Note: This feature is available for users with a Expert license and requires universal credits.
The Google Maps question type allows you to ask location-based questions in your survey. Say, for example, you would like to know where your respondents would like to have electrical chargers placed in their neighborhood for their car; by using this question type your respondents have the opportunity to pin their preferred location(s) themselves on a responsive map.
And we in turn give you the tools to analyze this data. On this page you can read about how to build the question type, as well as how to analyze it.
Building the Google Maps Question Type
To add the Google Maps question type you follow these steps: Select the map question type from the “advanced” section. Next, you can design your question intuitively. We will illustrate this using the electrical charger use case:
Maps
Here you put in your question (1). For example “Where do you want to have an electric charger in your city?”.
We advise you use the Hint Text (2), since this question type can be rather new to a respondent. You could use something like: “click on the map to place the markers”, “you can place one marker”.
Map Default view
Here you give in the details that influence the shape and scope of the default view of your map. The values you give in here will determine the default setting of the map your respondent sees when they fill out this question. They are still able to use the controls themselves.
The center point address (1) determines where your map will be situated. For example around an city, a street or a specific address. The point you choose will be at the center of your map.
Here you can also influence the zoom level (2) your respondent will be able to use. Type of View (3): map, which is the standard simplified Google Maps view, or hybrid which is the true-to life satellite view.
Maximum and minimum amount of markers
Here you are able to set a maximum amount of markers to be placed. In our example we use 1. You can also include a minimum amount if you want to have at least x amount of markers placed. If there is no minimum required you can leave this empty.
Additional question setup example
Once you have set up your map question it’s beneficial to learn your respondents motives to place their marker there. For this we add an additional question in which we for example ask “Why did you choose this location?” In this example we give the options: “Close to my home” “close to my work” and “other reason” with a text box for elaboration.
You only want to show this question if the respondent placed a marker, you therefore set the filter to show this question only if that requirement is met. Your filter settings would therefore look something like this:
Preview and user interaction
In the survey your question will look like this. Your respondent has a couple of different options that Google Maps provides. They are able to zoom in and out, choose map or satellite view and are able use the search bar. Here Google Maps allows the respondent to give in a specific address if they would want to. There’s also the delete marker button. This is required for when a respondent would like to place the marker in another spot.
Visualizing Maps question data
In this section we’ll elaborate on generating and analyzing the maps question type visualization in a heat map for both basic and Dashboard Reports. Lastly we’ll cover the Map question data in the Raw data export.
In Dashboard Report
To generate a heatmap, from your Google Maps question in PA you follow these steps. For information on placing your chart on your report page please visit this section. First you need to place a raw data table. To generate the heatmap your first column must be populated with the ‘Lat_long’ variable (more on this in the next section raw data). After that, simply scroll down and click “generate chart” and your heatmap will be created.
In a Basic Report
With the data gathered via this question type you are able to generate a heat map in a matter of seconds in a basic report. Follow these steps to generate your basic report and select the maps question type to be included. Your map will be displayed together with the amount of people interviewed and the amount of responses gathered. You are able to zoom in and out on the map.
Raw data
For more information on raw data – how to download and read it, please visit this section. The two options for determining the marker placement are the “lat_long” value, also known as the latitude and longitude values of a marker. The second one is the address of the spot where the marker is placed, a feature provided by Google.
In the raw data these two variables are shown as follows:
