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2. Editing the questions

This advice applies to England. See advice for See advice for Northern Ireland, See advice for Scotland, See advice for Wales

You can add or edit questions on the decision tree entry.

The ‘Root question’ field is the first question that appears in the decision tree. All the other questions, answers and results branch off from it.

Root question field (required). There's a button inside the box with a plus sign to ‘Add content’.

Add a new question

Click the ‘Add content’ dropdown menu and under the 'NEW CONTENT' section, click ‘Decision tree - question’.

‘Add content’ button selected on the root question field. The dropdown menu shows 2 options,’ Add existing content’ and ‘Decision tree - question’.

Tags

Navigate to the tags tab.

Editor, References and Tags tabs. Tags is annotated with a blue rectangle.

Use the dropdown menu to select the tag for your decision tree.

A search box titled Tags. You can search and select the tag for your decision tree.

Click outside of the dropdown menu to close it.

The tag 'problem-with-a-used-car' has been selected. It's shown below the search box.

Go to the ‘Editor’ tab.

Editor, References and Tags tabs, with Editor annotated with a blue rectangle.

Fill in the fields for the question. Some fields are ‘required’ - this means you must fill them in.

Name

This is the entry name to make it easier to find in Contentful. The user won't see it. Include the cab-ID number to help you find it.

You should name your sections like this: [title of content] - cab-ID number

If your question is nested after several questions, you could include some keywords from previous answers to help you see the branch.

Name field. The user has typed the decision tree question name and the cab ID number to make it easier to find it in Contentful.

ID

Paste in the question and separate each word with a hyphen. Remove numbers and any other punctuation like question marks or full stops. 

The ID must be unique - Contentful will warn you if another entry has the same one.

ID field, for you to paste in the question. The user has written 'where did you buy the car from' and separated each word with a hyphen.

Question

This is the name of the question the user sees. 

Make sure the question is accessible for screen reader users. You should phrase it as a question with a question mark at the end. The wording should not rely on context provided by previous questions. 

For example, in a decision tree about scams it’s better to say ‘Where did you see the possible scam?’ rather than ‘Where did you see it?’

Question field. The question in the box is ‘Where did you see the possible scam?’

Hint text

Hint text is a short sentence or example that helps users with context for their answer. 

Add additional information or specific examples to the hint text if it helps the user to know where to find the information they need.

Where possible, the question should be clear enough that a user can answer the question without hint text.

End hint text with a full stop.

Hint text field. The user has added additional information and examples about a guarantor.

Answers

Answers appear as radio buttons for the user. They can only select one.

You can find out how to add or edit answers further down on this page.

Reorder answers

You can reorder answers by dragging them. Use the grey grab handle icon on the left.

Reordering an answer with the grab handle. There's 2 answers, titled Trader and Private seller. The trader one has been annotated with a blue rectangle to show it's being moved down.

Remove an answer from a question

Click the 3 dot menu then select 'Remove'.

Removing an answer from a question. The 3 dots menu on the answer is annotated with a blue rectangle to reveal the dropdown menu. The option Remove is annotated with a blue rectangle to show it’s been selected.

Error message

Keep error messages clear and concise to help users fix their error. Use the same wording as the question as much as possible.

Start error messages with ‘Select’. 

Don’t use ‘Please’ or a full stop at the end.

Read more about error messages on the design system.

Error message field. The user has typed 'Select if you signed the agreement'.

Add or edit answers

Click ‘Add content’ then under the section ‘NEW CONTENT' click 'Decision tree - answer’.

Adding a new decision tree answer. The user clicked 'add content' then 'new content - decision tree answer'.

Tags

Navigate to the tags tab.

Editor, References and Tags tabs. Tags is annotated with a blue rectangle.

Use the dropdown menu to select the tag for your decision tree.

A search box titled Tags. You can search and select the tag for your decision tree.

Click outside of the dropdown menu to close it.

The tag 'problem-with-a-used-car' has been selected. It's shown below the search box.

Go to the ‘Editor’ tab.

Editor, References and Tags tabs, with Editor annotated with a blue rectangle.

Fill in the fields for the answer. All the fields are ‘required’ - this means you must fill them in.

Name

This is the entry title to make it easier to find in Contentful. The user won't see it.

You should name answers like this: ‘[title of content] - [cab-ID number]’.

If your answer is nested after several questions, you could include some keywords from previous answers to help you see the branch.

For example, you could label an answer with 'Yes'. Then you can also include previous answers from this branch, 'Between 5 and 6 years' and 'Private seller'. This will also help you find the correct 'Yes' if there's more than one entry with that answer in your tree.

Editing the name field for a decision tree answer. The user has typed 'yes' and also included a string of previous answers to help them identify where this answer is in the tree.

Title

This is the label on the radio button that is displayed to the user. It should start with a capital letter. It should end without any punctuation.

Title field in a decision tree answer. The user has typed 'Yes'.

ID

Paste in the answer and separate each word with a hyphen. Remove numbers and any other punctuation like question marks or full stops.  

The ID must be unique - Contentful will warn you if another entry has the same one.

You shouldn’t change the ID after the decision tree is published.

ID field for a decision tree answer. The user has typed 'Yes - Between 5 and 6 years - Private seller - 54794' and separated each word with a hyphen.

Next step

Click ‘Add content’.

Under new content, click ‘Decision tree - question’ to add another question to continue the branch. 

Adding another question to the next step field. The user has clicked 'add content' then 'new content - decision tree - question'.

You can repeat the steps on this page to add more questions and answers to your decision tree.

Add results

Once you've finished adding questions, you can move on to the step of creating results.

There’s a separate page that shows you how to do this - 3. Editing the results.

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