Skip logic vs branching logic

Why the vocabulary is muddled

Survey platforms name these features differently, which accounts for most of the confusion. On one widely used platform, skip logic only moves forward, to a later question, the end of a block or the end of the survey, while display logic shows or hides a single question and branch logic routes whole blocks using answers, link values, device type or quotas. Another groups question skips, page skips and disqualification under skip logic, and calls rules with several conditions advanced branching. The general idea of showing people only what applies to them is covered on the conditional logic page; the distinction here is about scale and direction.

Choosing between them

Use a skip when one answer makes a run of questions pointless for that person, such as somebody who did not attend being asked to rate the venue. Use a branch when two groups need substantially different questions, such as customers and staff answering one feedback survey. Use display logic when a single follow up belongs directly under the question that triggers it. And when two paths share almost nothing, stop and build two forms, because each stays simple, each exports cleanly, and neither carries rules that only matter to the other. The warning sign is a rule that exists only to undo another rule.

What logic does to the data and the progress bar

Every skipped question leaves an empty cell, and an empty cell means either not asked or asked and left blank. Record the answer that drove the path in its own column so the analysis can tell the two apart, and report the number of people who saw each question rather than the total. Progress indicators suffer too. At least one major platform warns that its bar does not recalculate when people are skipped ahead, and advises hiding it on any survey with logic. A bar that leaps from forty percent to ninety teaches people that the estimate means nothing.

Testing a branched survey

Write every path down before publishing and walk each one as a respondent, answering deliberately to trigger it. Check four things on every path: that the end is reachable, that no rule sends somebody back to a screen they have already answered in a loop, that a required question on a skipped screen does not block anybody, and that the Back button returns along the route the person actually took. Then check the export from each test response, because a path that works on screen can still leave its answers somewhere the analysis will not look. Retest after every edit to a question that a rule depends on.

Sketch the paths before writing questions

Logic is easiest to get right on paper. Draw a box for each group of questions and an arrow for each rule, and label every arrow with the answer that sends people along it. Then count the routes from start to finish. If there are more than a handful, look for arrows that could be removed by rewording a question so it applies to everybody, or by asking a single sorting question early and letting each group follow one straight line from there. The sketch also shows where paths should rejoin, which is usually for the closing questions every respondent should answer, such as overall satisfaction or permission to follow up.

How jump rules work in this builder

Conversational forms have a Logic tab. Each screen can carry rules that test earlier answers with is, is not, contains, is more than, is less than, is empty or is answered, match all or any of their conditions, and then either jump to another screen or end and submit. Each screen also has a default for when no rule matches. That covers skip logic, branching and disqualification. It is jump rules only: nothing is shown or hidden in place, so a display logic follow up becomes its own screen reached by a jump. Classic forms have no logic, and no form here pipes answers into later wording. The progress bar counts the screens visited against the screens still ahead, so a jump moves it forward.

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