force a user to fill out a check box so they don't skip the question

Question

I have a form which asks:

Are you, or is anyone in your household employed in the following areas?

• Healthcare
• Manufacturing
• Media
• etc.

This would of course be check boxes, but my client is concerned that the user will miss the question altogether thus getting inaccurate info because they'll all be "No".

What's a good way to force the user to fill out the that question?

My first guess is to make radio buttons like:

• Are you, or is anyone in your household employed in Healthcare (yes/no)
• Are you, or is anyone in your household employed in Manufacturing (yes/no)
• Are you, or is anyone in your household employed in Media (yes/no)

... etc

But that gets long and repetitive with unnecessary reading and clicking.

Answer 1

You could add a "None of the above" option, then make the question required. You might then rephrase the question to "Which of the following areas are you or a member of your household employed?"

• Healthcare
• Manufacturing
• etc...
• None of the Above

Answer 2

Since there is no available way to force your users to tell the truth and all the truth, you cannot go further than validating in some way or the other that at leat one of the suggested options is ticked.

Depending on your choices and the technology and scripts you use, you can enforce a data validation and display an ex-ante or ex-post notice :

• ex-ante notice : displaying "Please tick all options that apply" by default underneath the title of the form section and (i) making it disappear as soon as at least one option has been ticked and (ii) making the submission button active only from this moment on.
• ex-post notice : waiting for the user to submit the form and, if applicable, displaying the notice (in red for instance).

Answer 3

Depending on the request of your client. I believe you can also incorporate those items into one single question.

Such as:

Is anyone is your household working in A, B or C? Yes/No.