A Survey Layout is the high-level shape of a survey — how its sections are offered to the participant. CheckTick supports eight layouts:

  • Default (linear) — sections flow in the order you arrange them. Every respondent sees every section. This is how all surveys worked before v0.13.0.
  • Section menu — the survey opens on a picker page where the participant chooses which sections to complete. You mark some sections as mandatory (always included) and some as pickable (the participant decides).
  • Randomised (RCT) — the system assigns each participant to an arm at first access. Each arm has its own set of sections, and the participant only sees the sections in their assigned arm. Use this for clinical trials and A/B testing where arm assignment must be system-controlled.
  • Guided — one question per screen with Next/Back navigation, instead of scrolling through all questions on a single page. Reduces scroll fatigue on long or mobile-first surveys. Guided composes with the other layouts: a Section menu or RCT survey in guided layout still shows the picker / assigns the arm first, then walks the chosen sections one question at a time.
  • Staged (longitudinal) — sections unlock over time in defined phase windows (baseline now, follow-up in 2 weeks, 6-month review later). Each phase has a window measured in days from an anchor (participant enrolment or survey open). The participant sees only the currently-open phase; future phases are hidden until their window opens. Builds on the progress tracking feature's lifecycle status and timestamps.
  • Matrix (free navigation) — all sections visible as cards on a landing page. The participant jumps in and out of any section in any order, with completion indicators showing which sections are done. Different from Section menu (pick once, then linear through the chosen set) — matrix is ongoing free navigation throughout the survey.
  • Delphi (consensus rounds) — multi-round structured consensus workflow. Participants complete rounds, see aggregate feedback between rounds, and revise their answers. Used for expert consensus-building in clinical research, guideline development, and priority-setting. See the Delphi guide for a full walkthrough.
  • Diary (EMA) — repeated short surveys on a fixed schedule (daily, 4×/day) or event-triggered, with compliance tracking. Used for pain diaries, mood tracking, medication adherence, and symptom monitoring in clinical trials. See the Diary / EMA guide for a full walkthrough.

The name Layout is deliberately distinct from Template, which is already used for published sections shared into the Question Bank (see Publish Question Groups). Layouts describe the survey's flow; templates describe reusable content.

When to use each layout

Default (linear)

Most surveys, audits, and validated instruments where every respondent should answer every question. This is the default — no configuration needed.

Section menu

Use the Section menu layout when:

  • Patient-reported outcome measures where the respondent knows which domains apply to them.
  • Triage forms where only relevant modules should be shown.
  • Long assessments where forcing every section causes drop-off.
  • "Rank your priorities" surveys where the participant's pick order matters (use the In pick order setting).

Randomised (RCT)

Use the Randomised layout when:

  • Clinical trials where participants must be randomised to intervention vs control arms.
  • A/B testing of question wording where different arms see different phrasings of the same question.
  • Randomised controlled trials where arm assignment must be system-controlled and not participant-chosen.

Randomisation is a common reason researchers reach for Qualtrics or REDCap instead of simpler tools. This layout unblocks that use case natively in CheckTick.

Guided

Use the Guided layout when:

  • Long patient-facing surveys where scroll fatigue causes drop-off.
  • Mobile-first surveys where a single-question focus reduces cognitive load.
  • Validated instruments where a one-question-at-a-time presentation matches the intended administration.

Guided is a rendering change, not a selection mechanism — it composes with the other layouts. A Section menu survey in guided layout shows the picker first, then walks the chosen sections one question at a time; an RCT survey in guided layout walks the assigned arm's sections one question at a time. Branching, repeats, follow-ups, autosave, and save-and-resume all work unchanged.

Staged (longitudinal)

Use the Staged layout when:

  • Audit cycles where you collect baseline data now and follow-up data at fixed intervals.
  • Longitudinal research with repeated-measures designs at multiple time points.
  • Multi-phase quality improvement projects where participants shouldn't see future phases.

Staged is a selection mechanism like Section menu and RCT, but the selection changes over time. The runtime recomputes the open phases on each access and resolves the visible sections from their union — unlike RCT (fixed arm assignment), the open set changes over time. When no phase is currently open, the participant sees a friendly "check back later" page; their progress row is preserved so resume works when a phase opens later. Participants never see future-phase sections.

Staged composes with Guided: a staged survey in guided layout walks the currently-open phase's sections one question at a time.

