When setting up your Commonplace, it's important to consider start with storytelling. What stories do you want to tell your audience? What data stories or hypotheses are you looking to test? What are the outcomes you will be writing about at the end?
Getting the combination of content and questions balanced and correct is not a strict science. However, we see it go wrong when there isn't a planning phase. We recommend starting at the end goal and working backwards.
A great combination of questions and content will also paint a picture or tell a story, which is why we coined the phrase 'survey stories'. You're the author and need to carefully consider the introduction, the plot, the hook for the reader and how they will share your story with others once they've finished responding.
If your survey story is too complicated, respondents may ‘drop off’ without completing it. Using a variety of question types, at the right point (mixing content and questions helps), makes your survey more interesting and engaging, and it also helps to understand the bigger picture. We also recommend using our visual question types (aside from the community heatmap), such as image polls, comment on an image, image upload and so on.
Commonplace has a wide variety of question types, each suited to different scenarios.
Click here to read more about scenarios in which these question types can be used.
Click on the blue edit icon found anywhere in your project website (see image below). This icon will appear if you are logged in as a Lead admin or Admin and have edit rights to this project.
Click on the dropdown menu at the top left corner of the page in edit mode to browse through your main pages (Hub, demographics, preferences, team...) or your tiles (proposals and maps). Click on the desired one to navigate to its edit mode.
Click on the +Add tab, drag the component blocks and drop them in the centre part of the screen as shown below. Then you'll be ready to edit its properties on the right hand side.
Click on the three dots on the left side panel on any component block to either delete or duplicate it, as shown in the video below.
We recommended hitting the Save button (in the top right corner) of the page as often as possible to ensure all your changes are kept.
You can also check how your changes look for respondents by clicking the Preview button.
The Preview button will become available once your changes are saved.
Once a component has been added to a page, click on it to show the right side panel.
At the top, you will see a tab called "Customise". From there, you will be able to change the colour (by selecting from accessibility-tested colours) on your components to further brand and customise your pages.
How to create and edit demographic questions
Still unsure about anything? There's lots more information here on the Commonplace Help Centre - alternatively, contact the support team and we'll be happy to help 👋
