For some questions we only want to insist on a response if the answer to the previous question requires it. For example, “Do you have any criminal convictions?” If “yes”, we want to force a response to a follow-up question asking for more details. If “No”, the mandatory question doesn’t appear. We might not want to mandate a response in all cases, but just to show the question (e.g. asking them to call us to provide details, if they don’t want to add very sensitive information to the online form). Our current solution is to make the response mandatory, but ask the candidate to write NA if no response is applicable.
Branching responses could be used to build better exported forms: if a single question/response pair, the response to the follow-up question could be given after the yes/no answer that caused the branching (with no additional text if there is no branching), or in a table (to better separate the yes/no from the response to the follow-up question); if multiple questions are enabled by a response to a single question, the questions/responses could be indented underneath the question that enabled the branching.
Example of a branching pair below:
Do you have any criminal convictions?
Yes; Further details/Response: Theft (shoplifting), 2008
