Designing a Survey Tool to Drive Engagement and Lead Generation
Building an integrated feedback system for event organisers and attendees
Project Overview
In August 2024, I worked on building a new survey feature for UpVisit. The request came from a major client who wanted to collect visitor feedback during their annual city event. Until then, they had relied on an external survey platform, so our goal was to build a practical and easy-to-use survey feature that is fully embedded within the UpVisit platform and is ready to launch within tight deadlines.
The Challenge
- Create surveys without leaving the UpVisit platform
- Collect visitor feedback and contact information for lead generation
- Export results easily for follow-up marketing
- Quick participation without sign-ups
- Clear, simple question formats
- GDPR-compliant data handling
My Approach
Due to time and budget constraints, the feature had to be delivered quickly, without formal user research or extensive testing. So I approached it by:
- Reusing proven design patterns from our platform's gamification features to maintain consistency
- Analysing competitor survey tools to understand standard flows
- Referring to the project brief with the list of requirements: and collaborating with our PM and developers, to ensure feasibility within our timeline
Together, all this ensured usability while keeping to time and budget limits.
Design Process
Version 1: Three-Step Setup
I started with designing a survey flow for the CMS and split it into three stages.
Version 2: Streamlined to Two Steps
After internal review, I simplified to just two stages:
- Basic Information — survey title, description, availability dates
- Survey Content — question creation and configuration
This reduction helped organisers build surveys faster during testing.
Mobile Experience
The mobile flow needed to handle multiple states:
- Active survey — ready for responses
- In progress — partially completed by user
- Submitted — confirmation and next steps
- Inactive — survey disabled or expired
Iterations
Multi-Submission Feature
A second client requested the ability for users to retake surveys. I added a toggle option in the CMS and implemented a real-time countdown in the app, showing users when they could participate again.
GDPR Compliance
As the feature was adopted by more clients, it became clear that GDPR compliance was essential whenever user data was collected. We added a flexible option allowing event organisers to insert a link to their privacy policy.
Integration Flexibility
Though designed as a standalone feature, the survey tool was later integrated into session detail screens, allowing live feedback during presentations and talks.
Results
User Feedback
Event organisers appreciated the streamlined setup process, whilst attendees found the surveys quick and non-intrusive. The feature became popular enough that clients from other event segments began requesting it.
What I Learnt
This project taught me valuable lessons about designing under constraints:
Consider all edge cases early — surveys needed clear states for retries, expired availability, and administrative controls.
Compliance shapes design — GDPR requirements influenced both user flows and technical implementation from day one.
Simple solutions win — reducing complexity in the creation flow made the feature more accessible and faster to deploy.
Working in a fast-paced environment without formal research challenged me to rely more heavily on design patterns, competitor analysis, and close collaboration with development teams. The result was a feature that launched on time and immediately provided value to our clients.
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