User Guide

Everything you need to create surveys, collect responses, and analyze results with Chorus Research.

Account Setup

To get started, create an account at app.chorusresearch.io. Chorus Research uses Clerk for authentication, so you can sign up with:

• Email & password — create a new account with any email address
• Google — sign in with your existing Google account

After signing in you'll land on the Dashboard, your home base for managing projects and viewing recent activity.

Dashboard

The dashboard gives you a quick overview of your account activity.

Response Activity Chart

A 30-day line chart shows your total responses over time, helping you spot trends and track collection progress across all projects.

Live Projects

Below the chart, any currently live projects are listed with their response count and progress toward the target.

Sidebar Navigation

The left sidebar provides quick access to the main areas of the app:

• Home — the dashboard view
• Projects — all your survey projects
• Support — contact the Chorus Research team
• Manage Account — update your profile and preferences
• API Keys — create and manage API keys for programmatic access

Creating Projects

From the Projects page, click the New Project button to launch the creation wizard. It follows three steps:

Step 1: Choose How to Start

• Blank Survey — start with an empty canvas and build from scratch
• Template — choose from pre-built survey templates for common use cases
• AI Prompt — describe your survey goals in plain language and let AI generate a starting point

Step 2: Name & Describe

Give your project a name and an optional description. These are for your internal reference and don't appear to respondents.

Step 3: Create

Click Create and you'll be taken directly into the survey builder where you can start adding questions.

Survey Builder

The survey builder is where you design your survey. It uses a drag-and-drop interface powered by SurveyJS.

Layout

• Toolbox (left) — drag question types from here onto your survey canvas
• Canvas (center) — your survey preview where you arrange and configure questions
• Property panel (right) — configure the selected question's settings

Tabs

The builder has two tabs at the top:

• Designer — the visual editor where you add and arrange questions
• Logic — define conditional rules that control question visibility, page flow, and survey completion (see Conditional Logic)

Auto-Save

Your work is automatically saved every 30 seconds. You'll see a save indicator in the toolbar. You can also save manually at any time using the save button.

Question Types

Chorus Research supports 10 question types organized into three categories. Drag any type from the toolbox onto your survey canvas.

Text Input

Selection

Advanced

Conditional Logic

The Logic tab in the survey builder lets you create rules that dynamically control survey behavior based on respondent answers.

Creating a Rule

1. Switch to the Logic tab in the builder
2. Click Add New Rule
3. Set the condition — choose a question, an operator, and a value
4. Set the action — what happens when the condition is met
5. Save the rule

Operators

Actions

• Show/hide question — conditionally display a question based on a previous answer
• Skip to page — jump to a specific page when conditions are met
• Complete survey — end the survey early based on responses

Common Use Cases

• Follow-up questions: Show a "Please explain" text box only when a respondent selects a low satisfaction rating
• Branching paths: Send respondents to different page sequences based on their role or demographic answers
• Screening: Complete the survey immediately if the respondent doesn't meet qualifying criteria

Testing

Before launching, thoroughly test your survey using the Test button in the builder toolbar. This opens a new browser tab with a live preview of your survey.

What to Verify

• All questions display correctly and are easy to understand
• Conditional logic rules trigger as expected
• Page navigation flows in the correct order
• The survey can be completed from start to finish without errors
• Rating scales, dropdowns, and other interactive elements work properly

Testing is free and unlimited — run as many test sessions as you need to get your survey right.

Launching

When your survey is ready, launch it to start collecting real responses. Follow these steps:

1. Open the launch dialog — click the Launch button from your project page
2. Set target responses — choose how many completed responses you want to collect
3. Select your audience — currently General Population (US adults 18+) is available at $1.00 per response
4. Review the cost estimate — see the total cost ($1.00 per response × target completes)
5. Complete payment — pay via Stripe and your survey goes live immediately

Pricing Details

Managing Projects

The Projects page lists all your surveys with their current status. Use the filter tabs and search bar to quickly find what you need.

Project Statuses

Finding Projects

• Filter tabs — click Draft, Live, or Complete to show only projects with that status
• Search — type a project name to filter the list in real time

Analytics

Once responses start coming in, click any project to open its analytics dashboard. You'll see real-time data across several categories.

Response Overview

• Response count — total completed responses vs. the target
• Progress percentage — visual indicator of how far along collection is
• Average completion time — mean time from survey start to submission

Question Charts

Each question gets its own visualization tailored to the question type:

• Bar charts — for radio groups, dropdowns, and other single-select questions
• Pie charts — alternative view for categorical data
• Line charts — for tracking response trends over time
• Heatmaps — for cross-tabulation and correlation analysis
• Word clouds — for open-ended text responses, showing the most common terms

Demographics & Location

The analytics dashboard includes a location overview and demographic breakdowns of your respondent pool, helping you understand who is taking your survey.

Fraud & Quality Monitoring

Chorus Research automatically monitors for low-quality responses. The quality panel flags:

• Bots — automated or non-human responses
• Proxy/VPN — respondents masking their location
• Duplicates — repeat submissions from the same respondent
• Speeders — responses completed unrealistically fast
• Straight-liners — identical answers selected for every question
• Honeypot — hidden trap questions that catch inattentive respondents

Exporting Data

Download your response data for analysis in external tools. Click the Export CSV button on your project's analytics page.

CSV Contents

The exported CSV file includes:

• Response metadata — response ID, timestamps (start, completion), respondent identifier
• Demographics — available demographic data for each respondent
• Question answers — one column per question, using the question's name as the column header

API Keys

API keys let you access the Chorus Research API to programmatically create surveys, launch them, and export responses. Manage your keys from the API Keys section in the sidebar.

Creating a Key

1. Navigate to API Keys in the sidebar
2. Click Create API Key
3. Enter a name and optional description to help you remember what the key is for
4. Click Create

Using Your Key

Include the key as a Bearer token in the Authorization header of every API request:

curl https://api.chorusresearch.io/surveys \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'

For full API documentation including all endpoints, request formats, and response examples, see the API Reference.

Troubleshooting

Solutions to common issues you may encounter.

Survey Builder

Launching & Payment

API

Need More Help?

If you can't resolve an issue, reach out to the Chorus Research team:

• In-app support — click Support in the sidebar
• Email — support@chorusresearch.io
• Contact page — chorusresearch.io/contact