We’re all familiar with survey tools. Google Forms and SurveySparrow are some examples, but did you know that visuals can greatly enhance the surveys you make with these tools?

While there are few studies that look at the effectiveness of visuals in surveys, we do know that posts that include images produce 650% higher engagement than regular text. 20% is also all of what people remember from reading text without visuals, providing that text isn’t enough.

We also know that the right visuals can also influence how a person responds to survey responses. A study found that people responded to a survey differently once they saw a picture of what the interviewer was describing, for better or for worse. If a business wants to influence its customers positively, they need to match the right visuals with the right description.

So we know visuals work, but how can you use them to improve your surveys? Let’s take a look.

How Visuals Can Make Surveys More Engaging?

There are so many ways you can use visuals to enhance your surveys and make them more engaging. This section will cover some of the most interesting ways to add visuals to surveys.

Slider Questions

Slider questions are an effective tool for making your surveys more interactive and engaging.

By using a slider bar, respondents can easily visualize their response on a continuum rather than being bound by definite options (similar to a star ranking). This kind of question gives immediate visual feedback, creating a more intuitive and exciting user experience.

It’s especially effective for questions that require respondents to rate from least to most or worst to best (like on a scale of 1 to 10). As such, implementing slider questions can reduce the cognitive burden on the participant while increasing your survey’s completion rates.

Drag and Drop Rankings

The drag-and-drop rankings tool takes interactivity to a new level in your surveys. It allows your respondents to drag options, order them, and rank them based on their preferences.

This method offers an interactive experience and also simplifies the response process, making it more enjoyable for the participant. In addition, its visual and hands-on approach enhances comprehension of the question, ensuring higher response rates and accurate data.

Image Selections

Image selections are an integral part of making your survey appealing. They replace standard text answers with imagery, which can enhance respondents’ understanding of their options.

This makes it significantly easier for respondents to distinguish between different choices, contributing to more accurate survey results. In addition, image selections provide a visual break from the usual form of text questions, ensuring that your respondents remain engaged and motivated to keep moving through the process. In the end, It removes confusion.

Scratch Cards

Scratch cards are an innovative way to introduce some excitement into your surveys.

Mirroring the exhilaration of lottery tickets, scratch cards engage the respondents by hiding something underneath a surface, which can be revealed by ‘scratching’ it. This element of surprise keeps your respondents curious and adds a game-like quality to the survey experience.

This unique feature not only makes your survey memorable but also encourages greater user participation and engagement. People will remember they “won” a discount or limited-time offer.

Emoji Scale

The emoji scale is a contemporary way to engage with your audience. It replaces the traditional numerical rating scale with a sequence of emojis, typically ranging from unhappy to happy.

This visual tool offers respondents an intuitive means to express their feelings about a subject matter, making it easier for them to provide accurate and honest responses. Combining familiarity with simplicity, the emoji scale is particularly effective in attracting and retaining the attention of younger demographics who frequently use emojis in digital communication.

14 Best Image & Design Tools To Enhance Your Survey

With so many unique ways to add visuals to your surveys, the sky’s the limit. Fortunately, that can also be said about the number of image and design tools you can use for your surveys.

1. BeFunky

BeFunky is one of the easiest free photo editors on the web, something that makes it a popular choice among survey creators. It offers a range of features and options for perfecting your visuals. The tool allows you to not only edit photos but also create beautiful graphic design compositions from scratch. Its collage maker and templates are also top-notch.

Its user-friendly interface makes it simple to enhance your images, add photo effects, and layer any images with photo filters. Its one-click tools make BeFunky accessible to just about anyone.

2. Appy Pie Design

Appy Pie Design is a versatile online design platform tailored for creating captivating visuals to enhance your surveys. With its user-friendly interface and an array of features, it simplifies the process of graphic enhancement. From basic adjustments like cropping and resizing to more intricate tasks such as texture overlays and special effects, Appy Pie Design offers a comprehensive suite of tools.

One of its standout features is the background removal option, allowing you to seamlessly integrate graphics into your surveys. Additionally, you can create stunning portraits, manipulate layers, and add captivating text effects to engage your audience effectively. With its intuitive AI image generator, Appy Pie Design streamlines the process of creating visuals, enabling you to generate unique graphics effortlessly.

3. Picsart

Picsart is a premier tool that offers a wide range of photo editing capabilities, including hassle-free photo background erasing. This feature is particularly useful for creating clear and impactful images in your surveys without any unnecessary distractions lingering in the back.

By eliminating distracting backgrounds, it allows you to highlight the salient features of your pictures. Picsart offers this feature with an impressive level of precision and simplicity, making it accessible even to non-tech-savvy users. But don’t forget to explore its other AI-powered tools, like its AI filters, image generator, photo enhancer, background replacer, and much more.

4. Freepik AI Suite

Freepik AI tools offer the most advanced AI tools and a complete set of features to help you create and enhance visuals for your surveys. They are easy to use and require no design skills, making them accessible to all creators. Freepik AI Image Generator lets you generate high-quality images from simple text, which can be used to illustrate questions or guide respondents visually. Tools like the Image Editor, Image Upscaler, and Background Remover allow you to clean up and adjust images to match your survey’s tone and format.

