New feature release: Matrix and Ranking questions

New year, new Optimal Workshop feature! Today, we’re launching a new question type – ranking questions. We also launched matrix questions towards the end of 2020, and the addition of these two question types is bound to make your research more robust and versatile.

Why have we added these question types?

In addition to being the most asked-for new question types from our customers, matrix and ranking questions give you more flexibility to ask different types of questions and the opportunity to assess a number of variables against a set of criteria.

Matrix and ranking questions make your and your participants’ lives easier. They’re easier and quicker to set up than current options, offer your participants a simpler experience, and provide sophisticated insights. 

Matrix questions enable participants to answer a number of questions within one, saving them time and making it feel less like a labored effort – having to answer question after question. 

Ranking questions, on the other hand, make life easier for both you and your participants. In the past, you would need to create a separate OptimalSort study, link to it, and have participants rank cards there – a big workaround. Now, you can create your ranking questions within your study. No time-consuming workarounds for you; no moving to and fro within studies for your participants. It’s a win-win!

Research on the go

If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that we need to be flexible to the needs of our users. That’s why we’ve made these features completely mobile-friendly – making it easier for your participants to engage with and complete your surveys, no matter where they are or what device they’re on.

When should I use these features?

Matrix questions

Use matrix questions when you want to ask several questions focused on the same theme, or if your questions all have the same scale or x-axis. This is a good way to present multiple questions in one, in order to save space in your survey. It also helps to reduce participant drop out as people typically don’t want to answer a number of similar questions in a row.

Ranking questions

Use ranking questions when you want to work out what is most important for your participants within a series of options. Ranking questions asks respondents to compare a list of items and sort them by a specific criteria, for example: preference, agreement, difficulty, confidence, likelihood, satisfaction, importance, even shoe size!

Powerful analysis

It’s no secret our platform of 5 UX tools is packed with analysis functionality – but we’re constantly working to add even more.

With the release of matrix and ranking questions, you will find a number of new analysis tools that you can use to draw results directly from your surveys.

Matrix questions

There are two different ways to view your matrix question results; in a grid or in a chart. There are also different color options to help you differentiate between the results.

• The grid view shows the weighting of your participants’ answers through color gradient and percentage. You can choose to color by row or column.
• The chart view shows the weighting of your participants’ answers by bar height. 

Ranking questions

There are three options to show results for ranking questions. There are also different color options to help you differentiate between the results.

• The table view uses mean and median to show you where an item is ranked on average, while standard deviation shows you how distributed the choices are.

• The box plot view shows a similar aspect to the table view – you can see the lowest and highest ranking of each item across all participants.

• The grid view shows you the percentage of participants that ranked each specific item per rank (for example in the image below, 37.5% of participants ranked Instagram as their most used social media platform).

Greater confidence and the ability to export data

The analysis functionalities in matrix and ranking questions make it easier for you to slice and dice your data and draw out the insights you need. Each of the analysis options help you to understand different aspects of the same data, ensuring you can make confident decisions. 

There’s also the option to export data and do your own analysis/deep dive or if you want it 100% customized (get all the data you need to do your own analysis) – we provide three versions to give you a presentable format.