Define the study design

Use the Design pane to define what varies between participants, what each participant experiences, and what you will measure.

To begin, open Studio → New survey, give the survey a title in Details, then open Design.

Follow this guide to define the variables and plan the route. Then write the extension descriptions and questions, and connect the questions to your measurements. This order is recommended; you can return to any step as the survey develops.

Example: browser-extension permissions

Suppose you want to study whether explaining a permission request changes people's willingness to install a browser extension, and whether that effect differs between an adblocker requesting broad permissions and a Pomodoro timer requesting limited permissions.

Everyone evaluates both extensions. Some participants see an explanation of each extension's requested capabilities; others see no explanation.

The two things you vary are independent variables, also called factors. Each has two possible values, or levels:

Here, within participants means the same person experiences both levels; between participants means different people receive different levels. This is a 2 × 2 mixed design because it combines the two arrangements. Priming names the presence or absence of explanatory text before the permission decision.

The outcomes are willingness to install and understanding of the requested permissions. In Design → Research, record the goal Understand decisions about browser-extension permissions and a research question such as Does explanation text change willingness to install? You will connect the outcomes to answers after writing the questions.

Define the study variables

1. Open Design → Variables, select + Variable, and name it Permission.
2. Expand its details. In How is this variable obtained?, choose Randomized by the survey.
3. Add the levels Broad (adblock) and Simple (pomodoro timer).
4. Set Within/between participants → Within participants.
5. Add Priming in the same way, with levels Explanation text and None. Set it to Between participants.
6. Open the Design section within the Design pane. Leave Survey execution as Full factorial design. Check Participant arrangement and Conditions.

Despite the editor label Randomized by the survey, between-participant assignments follow a deterministic allocation cycle, rather than a random draw. Configure its balance in Assignment below.

Full factorial includes every combination of factor levels. Each combination is a condition. This example has four:

Each participant encounters two of these conditions: both Permission levels under their one assigned Priming level. Defining a within-participant factor does not automatically create the repeated participant pages; add its Loop in Flow.

Balance assignments in Design

Open Design → Assignment. A participant profile combines only the between-participant levels. There are two profiles here, Explanation text and None, rather than four independent participant groups.

Leave both Allocation weights at 1 to assign equal numbers of new responses to the profiles over a complete cycle. A weight of 2 receives twice as many assignments as a weight of 1. Each published version has its own cycle. Stopping partway through a cycle or losing participants before completion can leave unequal response counts.

Resuming the same response in the saved browser session retains its assignment. A new browser session can receive a new assignment; the survey does not recognize the same person across browsers. Preview does not consume an allocation.

Study assignment balances which variable levels participants receive to reduce assignment bias. Element order randomization varies the order or subset of content to reduce presentation bias; configure it in Content. One controls the design, the other the presentation.

Turn the design into a participant route

Create a Consent page, an Extension evaluation group containing Extension overview, Explanation, and Permission decision pages, and a Debrief page in Content. Follow Pages and groups for the creation controls. Leave them empty initially. Adding content also adds Flow placements; move those placements into this route instead of leaving duplicate presentations.

The survey creates its Study assignment step automatically. In Flow, check that it precedes every use of the assigned values and the Permission Loop. Arrange the route as follows:

Start
Consent
If: consent answer is No
  Then → End (declined)
  Else → (empty; continue below)
Study assignment
Loop: Permission levels
  Extension evaluation
    Extension overview page
    Switch: Priming
      Explanation text → Explanation page
      None → (empty)
    Permission decision page
Debrief
End

1. Add consent information and a required Single choice agreement question with Yes and No options to Consent. Before Study assignment, add an If using Earlier answer, selecting that question and its No option. Put an End with a refusal message in Then; leave Else empty. See Branching. This is one point where logic needs some content first.
2. Add a Loop after Study assignment. Set Repeat over → Study factor levels, choose Permission in Within-participant factor, and move the evaluation group into the Loop.
3. Choose Random shuffle for Loop order to vary which extension appears first. This chooses an order per participant; it does not guarantee equal counts of the two orders. See Loop order for counterbalanced rotation and nested factors.
4. Inside the evaluation group, put Extension overview first, then add a Switch with Condition source → Study design value and Variable → Priming. Put the Explanation page in the Explanation text case; leave None empty.
5. Place Permission decision after the Switch, still inside the group and Loop, so both profiles answer it for both extensions.
6. Put Debrief after the Loop and before End.

Every End saves a completed response, including the refusal route; use the consent answer to identify these rows in results. Session recording starts before the consent question. If you need consent before collection, obtain it before participants open the survey link; see Session recording.

For several within-participant factors, nest one factor Loop per factor to present every combination. For a between-participant factor, use its assigned value in a Switch or If to select the relevant content.

Add the stimuli and outcomes

1. Follow Prepare text for each study condition to define the four extension fields, insert them into the pages, and write the installation and comprehension questions.
2. Then follow Connect research questions to measurements to record the hypotheses and link those questions to the outcomes.
3. Write the consent information and debrief text appropriate to your study.

The Loop reuses its questions for both extensions. If you also need separate before/after questions with shared wording, follow Reuse linked questions.

Check the whole design

The Design pane reports incomplete factors and missing links. Follow its warning links to fix them. Research notes can remain incomplete, but incomplete branch, Loop, or calculation settings need correction before publication.

In Preview, select each Priming profile and check both Permission iterations. Confirm that explanations appear only for Explanation text, descriptions and capabilities match the current extension, and both iterations can be completed with different answers. Check both possible extension orders, the consent-decline path, and the final completion route. Preview does not save completed responses. Publish a pilot version, submit test responses, and verify the repeated answers in Results and column mapping before collecting main-study responses.