Describe the places or design options you want reviewed. Makeform creates an image-based survey with captions, ratings, choices, and comments, ready for your visuals.
Send responses to Google Sheets, Slack, and Zapier.
Sample prompts for the builder
Choose a prompt, adapt it to your project, or send it to the Makeform builder.
Audience
Residents reviewing alternative street designs
Format
Image series with five-point ratings and comments
Prompt size
311 chars
Example survey structure
Image series with five-point ratings and comments
How do you usually use this street?
Rate safety, comfort, and greenery
Which streetscape do you prefer?
Why, and what should improve?
Suggested routing tags
Strong preference
Mixed response
Needs review
Keep images at the same size and viewpoint so presentation does not influence ratings.
Step 1
Frame
define the decision and audience
Step 2
Show
present comparable labeled visuals
Step 3
Rate
use consistent scales and choices
Step 4
Interpret
compare patterns and written reasons
Why visual feedback needs structure
Pair each option with the same questions. Ratings show patterns; comments reveal which design details drove them.
Use consistent dimensions, labels, captions, and question order so no concept receives extra emphasis.
Measure comfort, identity, readability, and greenery separately before asking for one favorite.
Follow scores with a focused comment about what to retain, revise, or investigate.
Designed around the decision
Choose questions that match what the project team can still change.
Compare streets, plazas, facades, or layouts with ratings and a final choice.
Test paving, planting, lighting, signage, seating, or color palettes separately.
Learn which precedents feel welcoming, familiar, active, calm, or appropriate.
Pair sign or map tasks with ease-of-use ratings and explanations.
Survey workflow
Generate the structure, add project visuals, check it on a phone, and share it.
Name the design, options, audience, and qualities the team needs to understand.
Add equally sized, labeled images with neutral captions and comparable detail.
Repeat rating anchors, keep demographics optional, and show follow-ups only when needed.
Read ratings, selections, and comments together, then explain how feedback informed the decision.
Choosing a feedback method
Visual surveys compare visible qualities. Interviews and workshops help participants discuss tradeoffs or develop ideas together.
Field guide
These six parts make responses comparable without losing the reasons behind them.
Introduction
Explain the site, decision stage, and use of feedback. Identify images as proposals, concepts, or precedents without promising that the highest rating decides the outcome.
Visual set
Match viewpoint, crop, lighting, and caption length where possible. Label each image, add concise alternative text, and use separate pages when phone comparison becomes unreadable.
Rating criteria
Repeat the same scale after every visual. Define both ends, allow not sure when appropriate, and keep unrelated qualities in separate ratings.
Preference tasks
Several options may rate highly even when only one can advance. Ask for a choice, ranking, or limited selections after the individual ratings and explain the constraint.
Written reasons
Ask what influenced the rating, which element should change, or what the images fail to show. Leave space for concerns outside the prepared choices.
Respondent context
Ask only for useful context such as neighborhood, site relationship, visit frequency, or travel mode. Keep sensitive questions optional and names unnecessary unless follow-up is needed.
Related tools
Pair image preferences with community feedback, research, polling, and design intake.
Collect local concerns beyond the prepared visual options.
Open toolCompare products, concepts, messages, or experiences.
Open toolCreate a short, focused poll when the decision needs one direct choice rather than a full study.
Open toolExplore audience needs and attitudes before narrowing the work to visual alternatives.
Open toolTest how visual identity and brand cues are understood across an audience.
Open toolGather goals, constraints, assets, and approvals before visual concepts are produced.
Open toolFAQ
Practical answers for planners, designers, researchers, and community engagement teams.
A visual preference survey shows design concepts, precedents, places, or details and asks people to rate, select, rank, tag, or comment on them. Each response stays connected to a specific image.
Use renderings, photographs, diagrams, palettes, facade alternatives, streetscape sections, signage mockups, or precedents you can share. Keep quality consistent and identify each image as a proposal or outside example.
Use the smallest set that represents the decision. If you need many images, group them by topic, add progress cues, and test the survey length with someone outside the project team.
Often both. Ratings compare qualities such as comfort or readability; a final choice shows priority when options compete. Ask why so the team knows which features drove preference.
Use neutral labels, comparable images, identical questions, balanced scale anchors, and consistent sequencing. Where practical, vary option order and pilot the survey for leading language.
Yes. Makeform offers unlimited free forms and responses, so you can generate, edit, publish, and collect community input without a response cap. The paid tier removes the Makeform badge.
Compare rating distributions, choices, tags, and comment themes rather than one average or winner. Note uneven participation and combine preferences with project constraints and other engagement evidence.
Share a link or embed the survey, and preview every image and scale on a phone. At meetings, a QR code can open it while facilitators offer another participation route when needed.
Turn design images into focused questions.
