The Heatmap question type allows you to do a detailed analysis of different areas of an image, including images with text. Ask respondents to pin several labels of your choosing anywhere on the image to capture what they like/dislike, what draws their attention, or poses confusion.

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Building a Heatmap Question

1. In the Survey Editor, click the Heatmap icon in the question menu, or drag the icon into place.
2. Type or paste your question/prompt into the Question field.
3. Click Browse and choose an image file (PNG, JPEG, GIF, SVG, PDF, TIFF) under 30MB from your hard drive, or drag and drop the file over the Browse button.
4. Type or paste up to seven pin type labels in the Pin label field, or click the dropdown to choose from available presets.
5. Hover over a number and click the X to delete a Pin option.
6. Activate the Randomize checkbox to shuffle the Pin type order for each respondent.
7. Click the anchor icon to the right of an entity to lock the option in place on the list, despite randomization.
8. Click the dropdown to generate automated image clusters.

💡 Tip: To combat respondent fatigue, we recommend using no more than five pins. To optimize performance for mobile respondents, consider adding a prompt like "If on mobile, pinch to zoom in on the image."

Generating Auto Clusters

Automatically generate clusters from the Survey Editor to help organize your data.

1. Click the dropdown to select from Text and Objects recognition, Text Only recognition, or Objects only recognition, then click Run.
   • Objects only — the system draws boundaries around any objects detected.
   • Text only — the system runs an Optical Character Recognition API and draws boxes around any text detected.
   • Text and Objects — the system recognizes both text and objects.
2. Click Add custom cluster, draw a boundary, give the cluster a title, and click Save.
3. Click on any cluster to edit the title, move the cluster, click and drag the handles to adjust the size, or click the trashcan icon to delete. Click Save to save any changes.

Managing Clusters

Adjust the dropdown menus below the image controls to further manage your clusters.

1. Click the Pins behavior dropdown to control how respondents respond to the question:
   • Pins only mode — respondents can place a pin anywhere on the image.
   • Clusters only mode — respondents can only place pins in areas you've included in a cluster. Clusters appear when they hover over the image.
   • Content Aware mode — respondents can see your clusters but may still place pins anywhere on the image.
2. Check or uncheck the boxes to view Paragraph clusters, Word clusters, Object clusters, and Your Custom Clusters.

⚠️ Note: In Pins only mode, the auto clusters must be reconfigured on the Results page, since you have not presented clusters to respondents. When Text clusters are enabled, click the Hide Common English words dropdown and check boxes next to the groupings of common English words you wish to exclude from view.

Customizing Pins

1. Click the color icon to the right of a Pin label and select a color from the gradient, or enter the hex code.
2. Click the respective open-ended response icon to add an Optional or Mandatory open-ended field to a pin.
3. Click the Each pin dropdown to set min/max settings on an individual pin basis, or for All pins.
4. With Each pin enabled, check the 1 pin type per page box to separate pin types into different pages, which present as separate questions.

💡 Tip: Showing 1 pin type per page allows you to implement piping from pin labels to the question header. Use [pin] logic to pipe in each label for each screen.

Respondent Experience

Respondents can click and then drag and drop pins anywhere on the image. The drag-and-drop functionality provides the same experience whether they use a desktop, laptop, or mobile device.

How respondents interact with the image:

• Pins are in a tray at the bottom of the image.
• The number of pins they have to use is indicated in the pin.
• Respondents can toggle between pins by clicking on each label.
• Once a pin is added to the image, it can be dragged and dropped anywhere else.
• To remove a pin, drag it to the outer edge.
• Respondents can only move forward when they have met the min/max settings requirement.

Analyzing a Heatmap Question

1. Click the View mode: dropdown to choose from Heatmap by pins, Coldmap by pins, Overlay by pins, Spotlight by pins, Heatmap by clusters, Overlay by clusters, Pins, and Original.
   • Heatmap by pins — heatmap data for all placed pins displayed over the original picture.
   • Coldmap by pins — same data as heatmap view in a more neutral color palette.
   • Overlay by pins — heatmap data on a grayscale image for a clearer view of the original under the heatmap layer.
   • Spotlight by pins — yellow in areas of high click-density, dark blue for the rest.
   • Heatmap by clusters — heatmap data for all clusters displayed over the original picture.
   • Overlay by clusters — cluster heatmap data over a grayscale image.
   • Pins — exact placement of all pins, where the dot color matches the pin color.
   • Original — the original picture without pins.

⚠️ Note: The default view is a heatmap overlay showing the density of all placed pins — it does not distinguish between pin types. The heatmap colors indicate overall pin density and do not reflect the colors of the pins used in the survey. Use Filter by pin types or select Pins as the View mode to view data for a specific pin type.

Learn more about Heatmap Question Analysis here!

Take a test drive on real-world results for this question type! Explore a live demo report.