Delphi (consensus rounds)

Use the Delphi layout when:

  • Expert consensus-building — you need a panel of experts to reach agreement on clinical guidelines, diagnostic criteria, or priority areas.
  • Modified Delphi studies — you want structured multi-round input with quantitative feedback (medians, distributions) between rounds.
  • Nominal group technique variants — you want participants to revise their answers after seeing the group's aggregate response.

Delphi is a selection mechanism like Section menu and RCT, but the selection changes over rounds. Each round has a set of sections; the participant sees only the current round's sections. Between rounds, the author generates aggregate feedback (quantitative distributions + optional LLM thematic summaries) which participants see in the next round via a content block marked as feedback. When no round is open, the participant sees a friendly "check back later" page.

See the Delphi guide for a full walkthrough of the creator workflow and participant experience.

Diary (EMA)

Use the Diary layout when:

  • Pain diaries — daily or multiple-times-daily pain ratings over a study period.
  • Mood tracking — IAPT/mental-health monitoring with repeated administrations.
  • Medication adherence — daily check-ins confirming medication was taken.
  • Symptom monitoring in clinical trials — high-frequency symptom tracking with compliance tracking for regulatory submissions.

Diary is different from Staged (which is phase-based: baseline → 2-week → 6-month). Diaries are high-frequency repeated measures with burst scheduling, compliance tracking (missed entries), and reminder emails. Each window opens the same short instrument; the participant completes it and the entry is timestamped. When no window is open, the participant sees a friendly "check back later" page.

See the Diary / EMA guide for a full walkthrough of the creator workflow and participant experience.

Choosing a layout

The layout choice lives on the Organise page (/surveys/<slug>/groups/), not in the Builder. The Organise page has a Survey layout section at the top with a card per layout. Each card has a wireframe icon and a short description. Click Use this layout to switch.

The Builder shows a small, dismissible label above the section rail indicating the current layout, with a link to the Organise page if you want to change it.

Single-section guard: The Section menu card shows a hint when the survey has fewer than 2 sections, since a menu with one pickable section is pointless. Add more sections first.

Configuring the Section menu

When Section menu is selected, a configuration card appears below the layout cards on the Organise page. Here you control:

  • Picker prompt — the text shown at the top of the picker page (e.g. "Which areas would you like to cover today?").
  • Per-section toggle — mark each section as Mandatory (always included, cannot be deselected) or Pickable (the participant chooses). Mandatory sections are shown as locked rows on the picker.
  • Min / Max pickable selected — constrain how many pickable sections the participant must/may choose. Min ≥ 1 unless at least one section is mandatory and you explicitly allow zero picks.
  • Order after selection — As authored (use the Organise page order) or In pick order (use the order the participant ticked the boxes).
  • Show "Select all" button — adds a convenience button on the picker.
  • Show estimated time per section — optional per-section estimated completion time (e.g. "~5 min") shown on the picker.
  • Estimated minutes — per-section, shown when the estimated time toggle is on.

Warnings

The configuration card shows live warnings when:

  • Branching targets a pickable section — a jump to condition that targets a section the participant might not pick is a dead branch. The warning is non-blocking; click Review in Survey Map to investigate.
  • Empty selection possible — no mandatory sections and min_selected set to 0 means a participant could end up with an empty survey.

Participant experience

Picker page

When a participant opens a Section menu survey, they see the picker page instead of the first question:

  • Mandatory sections are listed as "Included automatically" — locked, not checkboxes.
  • Pickable sections are checkboxes with optional estimated times.
  • The Continue button is disabled until the participant has selected at least min and at most max pickable sections.
  • If enabled, a Select all button ticks all pickable sections at once.

After selection

The participant walks through the chosen sections (plus mandatory ones) in the configured order. Branching, repeats, follow-ups, and the Survey Map all behave exactly as they do in a linear survey — the layout only decides which sections are in the path.

Changing sections

A "Change sections" link in the progress bar returns the participant to the picker. Deselecting a section that already has answers will discard those answers — the participant is asked to confirm before this happens.

Saving progress

The picker selection is saved automatically. If a participant leaves and returns, they skip the picker and go straight to their chosen sections. See Survey Progress Tracking for more on save-and-resume.

Previewing a Section menu survey

The preview page includes a Simulate section selection panel that lets you pre-tick a subset of pickable sections. By default the preview shows only the mandatory sections — pickable sections are hidden until you tick them, mirroring what a participant sees before they make their selection. Tick the sections you want to preview and click Apply to add them, or Reset to return to the mandatory-only baseline.

