Qualtrics users: changes coming soon

By Claire Borch, March 30, 2021

At the end of March, Qualtrics will begin rolling out changes meant to improve user experience.

Below are more details provided in an email from Qualtrics:

Hello!

Qualtrics is excited to remind you that a number of improvements are coming on March 31 to the Survey Editor, project creation, platform navigation, and line/bar charts in the XM Platform. You are receiving this email because you are a Brand Administrator. Users in your brand will be notified of these changes from within the XM Platform, but you are welcome to share this message with them in the meantime.

What is the change?
Following our commitment to what we call “experience-first” design, we’ve continued to listen to the feedback from our users and will be making a number of improvements to the XM Platform. These experience-first designs will be a multi-year effort across the platform to make sure our product is easy to use, consistent, predictable, and inclusive.

In one week, on March 31, Qualtrics will be updating several features in our product including the Survey Editor, project creation, platform navigation, and line/bar charts in dashboards. All existing functionality of these features will remain with the updates, aside from a minor change to the Catalog (project creation). These improvements will be seen by all users.

All users with existing access to these features will be automatically opted-in to the project creation, platform navigation, and chart updates on March 31. They will also be given the option to opt-in to the new Survey Builder experience at this time. After a month, all users will be opted-in by default to the Survey Builder. 

For in-depth details about the timelines and improvements for each feature, please see the second half of this email below.

What action do I need to take?
We encourage you to share this email with your users as you see fit. If you maintain your own internal training documents, you may consider updating screenshots for UI changes (found in our New Survey Builder Basic Overview support page), and any how-to instructions about the Survey Builder. 

Otherwise, no action is needed, as all users will receive this information and a tour of the new features within the XM Platform upon their release. 

What if I have questions?
If you have a question about Survey Builder, please visit the New Survey Builder Basic Overview support page. If you have a question about Catalog, please visit the Creating a Project support page. It’s also always worth checking the XM Community to see if any other users have the same question. If you’d rather speak to a specialist, our Support Team is always ready to assist. To contact them, please log into your Support Portal.

We're excited about how this new experience-first design will create a better experience for you and your users.

Thank you,
Qualtrics


Detailed Feature Improvements

Survey Builder
Survey Editor will now be called Survey Builder. While some elements will be moved, all existing capabilities will remain in the platform. These updates will make the survey building experience easier to navigate and more intuitive, especially for our first time users. 

To ensure users have enough time to get familiar with the changes, there will be a two-month roll out of the new Survey Builder: 

  • March 31: Users will be kept in the current experience with the option to opt-in to the new experience through an in-product banner at the top of Survey Builder.
  • End of April: Survey Builder will default to the new experience for all Users. Users will have the option to temporarily turn the old experience back on (opt-out) through an in-product banner at the top of the Survey Builder. 
  • End of May: Users will no longer have the option to opt-out of the new experience. 

The following updates will be made to the Survey Builder experience: 

  • Brief overview video (1:41)
  • Survey Builder support page
  • New survey builder navigation to match the new global navigation
  • New question builder UI which includes:
    • All question types 
    • Simplified UI for question configuration 
      • Single entry point for features
      • Configuration panel on the left
      • Top level configurations visible without scrolling
      • Updated “Edit multiple” UI 
    • Simplified UI for block configuration 
      • Consistent pattern used for block and question configuration
  • Drag and drop functionality to move questions and blocks 
  • New survey configuration UI that combines survey options and tools where applicable 
  • Improved clarity on when project is auto-saved, is in draft mode or is published 
  • Updated section of Survey Builder will now be accessible

Catalog
Formerly known as the “Create New” projects and actions UI, most functionality from the old “Create New” UI is still available. However, the “Recents/Favorites” sidebar is being changed. Recents are still available as a collection near the top of the Catalog’s front page, while favorites is being deprecated at this time as Recents is servicing much of the same purpose in allowing users who have frequently used offerings quick access to them. This update will help users more easily discover all of the functionality available to them. 

This update will be made globally available to all users on March 31

The following updates will be made to the experience:

  • Support page
  • Catalog replaces the Create New UI for projects and actions, and is activated when users attempt to “Create new project” or “Create new action” from the projects or actions lists, respectively. 
  • In addition, Catalog can be accessed from the new global navigation (if it is already enabled for that brand).
  • Depending on how it is accessed, Catalog will show either projects or actions that a user can start, including “from scratch” options, templates, and guided projects and programs (a.k.a. XM Solutions).
  • Projects have been re-organized to be grouped by offering type (e.g, projects from scratch, programs, guided projects, and project templates). This works in conjunction with quick filters by product line (e.g, CoreXM, CustomerXM, EmployeeXM, etc.) to aid in browsing and quickly finding relevant content.
  • Each offering in the Catalog will show a details pane when selected, giving a quick overview of what that offering contains and how it is best used in order to help users make the decision of whether it is right for them. 

Navigation 
The top bar product navigation experience is being updated to be more intuitive, consistent across the platform and scalable with the product experience. All former functionality will still be available but repositioned. 

This update will be made globally available to all users at the March 31

The following updates will be made to the experience:

  • The new navigation will have a single location to access all navigable elements in the new menu.
  • Notifications will be accessible across all experiences in the product, as well as the user’s account and access to Qualtrics support.
  • For all dashboard customers, configuring dashboard settings will now be located with all other dashboard actions, providing a more unified experience.
  • Action Planning and Insights will also be accessed through the dashboard actions section, providing more consistency with other dashboard experiences.
  • For EX dashboards, customers will now be able to select their dashboard language in their user account settings, providing a single place to control account language.
  • Theming for EX dashboards has been improved to ensure an accessible experience no matter your brand color, and to ensure customers can still brand dashboards with their logo.

Simple Chart (Line and Bar Chart)
Line and bar chart variants of the Simple Chart are receiving an updated visual design and additional features that enhance data display and exploration. We’re updating these charts to ensure clear, consistent, and modern information design, setup for upcoming data visualization features, and to ensure accessibility compliance to WCAG 2.0 AA.

This update will be made globally available to all users at the March 31