Difference between branching and page display logic

We often get asked the question….

What is the difference between branching and page display logic? When should I use one or the other?

Good question!

They are similar….

The survey naturally wants to go to the next page. So from page 1 to page 2 to page 3. You only need to apply logic when you want to break that cycle.

Say you only wanted to show page 2 if a respondent answered a certain way on page 1. Well, you could either add a branch to skip to page 3 if they did not answer that way or your could a page display logic to show page 2 if they did.

We tend to prefer page display logic in that case since it reads easier and is more proactive: ‘show if’ as opposed to ‘skip if not’.

Say in another example that I want to show pages 2, 3, 4 and 5 to respondents that answered a certain way on page 1. Well then I would use one single branch at the bottom of page 1 to skip all the way to page 6 rather than placing page display logics above each of the in between pages.

Think of branching and page display logic as tools in a toolbox and you reach for whichever one makes it easier to accomplish what you want to do.