Intro / landing content block

You can render a content block (welcome text, consent statement, privacy notice, etc.) above the picker page by selecting it from the Intro / landing content block dropdown in the Section menu configuration card on the Organise page. Only content block questions in this survey appear in the dropdown. The block renders above the picker prompt every time the picker is shown, including when the participant returns via Change sections.

To create a content block, add a question of type Content block in the builder (see Content blocks below).

Survey Map

The Survey Map shows the full authored survey (all sections, regardless of layout). When using the Section menu layout, a badge summary appears above the visualiser showing which sections are pickable and which are mandatory, so you can see at a glance which sections are optional.

Outline syntax

The Section menu layout can be configured directly in the Outline / bulk upload text editor using a SECTION_MENU block. The layout config survives export → import round-trips.

Randomised (RCT)

For clinical trials and research, the system randomly assigns each participant to an arm (e.g. intervention vs control). Each arm has its own set of sections, and the participant only sees the sections in their assigned arm. Unlike the Section menu layout where the participant chooses, the system chooses based on a random seed stored on the participant's progress record at first access.

When to use: clinical trials, A/B testing of question wording, randomised controlled trials where arm assignment must be system-controlled and not participant-chosen.

Why it matters: randomisation is a common reason researchers reach for Qualtrics or REDCap instead of simpler tools. This layout unblocks that use case natively in CheckTick.

Configuring an RCT

On the Organise page, choose the Randomised (RCT) layout card. A configuration card appears where you:

  • Add arms — name each arm (e.g. "Intervention", "Control").
  • Set allocation ratio per arm (e.g. 1:1, 2:1). The system balances assignment across arms per the ratios.
  • Choose allocation strategy — Balanced (blocked) (default; keeps arm counts close to the ratios) or Simple (weighted) (independent random draw per participant).
  • Assign sections to arms — tick which sections each arm sees. A section can be in multiple arms (e.g. a demographics section shared by all arms).
  • Optional seed — set a fixed seed for reproducible dry-runs. Leave blank for real trials so allocation is unpredictable.

Warnings

The configuration card shows live warnings when:

  • Single arm — RCT with one arm is degenerate; add a second arm.
  • Allocation ratio sum zero — every arm has ratio 0; set at least one arm's ratio to 1 or higher.
  • Unreachable section — a section not in any arm's group set is never seen by any participant.
  • All arms share the same sections — the RCT is structurally identical to a linear survey.
  • Branching targets an arm-exclusive section — a jump to into a section not in the participant's assigned arm is a dead branch for other arms.

Participant experience

The participant never sees the picker or their arm. They open the survey and see the sections in their assigned arm, in the authored order. On resume, they return to the same sections. There is no "Change sections" link — the assignment is fixed for the lifetime of their progress record.

Previewing an RCT survey

The preview page includes a Simulate arm panel that lets you pick an arm and see exactly what a participant assigned to that arm would see. Useful for verifying arm composition before going live.

Survey Map

The Survey Map shows the full authored survey. When using the RCT layout, an arm composition badge summary appears above the visualiser listing each arm, its allocation ratio, and its sections, so you can see at a glance which sections are arm-exclusive.

Outline syntax

The RCT layout can be configured directly in the Outline / bulk upload text editor using a RANDOMISED block. The layout config survives export → import round-trips.

Staged (longitudinal)

For audit cycles and longitudinal research, sections unlock over time in defined phase windows. Each phase has a window measured in integer days from an anchor (participant enrolment or survey open). The runtime recomputes the open phases on each access and resolves the visible sections from their union. Unlike RCT (fixed arm assignment), the open set changes over time — a participant who returns in two weeks sees a different set of sections than they did today.

When to use: audit cycles, longitudinal research, multi-phase quality improvement projects where you don't want participants seeing future phases.

Why it matters: staged surveys are common in clinical audit and research. This layout makes CheckTick suitable for repeated-measures designs without requiring separate surveys for each time point.

Configuring a Staged survey

On the Organise page, choose the Staged (longitudinal) layout card. A configuration card appears where you:

  • Choose the anchor — From participant enrolment (default; each participant's clock starts at their first access) or From survey open date (all participants move through phases on the same calendar schedule, offset from Survey.start_at).
  • Add phases — name each phase (e.g. "Baseline", "Follow-up", "6-month review").
  • Set phase windows — each phase has a start_offset_days and an optional end_offset_days (blank = open-ended). Windows are half-open: [anchor + start, anchor + end).
  • Assign sections to phases — tick which sections each phase sees. A section can be in multiple phases (e.g. a demographics section open in every phase).

