How to Add Linear Scale Questions to a Google Form

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One of the easiest ways to increase form response rates is to reduce the cognitive load. Take satisfaction ratings or the net promoter score methodology, for example. Asking customers to rate your product or service on a 1-10 scale will almost certainly generate more responses than an open-ended question like “How did we do?”

Linear scale questions are simple, easy to understand, and don’t require any creative output – their cognitive load is relatively low. But simplicity can be a double-edged sword, preventing you from gathering detailed feedback from people who are motivated to provide it. Here’s how to structure linear scale questions in Google Forms to optimize response rates.

Google Forms linear scale tips and tricks

When you ask, “How likely are you to recommend our product to a friend or colleague?” and the options are 1-10, you’re limiting user options, forcing them to choose whole numbers. Maybe they want to give you a 9.5, but that’s not an option so you get a 9 instead.

The goal is to give form submitters the option to add more detail, without losing people who just want to pick a whole number and submit the form. A slider question type capitalizes on the idea of increasing perceived control, letting users click and drag a dot along a scale and decide on their own how precise they want to be with their rating. Form builders like Fillout include slider questions but not Google Forms.

In Google Forms, the Liner scale field only lets you create a scale from 1 to up to 10. Each number gets a bullet point, and respondents have to choose a specific number to relay their satisfaction, adding more cognitive load to their response.

A step in the right direction in Google Forms, though, is a two-step question with conditional branching. The first question would be a Multiple choice or Dropdown field with 10 answer options. Then, from the question settings menu, you’d select Go to section based on answer, and link a new section to each answer option. After a user rates your product a 9, that might link to a page that says something like “Nine out of 10 – we’ll take it! Do you want to add any extra details or submit the form?” That’s a two-choice dropdown: one to submit the form as-is and one to open another section with optional follow-up questions like fractional ratings (e.g. 9.25, 9.5, etc.) or a paragraph field for freeform comments.

Another reason that slider questions lead to higher response rates might be tied to "dual-coding theory", which argues that people are more engaged by combining textual and visual information. The closest you can get to that in Google Forms with by adding a question header image (the option to add an image to each multiple choice option works for a 1-10 scale, but it’s messy). A few branded colors and extra design touches might be enough to move the needle on response rates.

If your main reason for hacking together a slider question in Google Forms is because moving all of your old forms would be a huge pain, try Fillout’s Google Form importer.

Move your Google Forms to Fillout to add slider questions and better conditional logic

All it takes is a minute or less to upgrade your Google Form to Fillout. Open Fillout’s Gogole Form importer, connect your account and select your form, then choose a theme to customize how your form looks. You can then drag in a Slider field to replace Google Form’s basic linear scale field, and customize it to show as many steps as you want or to display the results in percentages.

Don’t stop with sliding linear scale questions. Fillout also lets you gather signatures, add ranked choice voting, and build conditional logic into your forms. And with 1,000 free form responses per month, your new Fillout account is perfect to power your data gathering needs.