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

Info

Welcome to our Spring Survey!

Tap "Next" to begin.

—

Question

What's your full name?

We need this to personalize results.

Yes

Text

Enter your name…

—

Question

How many people are in your group?

Include yourself.

Yes

Number

1–10

—

Question

Which park activities did you try?

Select up to 3.

Pick Many

—

Hiking, Fishing, Bird Watching, Mountain Biking, Dog Walking

—

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.