For surveys that include multimedia content, Freepik also provides tools such as the AI Video Generator, Video Editor, Video Extend, and Video Upscaler. You can even add custom audio using the Voiceover tool and the SFX Generator. Combined with Freepik’s large asset library, these tools can help make your surveys more engaging and easier to understand.

5. Fliki

Fliki leads the way in innovation, revolutionizing video content creation. With advanced features like seamless text to video conversion, free text to speech technology, and voice cloning, Fliki streamlines the video production process for content creators, marketers, and business owners alike.

Its intuitive interface and customizable templates cater to users of all skill levels. Whether you're producing promotional videos or crafting engaging social media content, Fliki's versatility makes it an essential tool, seamlessly blending artificial intelligence with visual storytelling.

6. Canva

Canva is a true game-changer for customizing your survey’s visual aspects. It pairs simplicity with advanced functionality, offering a multitude of templates, fonts, and design tools that can transform your surveys into visually engaging pieces that your customers want to interact with.

You can easily create eye-catching headers, robust icon sets, or attractive background images that raise the aesthetic and appeal of your survey. Beyond its flexibility and ease of use, Canva features an intuitive interface that suits both beginner and experienced designers.

7. Pixlr

Pixlr is a feature-rich online tool that helps to enhance the visual impact of your surveys, and you can access it right from your web browser. It equips you with advanced editing capabilities usually found in paid software but with the convenience of an easy-to-use web-based service.

With Pixlr, you can add a professional touch to your images or create uniquely stylized visuals from scratch. Along with being able to save your creations in multiple formats, Pixlr has plenty of AI-powered tools that cut down on repetitive and boring editing tasks. Considered as one of the best in its league, Pixlr promises remarkable results for producing visually stimulating surveys.

8. PhotoScape

PhotoScape is an excellent tool for enhancing the visual aspects of your survey. This free online editor provides a variety of practical features, such as photo editing, batch editing, and even GIF creation. It excels at simple tasks like cropping images or adjusting brightness but also allows you to creatively add text, stickers, effects, and more to your images. It’s an all-in-one tool!

Incorporating these visually refined assets into your survey can enhance its overall aesthetic appeal and effectively draw the attention of respondents, leading to better engagement.

9. Piktochart

Piktochart is a superb online tool when it comes to creating compelling visuals for your survey. Known for its easy-to-use interface and plentiful design options, Piktochart offers a range of templates to choose from, along with customizable graphs, presentations, and charts.

You can enhance the look of data-heavy questions using this tool and add a touch of creativity and professionalism to your survey design. Ideal for human resources, finance, marketing, and healthcare, Piktochart is a great tool for all kinds of visuals.

10. Inkscape

Inkscape is a powerful, open-source vector graphics editor that you can utilize to improve your survey’s visual components. With its flexible drawing tools and broad file format compatibility, Inkscape allows you to create and edit intricate graphics with high precision quickly.

Whether you need well-designed logos, impressive clip art, or other eye-catching graphical elements in your survey, this tool provides the needed features seamlessly. It also allows you to raise and lower your designs through Z-order operations and group objects seamlessly.

11. PicMonkey

PicMonkey is an online design and photo editing tool highly suitable for enhancing the graphics of your surveys. Its easy-to-use features range from basic photo cropping and resizing to sophisticated options like texture overlays and special effects. You also have the option to remove backgrounds, create portraits, edit layers, add text effects, and so much more.

If you’re looking to add some creative flair to your surveys, PicMonkey offers funky fonts, thematic filters, and customizable templates. The tool’s ultimate strength lies in its capacity to balance simplicity with versatility, allowing you to create professional-grade visual content.

12. Gravit Designer

Gravit Designer is a comprehensive online design tool that can elevate the visual aspects of your surveys. It provides robust capabilities, such as vector illustration and editing, which are easy to learn and use. Gravit Designer is also known for its flexibility, handling everything from simple tasks to complex design projects with ease. Their tutorials are also very easy to follow.

Additionally, customizing the look of your surveys with this tool enhances their aesthetic appeal and draws the interest of potential respondents. If you’re looking for a sophisticated yet user-friendly tool to create compelling visuals, Gravit Designer is an excellent option.

13. Design Wizard

Design Wizard is an excellent tool choice to enhance the visual aspects of your online surveys. This online graphic design software is easy to use yet offers a myriad of professional-grade features, including a vast library of images, customizable templates, and high-quality font styles.

With Design Wizard, you can quickly transform your standard survey into a visually pleasing and engaging one. By dragging and dropping images or using various pre-set templates, you’re able to create unique visuals that resonate with respondents and encourage a higher response rate.

14. Vectr

Vectr is a free graphics software that brings a powerful and user-friendly platform to create visually stunning content for your surveys. It offers sophisticated features, like vector creation and editing, which can aid in the development of custom-made icons, banners, and more.

As it operates both online and offline, you have the flexibility to design visuals anytime, anywhere. The highly intuitive interface of Vectr lends itself to both first-time users and experienced designers, making it a reliable tool for enhancing the visual impact of your surveys.

Conclusion

Enhancing your surveys with visually engaging elements could dramatically improve user experience and response rates. So why not start exploring these online design tools today?

Whether you’re looking for a simple photo editor or an advanced platform for more intricate designs, the options are plentiful. By investing a bit of time and creativity in your visuals, you can breathe life into your surveys, making them more appealing and engaging.

14 Best Online Image and Design Tools to Elevate Your Surveys