Whether conducting market research, evaluating customer satisfaction, or seeking opinions on various topics, a linear scale provides a versatile and effective means of measuring responses.
With a linear scale, instead of being limited to multiple-choice options, survey respondents can slide along a continuous scale. Your questions will get more precise ratings or rankings, allowing respondents to express their opinions with greater accuracy.
In this post, we’ll teach you how to easily add linear scale to your Google Forms so that you can get deeper insights. Let’s get started!
How to add a linear scale question in Google Forms
Step 1: Open up a Google Form
Navigate to your Google Forms.
Start a new form by clicking the “Start a new form” button. You can also start with one of the templates beside it or one of your past forms below.
Step 2: Add a question
Click the “Add question” button in the floating menu next to your Google Form.
Step 3: Choose linear scale
Click the question format button next to the empty question field. This will open up a menu of question formats to choose from.
Find and click on “Linear scale” in this menu.
Step 4: Create your linear scale labels
Now that you’ve inserted the linear scale question in your Google Form, it’s time to fill in your question and create your linear scale labels. The first thing to do is to fill in your question in the empty question field.
Next, you have to decide the scale range for your question. 1-5 and 1-7 are the most commonly used scales to gauge customer satisfaction. You can also use a 1-10 range for a more nuanced question. We’ll be using a 1-5 range in the Example form.
Now it’s time to describe and label your scale. Typically, a satisfaction score rises with numerical values. Negative responses are given lower numerical values, positive responses higher. However, you can choose to describe your ranges in a way you feel will resonate most with your respondents.
Click on the “Preview” (eye) button to see how your form appears to your respondents and make any necessary changes if you need to.
Ideally, this is how your linear scale question will appear to your respondents. If you have more than one question that you’d like in the linear scale format, consider using the multiple-choice grid in Google Forms.
Step 5: Finish up your form
All that’s left to do now is to finish up the form. This just means checking the following settings before sending out your form to be filled:
- Required question: Ensure that if there is a mandatory question on your form, the “Required” button is turned on.
- Collecting emails: If you’d like to collect your respondent’s email address, ensure that “Collect email addresses” is turned on in Settings under “Responses.”
- Sharing response summary: If you’d like to share the result summary with your respondents, make sure the setting is turned on in Settings under “Presentation.”
And now you’re ready to share your form.
Important things to know about linear scale
What is linear scale in Google Forms?
Linear scale, known formally as the Likert scale, is a type of question format used in research. It asks users to express their opinion by choosing from a range of options, usually five or seven on a linear scale. Each option represents a different level of agreement or disagreement with a statement.
The benefit of using a linear scale question is that it’s easy for people to understand and answer. Further, it also gives researchers clear and structured data regarding subtle differences between responses.
What are different kinds of linear scale survey questions?
You don’t necessarily have to use a question that asks for a satisfaction score. There are many different ways to phrase your questions while maintaining the linear scale format.
The labels that you give to your question will change a lot depending on the question. For example, if your question is “How frequently do you use Google Forms?,” your linear scale labels will change to something between “never” and “frequently.” Get creative with it, and it could increase engagement.
The most important thing is to phrase your question in a way that gives you some valuable insight.
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There it is! Now you know all about the linear scale question format. Using the most appropriate question format could make a massive difference in your next survey. Just like the linear scale, there are many other question formats you can use on Google Forms. We’ve got plenty of other tutorials, including more on question formats and Google Forms tricks and tips you can use. Check out more on the Form Publisher blog!