Customize a Research Survey Theme

A clear, professional survey theme can improve trust with participants and help an academic research survey feel connected to a lab, institution, class, or project. Theme choices should support readability rather than distract from the instrument.

Theme work happens late enough that the survey structure is visible, but early enough that mobile layout, contrast, logos, and public title can be checked before recruitment materials are finalized.

1. Step 1: Open the survey. From Surveys, open the draft whose respondent-facing appearance you want to change.

   Step 1: Open Survey

2. Step 2: Open Deploy. Use the Deploy tab to review public title, theme, logo, response settings, and publish readiness.

   Step 2: Open Deploy

3. Step 3: Preview the theme. Switch to Preview and walk through the survey on desktop and mobile-sized screens.

   Step 3: Preview Theme

4. Step 4: Save shared assets in Library. Use Library when your lab or class wants to reuse approved blocks, themes, or materials across surveys.

   Step 4: Save to Library

• Saved themes: reuse approved visual settings across related studies.
• Colors and fonts: keep text readable and scales easy to scan. The Error color controls required-answer warnings such as “Please answer this question” and the highlight around the missing or invalid answer. Under Font, Upload Font accepts a single .ttf or .otf file (also .woff / .woff2). You do not need separate bold or italic files — the browser synthesizes those weights when the survey uses them. Turn on Separate Title Font to pick a different typeface for the survey name, block headings, and question titles while answers and buttons keep the body font. Drag the Font Size slider to scale the whole respondent-facing survey anywhere from 75% to 500% of the default size, or use the Title Size slider and Title Line Height to adjust headings alone. Each slider shows its current percentage, and Reset returns it to the default. Selected Answers can be Filled Accent or Soft Tint (a light fill with a colored border). Use Selected Answer Color and Progress Bar Color to choose Accent or the active palette’s Ink; Ink automatically becomes the light text color in dark mode, so the accent can remain reserved for higher-priority actions. Uploaded fonts are not embedded in PDF or Word codebooks.
• Import from website: paste a public website URL to create a starting theme from its visible brand. Domandata checks the site header, organization metadata, and supported web-app icons for the best logo, reads the active page and site styles for a safe color palette and corner style, and uses actual card or alternate-section colors for the secondary background when the site supplies them. A detected Google Font is used only when the page actually supplies it. Large and compressed stylesheets are supported. Product photos and wide social preview images are not used as logos, and component icon fonts, interaction-state colors, and inactive campaign colors are ignored. Review the result in Preview before publishing, especially when a website deliberately mixes light and dark sections.
• Light and dark mode: a custom theme uses one set of colors unless you turn on Separate dark mode colors. That creates a dark palette (a starting draft is derived from your light colors) which participants see when their device is in dark mode. Switch between Light Colors and Dark Colors above the color pickers to edit each one; the theme preview follows the palette you're editing. Turning on Lock light / dark mode with Use dark mode shows everyone the dark palette, and creates one for you if the theme doesn't have it yet.
• Logo image: add institutional or project identity when appropriate. JPG and JPEG files from Windows are accepted even when the browser reports their older MIME label. Logo Size controls how tall the wordmark can get so large logos do not dominate the first page.
• Footer text: optionally show an IRB line, lab name, or contact under every respondent page. The footer inherits the theme's muted text color.
• Browser tab title: set the text on the participant's browser tab and in link previews. Leave blank to use “Domandata Survey”.
• Site description: write a short description for the public survey page. Chat apps, email clients, and browsers use it when someone shares or previews your survey link.
• Favicon: after uploading a logo, turn on Use logo as the tab icon (favicon) so the browser tab shows your logo instead of the Domandata icon.
• Link preview image: turn on Use logo as the link preview image so chat apps, email clients, and social unfurls show your logo centered on the theme background instead of the Domandata preview card. PNG, JPEG, and SVG logos all work — SVG is converted to PNG for the unfurl card. Deploy → Theme also shows a Link Preview mock of the title, description, favicon, and image.
• Codebooks: optionally carry a custom theme's colors, font, and logo into PDF and Word codebooks with Apply custom theme on the Export tab's Codebook card. See Export Instruments, Codebooks, and Flow Diagrams.
• Corners and branding: choose rounded or square corners, upload a logo, set the browser tab title and site description, and optionally use the logo as the favicon and link preview image. Square corners apply to every part of the survey, including dropdown menus and slider handles; radio buttons stay round so single-choice questions still look different from checkboxes. Logos are always shown uncropped.
• Colors from your logo: after uploading a logo, Extract colors from logo fills in the palette for you. The most colorful part of the logo becomes the accent, its main color becomes the text color, and the background comes from the logo's own background (or, for a transparent logo, whichever light or dark surface keeps it readable). A one-color logo uses that color as its accent too.

Use high-contrast text, readable font sizes, and restrained styling. Test the survey on mobile and desktop. If the survey includes sensitive research questions, avoid visual choices that make the study feel promotional or unclear.

• Contrast: check body text, buttons, selected options, validation messages, and links. On custom themes, button labels and selected answer indicators automatically use your ink or page background color on top of the accent, whichever is more readable.
• Branding: use logos only when they help respondents recognize the study sponsor or project.
• Mobile: preview long prompts and answer lists after theme changes, because spacing and typography affect scroll burden.
• Neutrality: avoid visual treatment that signals a desired answer, especially in experiments or sensitive topics.

When a theme works well, save it to the workspace Library so future surveys can use the same look. From the top navigation, open Library to review saved materials and organize reusable assets. This is helpful for labs, research centers, recurring course surveys, and multi-wave studies.

• Accessible Research Surveys
• Reusable Research Survey Materials in the Library
• Publish and Share a Research Survey
• Custom Code in Survey Questions