Locked lesson.
About this lesson
Add branching to a form to skip over certain questions.
Exercise files
Download this lesson’s related exercise files.
4.03 create-branches-within-a-form - Exercise.docx91.7 KB 4.03 create-branches-within-a-form - Exercise solution.docx
225.3 KB
Quick reference
Add Branching to a Form
Add branching to a form whenever you want to skip to or skip over certain questions.
Instructions
What is Branching?
We add branching to a form when we want to control the user journey through the form.
For example, in the 'Customer Satisfaction Survey' for the 'Happy Flame Candle Company', the first question allows us to select 'Other' as the answer.
If a responder selects 'Other', we want them to move to the question which asks them to expand on their answer. If the responder selects any other option, we want them to move to question 3.
The question presented to the responder is different depending on what they selected in question 1.
This is called branching.
Add Branching
- Click in question 1.
- Click the three dots and click Add branching.
- In the Go to field, click the drop-down arrow and select the section or question this option should move to if selected.
Note: If you do not have sections in your form, you will see the questions listed.
- Select '2. Our Product Range' for the first 4 options.
- Select 'Next' for the 'Other' option.
Note: Selecting 'Next' will move to the next question on the form.
Reset Branching
If we need to reset the branching back to how it was originally, we can click the three dots next to the Branching options title and click Reset.
Preview and Test
Let's test to see if the branching is working as expected.
- Click the Preview button.
- Preview in Computer mode.
- Select 'Promotional Ad' for the first question.
- Click Next.
We should jump to section 2 'Product Range'.
- Click the Back button.
- This time select 'Other'.
- Start to type the word 'Advert'.
Question number 2 should appear where we can more detail.
Hints & tips
- The form will renumber questions accordingly.
- 00:03 We can add branching to questions that essentially allows us to control how
- 00:08 responders move through our form.
- 00:11 So let me show you an example so you understand exactly what I mean.
- 00:14 So we are still working in the customer satisfaction survey, and if you recall,
- 00:19 we added question 1 where we asked people, how did you find out about Happy Flame.
- 00:24 And they could choose any of the given answers or
- 00:27 they could choose Other at the bottom.
- 00:29 Now if they select Other, question 2 says, if you selected Other in
- 00:34 the previous question, how did you hear about Happy Flame?
- 00:39 Now if they didn't select Other in the first question maybe they selected
- 00:43 Promotional Ad, then question number 2 isn't relevant.
- 00:46 So effectively what I want to do here is if they select any of the first four
- 00:51 options, they move straight on to question number 3,
- 00:54 whereas if they select Other, they move on to question number 2.
- 00:59 So we have two different outcomes, two different branches depending
- 01:03 on what the responder's selection has been for question 1.
- 01:07 So let's take a look at how we set this up.
- 01:09 So we're going to go to the first question.
- 01:11 We're going to click on it.
- 01:12 So we go into edit mode.
- 01:14 If we click the three dots in the bottom right-hand corner, we can Add branching.
- 01:20 And what we get here are Go to options.
- 01:23 So we can specify what question we want this particular answer to go to.
- 01:28 So what I would do here is for these first four, I'm going to say go to section 2.
- 01:33 Whereas for Other, we're just going to say go to next.
- 01:38 Now it's also worth noting that if you want to reset and start again,
- 01:41 we can click the three dots at the top here and we have a reset option.
- 01:45 But I'm pretty happy with how this looks.
- 01:47 Let's click the Back arrow and give this a test.
- 01:50 So we're going to jump into Preview mode, and the first
- 01:53 thing you'll notice when you come into here is that we can only see one question.
- 01:58 Previously, we could see all of the questions listed on the form.
- 02:01 Now that is because we've added branching.
- 02:04 We could go off in one of two directions.
- 02:07 So first of all, let's select Promotional Ad and click Next, and
- 02:12 it jumps us to the Our Product Range section.
- 02:15 Now notice what it's also done.
- 02:17 Just to retain workflow, the form has actually renumbered this question
- 02:22 as question number 2 because to this user, this is question number 2.
- 02:27 It's actually question number 3 in the form if we include that other question in
- 02:32 the middle.
- 02:33 So, it's quite clever in that way.
- 02:35 It will renumber according to what you've selected.
- 02:38 Now, if we go back, let's click the Back button.
- 02:42 Now, this time we're going to click in Other.
- 02:44 And I'm going to start to type something.
- 02:49 Now as soon as I start to type advert, check out what happens.
- 02:52 It pulls up if you selected Other in the previous question,
- 02:56 how did you hear about Happy Flame?
- 02:58 So I could type in advert and then I could add more detail about exactly which
- 03:03 newspaper or magazine I saw the advert in.
- 03:06 So now I've added a bit more detail.
- 03:07 If I click on it Next, it's then going to move on to question 3.
- 03:12 And for this particular user, this is question 3 and not question 2.
- 03:17 So that is how branching works.
- 03:19 It can be really useful to guide your users through the form and
- 03:23 make it nice and logical.
Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.