My friends and colleagues over in the Catalyst Web Tools team have released a new version of WebQ, their quizzing and survey software. This version includes a feature they’re calling Skip Logic:
Skip logic (also known as branching) allows you to create custom paths through your survey or quiz, showing the participants questions based on their response to a previous question.
This ability to add logic to questions essentially turns WebQ into a very nice lightweight generalized web forms and workflow tool.
I’m using this feature to build a RSVP form for an invitation we’re sending out for a training class. The first question on the form asked people if they’re going to attend (yes or no) or send someone else in their place. If they reply that they’re sending someone else, then they get asked for that person’s name and email. If they just reply yes or no they don’t get asked that question.
It’s a trivial example, but it’s not hard to think up lots of uses for this feature – though I have to admit to being disappointed that I couldn’t base logic on textual patterns in narrative answers. Maybe that will come later!
Here’s what the skip logic looks like when you’re building a WebQ – the person filling out the survey gets sent to one of several different places based on their answer to the first question:
Oren Sreebny 