Using multiple choice questions

On this page:

• About multiple choice questions
• Five steps to writing an excellent multiple choice question

About multiple choice questions

• One or more multiple choice questions can be added anywhere in your test plan.
• When creating a multiple-choice question, you can limit contributors to one answer or allow multiple selections.

Example multiple choice questions

• Which of the following did you first notice when you saw this page?
• Based on the information you see, which of the following actions would you take next?
• Which of the designs was more visually appealing?
• Which of the following features is most important to you?
• Based on what you saw on this page, which of the following statements is true?

Five steps to writing an excellent multiple choice question

1. Provide clear and distinct answers.

• Make sure your answers are mutually exclusive and each answer can stand alone.
• Avoid special characters like asterisks, dashes, or periods in your multiple choice answer options.
• This could cause issues, such as answer options not displaying correctly or the participant being unable to move on to the next task.

2. Provide a "None of the above", "I don't know", or "Other" option.

• This will prevent your data from being skewed by providing an “out”.

3. Don't ask leading questions or yes/no questions.

• When participants can easily predict which answer you want from them, they’ll be more likely to choose that answer, even if it isn’t accurate.

4. Ask the participant to "Please explain your answer."

• Most participants realize that this is implied, but it never hurts to include this small prompt to help them articulate the thinking behind their choice.
• This is especially important when you're inviting your own participants via a direct link to the test because those individuals will be more familiar with completing surveys silently than thinking out loud.

5. Decide whether participants can select more than one answer.

• In some scenarios, it might make sense to let participants choose multiple answers that apply to them.
• You'll see the option to do this when you're creating the task.
  
• If you're allowing participants to select more than one answer, this text will automatically be included with your task: You may choose as many as you like.
  
  

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