Build your screener

The screener runs before the interview. Participants who pass continue, and those who don't are disqualified. Use it to filter for the right audience and to collect the structured answers that quotas and section logic reference later.

Steps

1. Open the screener region

   In Build, the screener appears at the top of the Guide panel, above the divider.

2. Add a screener question

   Click + Add element at the top of the panel. Pick one of the five screener types:

   • Multiple choice: for a single-select question. Supports qualify/disqualify logic per option.
   • Short text: one-line written answer (e.g. job title).
   • Long text: a paragraph answer.
   • Number slider: a numeric value on a sliding scale.
   • Legal agreement: an NDA or consent the participant must check to continue.

   See screener question types for the full reference.

   

3. Write the question text and options

   Type the question in the editor. For multiple choice, add each option as its own row. The order is the order participants see it (unless you randomize options on the question).

   To format the question, use the buttons above the text box: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, bulleted and numbered lists, a heading, a subheading, a quote, and links. See Format screener questions for what participants see.

4. Decide who qualifies (multiple choice only)

   On a single-select multiple choice, mark each option Qualify or Disqualify:

   • Qualify means the participant continues.
   • Disqualify means Strella sends the participant to the goodbye page at the end of the screener.

   On a multi-select multiple choice, each option is Must select, May select, or Disqualify. Participants must tick every "Must select" option to qualify, "May select" options don't affect qualification, and ticking a "Disqualify" option screens them out.

   By design, disqualified participants still finish the rest of the screener questions before being sent to the goodbye page, so they can't guess which question they "failed" and retry. To override this for a specific question, use skip logic with destination End of screener (see next step).

5. Add skip logic (optional)

   On multiple-choice questions, you can route specific answers to a different question or to the end of the screener. Click the logic icon next to an option to set its destination:

   • Next question (default): continues to the next question in order.
   • Jump to question: skip forward to a specific later question.
   • End of screener: send the participant straight to the goodbye page without finishing the rest of the questions.

   Use End of screener sparingly. The default "finish all questions" behavior protects against fraud. Jumping to the end tells the participant which question disqualified them.

6. Add a legal agreement if you need one

   If your study requires an NDA, add a Legal agreement step and upload the document participants accept. It can be a PDF, DOC, or DOCX, up to 6MB. Participants who don't check the box can't continue.

   Participants see the document called "Terms and Conditions" by default. To use the document's real name, fill in What participants see this called, for example "Terms of use, consent and release form". Leave it blank to keep the default. Either way participants reading in another language see it in theirs.

7. Reorder or duplicate as needed

   Drag questions to reorder. Right-click a question for duplicate or delete.

Format screener questions

Formatting lets a longer question read clearly, for example a list of the apps you're asking about or a link to a definition. Participants who take the screener on Strella see the question formatted, just as you wrote it.

To add a link, select the words and press the link button or Cmd/Ctrl+K, or paste a web address over the selected words. With nothing selected, the address itself becomes the link text. A link shows blue and underlined, so it reads differently from underlined text.

A few things stay plain:

• Answer options. Only the question text can be formatted, because quotas, skip logic, and recruitment panels match on the exact option wording.
• Questions a quota or section condition uses. The question field is locked for these, the same way it can't be reworded.
• Translated screeners. A participant reading in another language sees the question as plain text, with each link's address in brackets after its words.
• Panel screeners. When a recruitment panel runs your screener on its own site, panelists see the question as one plain line: list items become a comma-separated list, and each link's address appears in brackets. The same plain line shows in the participant table and exports.

A formatted question doesn't turn a typed web address into a link on its own. Add links as described above. The 500-character limit counts that plain line, including any link addresses in brackets, not the formatting.

Best practices

These keep the screener doing its one job (include or exclude) without slowing recruitment. See Best practices for the full checklist.

• Mark every multiple-choice answer deliberately: Qualify/Disqualify on single-select, or Must select/May select/Disqualify on multi-select. An unmarked answer screens no one.
• Disqualify only for hard requirements. Over-disqualifying is the costliest mistake; if someone is just not ideal, let them through. Would including them invalidate a finding? Only then disqualify.
• Keep interview questions out: "What frustrates you about X?" belongs in the question guide; the screener only needs "Do you use X?"
• Make options mutually exclusive and cover everyone: no overlapping ranges, and turn on "Other" if someone might not find a fit.
• Aim for 3 to 5 questions. Keep the screener tight; add more only if eligibility is genuinely complex.
• On a panel, add a realistic trap option marked Disqualify, so inattentive panelists don't pollute your data.

Tips

• Avoid free-text screener questions unless you really need them: free-text answers can't be used as quota criteria.
• Preview the participant view with the Preview button in Build. Bad questions are obvious when you take the screener yourself.
• A time estimate appears at the top of the screener section (and at the top of the interview section), as a quick gut-check before you publish.

Changing a question with skip logic

Remove the question's skip logic before changing its type or turning Multiple selection on or off. After changing the question, configure skip logic again for the answers participants can select.

A saved rule displays Needs attention in any of these cases: it does not match the question's type, it lacks its conditions, it refers to a removed answer or matrix cell, or it points to a missing or earlier question. Select the question, remove its existing skip logic, and configure the intended rule again. Strella blocks publishing until you repair or remove the rule.

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