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I know this is somewhat subjective, but I can't really make up my mind on the following UX issue (please ignore the design, so far the site is purely for functional testing)

I've got a site that acts like an a) b) c) quiz editor. One of the options is a toggle, whether multiple choices can be valid for an answer. By default this choice is disabled.

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Now, if the Multiple valid answersis disabled (by default), if you 'check' an answer in a question, the one that was previously marked as true will be replaced by the new one.

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Now, with Multiple valid answers enabled:

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I feel like it might be more intuitive to have it on by default, but then it feels super weird having one option on by default and rest off.

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So now I'm basically stuck in the middle, where I like features from either side, but both have their downsides as well which turn me off.

I guess having all the toggles off seems like the lesser of two evils.

I also thought about potentially letting users select multiple choices and only displaying an error message on submit, in case the multiple valid answers field is disabled, but that just feels like an UX oversight instead.

What's your opinion? :-)
PS: Happy holidays!

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  • 1
    Does the "multiple valid answers" apply only to the question currently being edited? Is the "shuffled question order" a property of the quiz itself? If 'yes' and 'yes', I think you need to separate the properties that apply to the entire quiz from the properties that apply to a single question.
    – maxathousand
    Commented Jan 2, 2020 at 19:52

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
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  1. Remove the toggle for multiple choice.

  2. Keep radio buttons for single answer questions.

  3. Keep check boxes for multiple answer questions.

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    OP is describing the problem from the perspective of the quiz editor, not the quiz taker. I'm not sure how this answer solves OP's problem. How would the quiz editor indicate that a question has multiple valid answers versus only one?
    – maxathousand
    Commented Jan 3, 2020 at 20:28
  • ok, for quiz editor: multiple answer property is confined to each question, so a checkbox (allow multiple answers [checkbox]) should be kept for each question.
    – Mohammed Yaseen Ganai
    Commented Jan 4, 2020 at 10:13
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Switches are generally used when there are only one or two options. In this case, there a four options so checkboxes would work better. The options could be made more user-friendly and understandable with the addition of a verb:

  • Allow multiple valid answers [checkbox]
  • Allow multiple attempts [checkbox]
  • Shuffle questions [checkbox]
  • Shuffle answers [checkbox]

This screenshot from Google Forms is a nice example of how different controls can be used together in a single form.

enter image description here

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3

This is essentially the same as the answer above by @Mohammed Yaseen Ganai, but I felt that some more explanation was in order to really help you understand the suggestion.

The most important thing here is not breaking convention unnecessarily - there already exist UI elements to do exactly what you want to do: Radios and Checkboxes.

Radio buttons

Radio buttons are the element to use when you only allow one answer to be chosen. By default, selecting a button in a group will also remove the selection from another button in the same group.

Checkboxes

Checkboxes, by default, allow the user to select multiple items in the same group.

It's a very good idea to follow these conventions and thereby avoid forcing the user to learn a new method of interaction which clashes with the accepted way of using these elements.

If you must have a toggle, then toggle the input type between Radios and Checkboxes.

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Remove the "Multiple valid answers" option altogether.

Ensure that a correct answer's designation is visually distinct. It should then be clear to the user at a glance that a question has a single or multiple correct answers.

Question with multiple valid answers designated

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0

Standard behaviour for a switch is when the action takes effect instantly, a checkbox takes effect after a submit button is pressed.

I suggest you change the options you have for multiple attempts etc to checkboxes. Then move down the option for multiple answers to just above where you select the correct answer, here a switch makes sense. Group things that belong together. Then it's not weird whatever default you choose. I suggest to choose what is most common, or as some survey tools do, detect keywords in the question and automatically swap to the correct type. As suggested by another answer you can then flip between checkboxes and radio buttons to select the correct answer(s).

I believe it was Google forms that automatically chooses the correct question format based on the entered question.

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If you would like them all turned off by default, you can reword the option to Disallow Multiple Answers. Then it would be disabled by default with the default effect of allowing multiple answers as well.

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