Questionnaire Platform design

Timeframe

2024

Project

Alice

Category

SaaS

Manager

Cynthia

1. Project Background

In our online education business, we sometimes need to send questionnaires to students to support tasks such as course content iteration and class placement based on student profiles.Since these questionnaires are distributed within our own app and involve sensitive data, we have decided to develop an in-house questionnaire platform.

A questionnaire involves two key components:

  1. The Questionnaire itself
  2. The Survey Campaign, which defines the distribution scope (e.g., who can answer the questionnaire and when it starts and ends)

The same questionnaire can be used across multiple survey campaigns with different settings.

1.1 Core Functional Modules

  1. Questionnaire Repository
    • Create, edit, duplicate, and delete questionnaires
    • Support multiple question types (e.g., single choice, multiple choice, open-ended)
    • Allow flexible management of question order and content
  2. Survey Campaign
    • Link to an existing questionnaire
    • Define distribution scope based on tags (e.g., student grade, subject, class type, etc.)
    • Configure start and end time for answering the questionnaire
    • Support manual termination of a campaign in extreme cases (e.g., major errors in the questionnaire content)
  3. Questionnaire System Access Control
    • Only specific departments are allowed to launch survey campaigns
    • The system is designed to integrate with the data governance structure

2. Page Structure and Interaction Design

Core workflow

Questionnaire Library Page
Survey Campaign Page
Tap image to scroll down for details.

2.1.  Questionnaire Library Page

Let’s start with the questionnaire section. On the Questionnaire Library page, clicking “Create Questionnaire” will open a pop-up with the same name.

Once a questionnaire type is selected at the top, the corresponding configuration options will be displayed.

Each questionnaire allows you to set a name and add multiple questions. The first version of the system supports single-choice, multiple-choice, and open-ended question types.

Question Type Overview

2.2. Survey Campaign Page

Now let’s take a look at the Survey Campaign page, where all survey campaigns are created and managed.



This type of list page follows a consistent layout: key actions, search area, and list section.

The unified structure helps build user familiarity and allows users to quickly achieve their goals.

Other Details

Beyond core features, edge cases and exceptions should be considered, including validation rules, action blocking, and confirmation prompts. 

For example: when publishing a survey campaign, check if its scope overlaps with any active campaigns to prevent duplicate submissions and confusion. When reordering questions, check for logic settings and whether reordering will disrupt existing logic. If so, inform the user of potential consequences.

It’s also important to consider the interaction between the backend and the app frontend (respondent side):
for example, which questionnaire status changes need to be synced to respondents on the app, whether notifications should be sent to all respondents within the defined scope or only to those who haven’t completed the questionnaire.

During the design process, it was important to consider integration and interaction with other internal platforms across the company, aiming to minimize unnecessary changes for upstream and downstream teams.

The project has been live for over six months and is running smoothly.

Thank you for reading. If you’d like to connect or discuss further, feel free to contact me at:
cynthia_chao55@outlook.com

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