Create Experimental Conditions

Experimental conditions let you assign respondents to treatment arms, control arms, information treatments, survey branches, or study paths. In Domandata, condition sets support randomized and rule-based assignment for academic survey experiments and social science research designs.

Use conditions when different respondents should see different blocks, when an experiment needs random assignment, or when assignment depends on a previous answer or variable. For a study-level guide, see Online Survey Experiments.

1. Step 1: Build the blocks first. In Block Builder, create the blocks for the control arm, treatment arms, outcomes, and end screens.

   Step 1: Add blocks in Block Builder

   Block Builder: Policy Experiment

   A treatment block with an informational stimulus followed by a policy support outcome measure.

   Survey Options

   Timing

   Record time per page

   Breaks

   Page break after every question

   Page break after every block

   Validation

   Require all questions

   Shuffle

   Shuffle all multiple choice questions

   Shuffle all grid and conjoint rows

   Randomly flip all sliders

   Flip consistency

   Use one random flip direction for selected flip-enabled questions.

   Randomize question order in all blocks

   reCAPTCHA

   Enable reCAPTCHA v3 (invisible)

   Data Collection

   Track browser information

   Records browser type, browser version, operating system, screen resolution, and user agent. Not shown to respondents.

   Track link clicks

   Question Names

   Simple Rename

   Simple assigns Ask1, Ask2… in full survey question order (including follow-ups).

   Content

   Page Break

   Question text

   Options

   Multiple Choice

   Required

   Page Break

   Question text

   Multi-select

   Options

   Add QuestionPull Questions

   Add Another BlockPull Blocks

   Closing text

   Example only.

   Redirect (optional)

   Survey Ends

   Trash0 items

   Trash is empty.

2. Step 2: Open Flow. Select the Flow tab in the survey editor after the block list is mostly stable.

   Step 2: Open Flow canvas

   Block Builder

   Flow

   Preview

   Deploy

   Export

   Flow Canvas

   Interactive routing surface from the app, running in no-persist help mode.

   Consent and Study Intro

   1 question

   Political Knowledge Block

   2 questions

   Control Message

   1 question

   Treatment Message

   1 question

   Outcome Measures

   2 questions

   Survey Ends

   Anchors explicit end of survey

3. Step 3: Add a condition set. Name it after the design decision it controls, such as Main Experiment, Message Treatment, or Eligibility Path.

   Step 3: Add and name a condition set

   Block Builder

   Flow

   Preview

   Deploy

   Export

   Flow Canvas

   Interactive routing surface from the app, running in no-persist help mode.

   Consent and Study Intro

   1 question

   Political Knowledge Block

   2 questions

   Control Message

   1 question

   Treatment Message

   1 question

   Outcome Measures

   2 questions

   Survey Ends

   Anchors explicit end of survey

4. Step 4: Set the number of arms. Add the conditions you need and name each arm clearly, such as Control, Treatment A, and Treatment B.

   Step 4: Set condition arms

   Block Builder

   Flow

   Preview

   Deploy

   Export

   Flow Canvas

   Interactive routing surface from the app, running in no-persist help mode.

   Consent and Study Intro

   1 question

   Political Knowledge Block

   2 questions

   Control Message

   1 question

   Treatment Message

   1 question

   Outcome Measures

   2 questions

   Survey Ends

   Anchors explicit end of survey

5. Step 5: Choose assignment rules. Set random percentages, stratification, or by-variable assignment before connecting the paths; check Sample Allocation Across Condition Arms if cell size matters.

   Step 5: Choose assignment rules

   Block Builder

   Flow

   Preview

   Deploy

   Export

   Flow Canvas

   Interactive routing surface from the app, running in no-persist help mode.

   Consent and Study Intro

   1 question

   Political Knowledge Block

   2 questions

   Control Message

   1 question

   Treatment Message

   1 question

   Outcome Measures

   2 questions

   Survey Ends

   Anchors explicit end of survey

6. Step 6: Connect each arm. Route every condition to the block respondents should see next, including fallback paths; use Branching and Skip Logic for more complex routes.

   Step 6: Connect condition arms to blocks

   Block Builder

   Flow

   Preview

   Deploy

   Export

   Flow Canvas

   Interactive routing surface from the app, running in no-persist help mode.

   Consent and Study Intro

   1 question

   Political Knowledge Block

   2 questions

   Control Message

   1 question

   Treatment Message

   1 question

   Outcome Measures

   2 questions

   Survey Ends

   Anchors explicit end of survey

• Random Assignment assigns respondents to arms using weighted-random probabilities. Use equal splits for simple experiments or custom percentages for planned unequal allocation.
• Stratify by variable keeps random assignment balanced within groups defined by a variable, such as country, party, gender, school, or quota status.
• By Variable assigns respondents deterministically based on a survey answer or variable that appears earlier in the flow.

Many research survey question types can feed assignment logic. Use Multiple Choice or Dropdown questions for discrete assignment, Slider or Short Answer questions for numeric ranges, and Grid Matrix questions for repeated measures. Use Conjoint questions when the experimental task itself is a randomized preference design.

Preview every major path before publishing. Confirm that each arm reaches the correct block, that random assignment percentages total 100 percent, that by-variable sources appear before the split, and that fallback arms behave as expected.

If each arm needs a target number of completed responses, add quotas in Deploy. See Set Survey Quotas. For planning expected n by arm, see Sample Allocation Across Condition Arms.

• Set Survey Quotas
• Publish and Share a Research Survey
• Create Your First Academic Research Survey