Creating a Survey Challenge
Survey challenges let you collect feedback from visitors through a series of steps—some share information, others ask questions. Each step appears as a single screen in OuterSpatial Mobile with Back and Next buttons.
Note: Survey challenges are available to customers on the Enterprise plan.
Designed for Visitors
Survey challenges are built with the same philosophy as everything on the OuterSpatial platform: visitor engagement comes first.
Unlike enterprise-focused survey tools that prioritize back-office complexity, OuterSpatial surveys are designed for non-technical visitors in the field. The interface is simple and intuitive — no additional accounts, no confusing multi-page forms, no friction. This matters because easier surveys mean higher participation rates and better data for your organization.
Works Offline
Like other challenge task types, survey challenges work completely offline. Visitors can complete and submit a survey while out of cell range—answers are cached on-device and sync automatically the next time the phone reconnects to a network. Visitors never lose their progress, and you never lose their responses.
Location-Based Surveys
Survey challenges can be standalone or attached to one or more geospatial locations: areas, points of interest, trails, and/or outings. This lets you tailor surveys to specific places. For example, you could publish different survey questions for each state park in your system.
Attaching surveys to locations also unlocks location validation, an optional feature that verifies a visitor is within the attached location boundary before they can respond.
Notifications
OuterSpatial supports two types of notifications to help drive survey participation.
Geofenced Notifications
Automatically remind visitors to complete a survey when they enter or exit a location's geofence. This requires attaching your survey to one or more locations. Notification delivery depends on a visitor's device permissions and notification settings.
Time-Based Notifications (Staged Surveys)
For staged survey challenges — where visitors answers a survey and then need to respond to a follow-up survey — you can schedule time-based notifications to remind them to complete the next step.
For example, the Department of Forestry and Wildlife in Hawaiʻi uses OuterSpatial to allow hunters to check in to a hunting unit, and configured their challenge so hunters receive a notification at 6pm reminding them to check out of the unit. This is useful for any workflow where visitors need to complete an action by a certain time.
Step Types
Info Step
Displays text or instructions. Use these to welcome visitors, provide context, or break up longer surveys.
Example: "Welcome to our Spring Survey! Tap Next to begin."
Question Step
Asks for a single answer using one of these input types:
Input Type | Description |
|---|---|
Text | Short answer (single line) |
Paragraph | Long-form text (multiple lines) |
Number | Numeric input with optional min/max range |
Date | Calendar picker |
Pick One | Single selection from a list (dropdown or radio buttons) |
Pick Many | Multiple selections with an optional maximum |
Rank | Drag items into priority order |
Questions can be marked as required or optional. If a question is required, visitors cannot advance to the next step until they provide a valid response.
Branching Logic
Pick One questions support branching logic, which lets you show different follow-up questions based on how a visitor responds.
For example, if you ask "How did you arrive at the park today?" with options like Car, Bike, or Public Transit, you could:
Show a parking satisfaction question only to visitors who selected Car
Ask about bike rack availability only to those who selected Bike
Skip both for visitors who selected Public Transit
To add branching logic to your survey, include a "Branch To" column in your steps table indicating which step number each option should lead to (for example, "7"). If left blank, the survey continues to the next step as usual.
Staging Follow-Up Surveys
Beyond branching within a single survey, you can also stage entirely different follow-up surveys based on how a visitor responds. When a visitor completes a survey, OuterSpatial can automatically add the next survey to their "To Do" list based on their answers.
This is useful for multi-day or multi-stage workflows where the next survey depends on the visitor's situation.
Example: In a Yosemite backcountry camping study, campers completed an "End of Day Survey" each evening. The final question asked if this was their last night in the backcountry:
If they answered Yes, the "End of Trip Survey" was staged in their To Do list.
If they answered No, the "Morning Survey" was staged instead, since they were spending at least one more day in the backcountry.
This allowed researchers to collect the right data at the right time without requiring campers to navigate a complex survey tree themselves.
To set up staged follow-up surveys, include a "Stage Survey" column in your steps table for the relevant Pick One question, indicating which survey should be added to the visitor's To Do list for each response option.
Planning Your Steps
Use this table as a template—one row per step:
# | Step Type | Question Title / Info Text | Help Text (optional) | Required? | Input Type | Placeholder (optional) | Options (comma-separated) | Min | Max | Max Picks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Info | Welcome to our Spring Survey! | Tap "Next" to begin. | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
2 | Question | What's your full name? | We need this to personalize results. | Yes | Text | Enter your name… | — | — | — | — |
3 | Question | How many people are in your group? | Include yourself. | Yes | Number | 1–10 | — | 1 | 10 | — |
4 | Question | Which park activities did you try? | Select up to 3. | No | Pick Many | — | Hiking, Fishing, Bird Watching, Mountain Biking, Dog Walking | — | — | 3 |
5 | Question | Rank what matters most about trails. | Drag to reorder (1 = most). | Yes | Rank | — | Scenic Views, Cleanliness, Access, Crowdedness | — | — | — |
Column Guide
Required? — "Yes" if the visitor can't proceed without answering.
Input Type — Text, Paragraph, Number, Date, Pick One, Pick Many, or Rank.
Placeholder (optional) — Placeholder text shown inside the input field.
Options (comma-separated) — Only for Pick One, Pick Many, and Rank. List each choice separated by commas.
Min / Max — Only for Number questions.
Max Picks — Only for Pick Many.
Submitting Your Survey
When your steps table is ready, email it to organizations@outerspatial.com with the following:
Field | Details |
|---|---|
Badge Image | PNG, square, transparent background |
Banner Image | PNG, landscape format (displays behind the badge) |
Challenge Name | e.g., "Visitor Feedback Survey" |
Challenge Description | Text visitors see at the start |
Terms & Conditions | Text visitors must acknowledge when joining |
Date Range | Start and end date/time, or "Open Ended" |
Visibility | Public / Private |
Attached Locations | Area(s), POI(s), trail(s), and/or outing(s) to attach the survey to (optional) |
Enable Location Validation? | Yes / No |
Enable Geofenced Notifications? | Yes / No (requires attached locations) |
Enable Time-Based Notifications? | Yes / No — include notification time and message (for staged surveys) |
Enable Email Sharing? | Yes / No |
Steps Table(s) | Your completed template |
Additional Notes | Any special instructions |
Once we receive your draft, we'll build the survey and send you a preview link to test before publishing.
Tips for a Great Survey
Keep it short. 5–8 screens is ideal. Shorter surveys get higher completion rates.
Be clear. Use plain language and include examples in your help text.
Test it. Have a colleague run through your draft before submitting.
Mix it up. Alternate info and question steps to keep visitors engaged.