Radio buttons in web surveys: Searching for alternatives

Web surveys are struggling to attract and retain respondents due to high burden and competition for the users’ attention. One possible solution to this issue is the improvement of the visual design of surveys. In this article, we evaluate the impact of visual aids such as smiley faces, stars, hearts, and thumbs as alternatives to traditional radio buttons. We use an experimental design in a nonprobability online survey to investigate how the new designs compare with radio buttons and how the results might interact with device used for completion (PC vs mobile), the use of labels, the type of response scale (bipolar vs unipolar), and the number of response categories (5 vs 7 point). While we do not find big differences in response, quality and experience, there seem to be some indication that the use of smiley faces leads to worse data quality