Creating Your First Survey

Welcome to SurveyMethods! This guide will walk you through creating your first survey in just a few minutes.

Getting Started

After logging in, you’ll land on your Survey Home dashboard. From here, if you have no surveys, you should see the below. Otherwise, click the Create Survey button in the top right corner.

Choose Your Creation Method

SurveyMethods offers five ways to create a survey. Click on any method below to learn more:

1. Start from Scratch

Begin with a blank canvas and build your survey question by question. Best for unique surveys that don’t fit standard templates.

2. Build with AI

Enter a description of what you want to survey, and our AI will generate a complete survey structure for you. You can then customize and refine it.

Example prompts:

• “Customer satisfaction survey for a software product”
• “Employee engagement survey with 10 questions”
• “Event feedback form for a conference”

3. Copy & Paste Questions

Paste your questions directly and SurveyMethods will automatically parse them into survey format.

4. Copy an Existing Survey

Duplicate one of your previous surveys and modify it for a new use case. Great for recurring surveys.

5. Start from a Template

Browse our template library organized by category (HR, Customer Experience, Education, etc.) and customize a pre-built survey.

Adding Questions

Once you’ve created your survey, you’ll enter the Survey Editor. Here’s how to add questions:

1. Click Add Question or the + button
2. Select your question type (see below)
3. Enter your question text
4. Add answer options (for applicable question types)
5. Configure question settings (required, randomize options, etc.)

Question Types Available

Click on any question type to learn more about its features and best practices:

Question Type	Description
Multiple Choice	Single selection from a list of options
Checkboxes	Allow multiple selections from options
Image Choice	Let respondents select from visual image options
Star Rating	Visual rating scale with stars
Slider	Select a value by dragging along a scale
Dropdown	Select from a dropdown menu
Matrix/Rating Scale	Grid-based rating questions
Matrix Dropdown	Grid with dropdown selections
File Upload	Allow respondents to upload files
Ranking	Drag to rank items in order
Net Promoter Score (NPS)	Industry-standard loyalty metric (0-10)
Comments Box	Open-ended text responses
Single Textbox	Short text input
Name	Collect respondent names
Email	Collect and validate email addresses
Phone	Collect and validate phone numbers
Text Block	Add instructions or context (non-question)
Image Element	Include visuals in your survey

For a complete overview, see Question Types Overview.

Organizing Your Survey

Pages

Break your survey into multiple pages to improve the respondent experience. Click New Page to create sections.

Reordering

Drag and drop questions to reorder them within a page, or move them between pages.

Skip Logic

Use skip logic to direct respondents to different pages or questions based on their answers.

Next Steps

Once you’ve added your questions:

1. Preview your survey to see it as respondents will
2. Apply a theme to match your branding
3. Configure settings like response limits and access control
4. Distribute via email, web link, or embedded on your website

Tips for Better Surveys

• Keep surveys concise - aim for 5-10 minutes completion time
• Use clear, unbiased question wording
• Make important questions required
• Use skip logic to skip irrelevant sections
• Test your survey before sending

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Need help? Contact our support team or browse more articles in the Survey Creation section.