:

• Documentation: Visit help.intellisurvey.com or click the ? icon in the global header to access the Help Center. The Help Center includes guides for using the platform and programming surveys with our proprietary survey programming language (SPL). A short video on this topic can be found here.
• Video repository: New videos are added regularly to our Vimeo account and the Video guides for IS Pro article. Bookmark these pages and check back often.
• Support Chat: In the Help Center, click the Help icon at the bottom-right to search documentation, leave a message, or chat with a Support agent during support hours. See Contacting Support for details.
• Email: Send questions to help@intellisurvey.com. Always include your survey link and all relevant details. Support typically responds within one hour during business hours (9 a.m.–5 p.m. PT, GMT-7).