Remove emojis and add standardized scale for survey

[SomeMoosery]

Summary

• Remove all emojis
• Add a standardized scale for all questions utilizing a slider, translating the standardized values to the currently-used values on submit

Motivation

• Multiple users have said emojis are confusing and do not make the UX more enjoyable, but more frustrating
• Multiple users have said that different scales for each question make the UX almost unusable because they have no idea what the values mean in a broader context. We can translate a 1-10 scale into a 1-5 scale behind the scenes.

[luky1300]

Do we want to do something like label alway visible slider here?

[SomeMoosery]

I think the slider we have now is fine, this is about removing the emojis in favor of actual numbers, and standardizing the numbers used to use the same scales they currently use but only on the backend, with a consistent scale on the frontend. Like, we have scales now going from 1-5 and other 1-10 etc. We should have all scales be the same on the frontend, but when data is submitted, it's translated to the scales we have no before being sent to Gaia.

This is a pretty complex issue about how we want to be standardize things, and should probably bring in @Bellex0 and @ransing with regard to behavioral specifically

[ransing]

1-5 is good. Originally we didn't have decimals. If user has only 5 options, it seems easier to pick. How do we convey to the user that 1 means 'Not at all', 5 means 'A lot' and 3 means 'Somewhat'?

[SomeMoosery]

We could easily add labels underneath the numbers indicating that!

[luky1300]

I searched for standard scales and here what I got:

For first scale:

Two options for second scale:

Option 1:

Option 2:

What do you think?
One more question: it would be ok just simply remove 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, and 4.5 marks from the scales, right?

[Bellex0]

Hey @luky1300, thanks for looking into this. I want to mention that the behavioral health survey questions are from a published standardized questionnaire with its own scale (for more info, please the discussion here .
The scale that is used in the real published questionnaire is 1 (not at all), 2, 3 (somewhat), 4, 5 (not at all).
My opinion is that we should stick with this way of rating because it sounds the most natural and simple to me. Again, I'm open to whatever decision is made. 🙂

[SomeMoosery]

While the standardized questionnaire is definitely EDIT: necessary to base our data on on the backend - I think what's most important for the end user is to have a consistent metric across all surveys in our app, as there's more than just the behavioral part.

I think I may have poorly worded the issue. The goal here is to use the same however-many words/numbers/etc for each slider in the survey, and then on the backend translate them to these standardized questionnaire values for the behavioral part, and to the standardized physical values for the physical part, etc if that makes sense.

Also, I'd be hesitant to use phrases in general @luky1300 - try testing this on a mobile screen I think they will be way to smushed.

[luky1300]

@Bellex0 , thank you for your comments! Will do 1 (not at all), 2, 3 (somewhat), 4, 5 (a lot) scale for second questionnaire.
What about first one? We can't do the same scale for questions like How do you feel today?

[SomeMoosery]

The whole idea is we need to find a way to standardize the scale for all sliders. This could mean that perhaps we need to re-word the questions so that they fit a numerical scale, or translate a term-based scale into numerical values on the backend.

The motivation behind this is that a lot of user surveys I've done are telling me that the sliders are confusing because they don't present a consistent scale on the frontend. If one scale is 1-10, another is 1-5, does that mean that they should put twice whatever value they say for the second scale for the first? Are they totally unrelated? Etc...

This isn't a problem with our app per se but just with general individuals' perceptions in general, but is something we should work around because we're "for the community" 🌐

[Bellex0]

@SomeMoosery I totally get what you're saying and coming from. If we need to stay consistent for both backend and frontend purposes, we may have to change the wording of the questions on either page 1 or page 4 of the survey, so that they can have the same rating scale.

[luky1300]

@SomeMoosery , so should we leave different scales for these two surveys, or should we rephrase questions?

[SomeMoosery]

The goal of this story is to standardize the scale to have the same scale for all sliders - the implementation of how to best do this is up to interpretation, but the end goal is that the backend values should remain the same while the frontend scale should be standardized

[SomeMoosery]

Hey @luky1300 How is this coming along? Anything that needs clearing up?

[luky1300]

Hey @SomeMoosery, I am blocked until there is a decision on if we change the wording of the questions on either page 1 or page 4 of the survey.

[SomeMoosery]

Oh no, sorry about that! I didn't realize :)

I would say it's up to you to decide and then update the backend accordingly - meaning if you reword page 1, when answers are submitted change them back to their current form if that makes sense. This way we don't lose any context but give the user a standardized experience.

[AdhamAH]

@luky1300 did Carter cleared things for you or do you still have anything blocking the issue?