Question types

The builder offers thirteen question types in three families. The type decides what your client sees on their phone, and so how good what comes back is.

The basic fields

Type	When to use it
Short text	A name, a registration, a strapline. One line.
Long text	A description, some context, instructions. Several lines.
Number	A quantity, an area, a budget. You can set a minimum and a maximum.
Date	A deadline, a shoot date, a model year.
E-mail address	Checked as it is typed, so no mistyped address to chase later.
Phone	With the right keyboard on mobile.
Dropdown	Many options, one of which is chosen.
Single choice	Few options, one of which is chosen, all visible at a glance.
Multiple choice	Several answers allowed: finishes, the pages wanted, the extras.
Colour	A real colour picker, rather than "dark blue" to interpret.
File	Photos, logos, documents. You decide the extensions and how many.

The trade field

Surface to cover belongs to the wrapping trades. It asks the client to choose what is being covered, with the options that fit.

Layout

Section separator is not a question: it asks nothing and expects no answer. It cuts a long form into named parts.

It is the most under-used field and the one that changes the most: thirty questions in a row look like paperwork, the same thirty across five sections look like a conversation.

Choosing between single choice and a dropdown

The same question, two renderings. The short rule: under six options, use single choice. The client sees everything without opening anything and decides faster. Past that, a dropdown, or the form gets longer for nothing.

Three settings on almost every type

• Required. The client cannot submit without answering. Keep it for what genuinely stops you starting, because a required question they do not have the answer to is an abandoned form.
• Help text. A sentence under the question. That is where the example goes, not in the label.
• Placeholder. The grey example inside the empty field.

One piece of advice for all of them

Write your questions the way you would ask them on the phone. "What year is your machine?" rather than "Year". Your client is not in your trade, and one word too many beats a two-day round trip.