Warnings

The configuration card shows live warnings when:

  • No phases configured — the survey has no phases; add at least one.
  • Single phase — a staged survey with one phase is structurally identical to a linear survey.
  • survey_open anchor with no start date — phase windows are measured from Survey.start_at but the survey has no start date; set one or switch the anchor to enrolment.
  • Unreachable section — a section not in any phase is never seen by any participant.
  • Overlapping phase windows for the same section — a section in two phases whose windows overlap will stay open across both (the runtime unions them). Usually fine, but flagged so you know.
  • Branching targets a phased section — a jump to into a phased section is a dead branch when that phase is closed.

Participant experience

The participant opens the survey and sees only the sections in the currently-open phase, in the authored order. When no phase is currently open, they see a friendly "check back later" page; their progress row is preserved so resume works when a phase opens later. On resume, the open phases are recomputed — if a new phase has opened since their last visit, they see it; if a phase has closed, they no longer see it. Participants never see future-phase sections. There is no picker — the open set is system-controlled.

Previewing a Staged survey

The preview page includes a Simulate phase panel that lets you pick a phase and see exactly what a participant would see when that phase is open. This previews the phase regardless of whether it is currently open, so you can verify a future phase's composition without waiting for its window.

Survey Map

The Survey Map shows the full authored survey. When using the Staged layout, a phase composition badge summary appears above the visualiser listing each phase, its day window, and its sections, so you can see at a glance which sections belong to which phase.

Outline syntax

The Staged layout can be configured directly in the Outline / bulk upload text editor using a STAGED block. The layout config survives export → import round-trips.

Matrix (free navigation)

All sections visible as cards on a landing page. The participant jumps in and out of any section in any order, with completion indicators showing which sections are done. Different from Section menu (pick once, then linear through the chosen set) — matrix is ongoing free navigation.

When to use: audits where a clinician fills in different sections at different times during a patient encounter; complex assessments where the participant needs to revisit and revise earlier sections.

Why it matters: some clinical workflows don't fit a linear or pick-once model. Matrix gives the participant agency over navigation order throughout the survey, not just at the start.

How it works

  1. The participant lands on a cards page showing every section with a state badge: Not started, In progress, or Complete.
  2. They click a card to open that section. Only that section's questions are shown.
  3. They fill in the answers and click Save and complete section. Required questions are validated before the section is marked complete.
  4. They return to the landing page. The card now shows Complete.
  5. They can revisit a completed section to edit answers — editing un-marks it as complete so the landing page shows In progress again.
  6. When all sections are complete, the Submit survey button is enabled. Final submission re-validates all required questions across all sections (a hard gate — the completion indicators are a soft UX aid, not a guarantee).

Configuration

On the Organise page, the Matrix configuration card lets you set:

  • Landing page prompt — the text shown above the section cards.
  • Card order — As authored (Organise page order) or In visit order (most-recently-visited last).
  • Allow participants to revisit and edit completed sections — when unchecked, completed sections are locked.

Outline syntax

The Matrix layout can be configured directly in the Outline / bulk upload text editor using a MATRIX block. The grammar is optional (the Organise page UI is the primary config path) but useful for the AI builder and power users.

Content blocks

Content blocks are a special question type that renders static content — a heading, a Markdown body, and reference links — with no answer input. They go anywhere a question goes: any section, any position, multiple per section, any layout.

When to use content blocks

  • Landing page: a content block as the only question in the first section renders as a welcome/intro page before the questions begin.
  • Interstitial disclosure: a content block between substantive sections renders as a disclosure or information page.
  • Closing acknowledgement: a content block as the last question renders as a thank-you or final acknowledgement.
  • Matrix landing: in a matrix layout, a content block as the first question in the first section renders above the section cards as a landing header.

Authoring

Content blocks are a Special Template in the builder (alongside patient and professional details), not a regular question type. The author adds a content block via the "Special Templates" tab, then configures it via a "Configure content block" panel. All components are optional — include only what you need:

  • Heading (the rendered heading, optional)
  • Subtitle (a short description or tagline, optional)
  • Body (multiline Markdown, rendered to sanitised HTML, optional)
  • Image / logo (uploaded via the builder; NOT encrypted — only use for non-medical, non-patient-identifying content)
  • Links (label + URL pairs, zero or more, rendered as a list)
  • Consent (a consent checkbox with a custom statement; when "required" is on, participants must agree to progress)
  • Render once (default on — render once even in repeatable groups)

The question text (the internal label, e.g. "Content block") is not rendered to participants — only the heading, subtitle, body, image, links, and consent checkbox are shown.

