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Getting Started

Create Your First Academic Research Survey

Start a new survey by planning the study sections, adding questions, previewing respondent paths, and checking the export.

Start With A Research Goal

Domandata is academic survey software for building social science research surveys with clean structure, controlled flow, and exportable research data. Before adding questions, write down the main construct, treatment, population, and outcome measures your survey needs to capture.

A good first survey usually has a few clear sections: consent, screening, the main task or experimental treatment, outcome measures, demographics, and an end screen. Those sections become blocks in the Block Builder. For a planning checklist, see Design an Academic Survey Instrument. If you are bringing over an existing study, see Import Research Surveys.

Build The Survey In Blocks

  1. Step 1: Create the survey shell. From Surveys, click New survey, add a working title your research team will recognize, and open the new survey in the editor.

    Step 1: Dashboard

    Personal Dashboard

    Live dashboard surface from the app shell (ephemeral help scene).

    Surveys

    Untitled surveyLast Modified
    Policy attitudes pilotLast Modified

  2. Step 2: Add blocks for each study section. In Block Builder, click Add block and create short block names such as Consent, Screening, Treatment, Outcomes, Demographics, and End Screen.

    Step 2: Block Builder

    Block Builder: Research Survey Template

    A complete 5-block research survey: Consent → Screening → Treatment → Outcomes → Demographics → End Screen.

    Timing
    Breaks
    Validation
    Shuffle

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

    reCAPTCHA
    Data Collection

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

    Question Names

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

    Closing text
    Redirect (optional)

    Trash is empty.

  3. Step 3: Add the right question types. Inside each block, choose question types based on the variable you need, such as categorical choice, open text, ranking, matrix scales, conjoint tasks, sliders, or visual heatmaps.

    Step 3: Question Types

    Block Builder: Question Type

    Use the question type selector to switch between multiple choice, slider, grid, ranking, and more.

    Closing text
    Redirect (optional)

  4. Step 4: Name important variables clearly. On the question card, fill in the question name field for responses used in branching, experimental conditions, quotas, or export analysis.

    Step 4: Variable Name

    Block Builder: Question Name

    The export variable label is the column name for this question in downloaded data.

    Closing text
    Redirect (optional)

  5. Step 5: Save reusable material. Save repeated consent text, demographic batteries, or validated scales to the Library when you expect to use them again. Open Library from the top navigation to review saved material.

    Step 5: Library

    Top Navigation

    This is the same navigation component used in the app shell.

Choose Research Survey Question Types

Each question type creates a different kind of research data. For categorical variables, start with Multiple Choice survey questions or Dropdown survey questions. For open-ended responses, use Short Answer survey questions. For scale batteries and Likert-style measures, use Grid Matrix survey questions. For preference experiments, use Conjoint survey questions, Ranking survey questions, or Slider survey questions.

You can also show consent language, instructions, or stimuli with Content Blocks, collect image clicks with Heatmap survey questions, use Text Chat survey questions for conversational data, or protect public surveys with reCAPTCHA survey verification.

Add Flow, Conditions, And Quotas

Use Flow after your block order is mostly stable. Flow is where you connect blocks, create branches, and add experimental condition sets. For randomized survey experiments, see Create Experimental Conditions. If you need balanced sample targets or closing screens for full groups, see Set Survey Quotas.

Flow: Conditions and Routing

Block Builder
Preview
Deploy

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

Preview Before Publishing

Use Preview to walk through the survey as a participant. Check required questions, randomization, experimental paths, quotas, page breaks, and end screens. Submit at least one preview response and inspect the export shape before collecting live data. See Preview and Pilot Test a Survey and Export Research Survey Responses.

When the survey is ready for participants, publish the current version and share the stable public link. See Publish and Share a Research Survey and Survey Participant Links.

Preview: Respondent View

Block Builder
Preview
Deploy

Preview

Walk through respondent-facing behavior in the same preview surface.