Content blocks themselves are never required — they have no answer (except the optional consent checkbox, which is a separate yesno question behind the scenes for a clean audit trail).

Markdown safety

The body is rendered to HTML via Python-Markdown then sanitised with nh3 (an allowlist-based HTML sanitiser). No <script>, <style>, <iframe>, <form>, or event-handler attributes survive. Link URLs are restricted to http, https, and mailto schemes. See Security Overview §A03 for details.

Outline syntax

Content blocks are supported in the outline grammar (used by the AI builder and power users):

## Introduction
(content_block)
heading: Welcome
variant: disclosure
link: Privacy notice|https://example.com/privacy

Welcome to the study. Please read the privacy notice before continuing.

The ## Introduction heading is the internal label (not rendered to participants). The heading: config line sets the rendered heading. Image upload is builder-only — the outline grammar does not carry image references.

Planned layouts

The following layouts are planned for future releases. They are not yet implemented. They are ordered by priority — the order CheckTick intends to implement them, based on how often the use case is the reason a research team reaches for REDCap or Qualtrics instead of a simpler tool.

Respondent categories — parked

Lets a survey creator categorise respondents along one or more dimensions (rater role, recruitment site, cohort, language, stratum, …) within a single published survey, so different respondents see different subsets of the same survey without cloning it. The category value drives which sections and questions each respondent sees.

This is a cross-cutting feature, not a layout — it generalises the pattern that RCT arms and Delphi rounds already use, and it subsumes the 360° / multi-rater use case (see Patterns and modes below).

Parked (2026-09): a generalisation of an existing working pattern, not a prerequisite for any shipped or planned layout. Retained as a recorded design decision; revisit when a concrete use case emerges that the per-layout FKs cannot cover. Language / translation is explicitly out of scope — it is a content-level variant, not a visibility-level one, and the two should not be conflated.

Two-stage screening / eligibility routing

A brief screener determines eligibility, then routes to the full survey, an exit page, or an alternative survey. Ubiquitous in clinical recruitment. May ship as a layout template (pre-configured branching + content blocks) rather than a full new runtime hook.

Computer-Adaptive Testing (CAT)

The next question is selected algorithmically based on prior responses using item-response theory (IRT). Used for PROMIS, NIH Toolbox, and other validated clinical outcome measures. Enables shorter, more precise instruments.

Crossover / within-subject RCT

Each participant experiences all conditions in sequence (AB, ABA, ABAB) with washout periods between. Common in clinical pharmacology and behavioural interventions. Different from RCT (between-subject) — crossover is within-subject.

Conjoint / Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE)

Choice-based experiments where participants make trade-off choices between attribute profiles. Used in health economics, patient preference studies, and HTA submissions.

Stepped wedge / cluster-randomised

Clusters (sites, wards, practices) cross from control to intervention in a randomised sequence over time. Common in implementation science and cluster RCTs.

Patterns and modes

Features that are not layouts but are related and worth tracking.

360° / multi-rater assessment

Multiple respondents (peers, supervisors, patients) rate a single subject. Common in medical education and clinician appraisal.

Previously listed as a planned layout. Now scoped as a question-bank pattern built on respondent categories (see above): a rater_role category dimension drives which question set each rater sees, and invite tokens carry the role value for each batch. No new layout needed.

Think-aloud / cognitive interview mode

Qualitative interview mode for instrument validation — the researcher probes while the participant thinks aloud. May remain a mode flag rather than a full layout.

See Survey Layouts (Technical) for the full technical notes on each planned layout and pattern.

  • Delphi guide — full walkthrough of the Delphi consensus rounds layout (creator workflow + participant experience).
  • Diary / EMA guide — full walkthrough of the Diary / EMA layout (creator workflow + participant experience).
  • Organise — the page where layout is configured.
  • Branching & Repeats — branching is a sibling feature; a jump to into a non-selected section is a no-op at runtime.
  • Survey Progress Tracking — save-and-resume carries the section selection.
  • Survey Layouts (Technical) — developer reference for the data model, runtime pipeline, and implementation details.